July 9, 2012
A Look At Coach Esmay
Head Baseball Coach Esmay's Success From The Field To The MLB Draft | Q&A: ASU Baseball Head Coach Esmay On His Time At 2012 CWS
2012 MLB Draft
Ten ASU Baseball Student-Athletes Taken In 2012 MLB Draft
Summer League
16 Sun Devil Baseball Players To Compete On Summer League Teams
100 Major League Players
Photo Gallery of All 100 Major League Players | Calhoun Becomes 100th Sun Devil To Play Major League Baseball | Social Media Reacts - Arizona State's 100 Major League Players
Fans still have time to vote for the Arizona State All-MLB Team on Twitter. Tweet @ASU_Baseball your top Sun Devil baseball players who went on to play in the Major Leagues. The votes will be tallied and a team will be released at the end of July.
Cory Hahn coverage
VIDEO - Hahn Foundation Story | Still DRE (Dodgers Magazine/By Jorge Martin, July 2012)
| All Heart (ESPN.com/By Mike Grimala, May 22, 2012) | Paralyzed baseball player a student coach (ESPN.com/By Fahim Rasul, May 2, 2012) | In rehabilitation, Hahn's attitude on life hasn't changed (The Arizona Republic/By Jeff Metcalfe, March 3, 2012) | Hahn is still part of a team (Los Angeles Times/By Bill Plaschke, Feb. 25, 2012) | Hahn on campus - PHOTO GALLERY (Los Angeles Times/Feb. 25, 2012)
SOCIAL MEDIA:
YOUTUBE | TWITTER | FACEBOOK
Sun Devils 2012 Season:
Arizona State finished the 2012 season with a 36-20 record and a 18-12 Pac-12 Conference record, including a 23-6 home record. The team finished in a tie for fourth in the Pac-12 Conference, two games behind league co-leaders Arizona and UCLA. The Sun Devils were ineligible for the postseason this year only due to NCAA sanctions.
50 Seasons Of Success:
The baseball program secured its 50th straight 30-win season, which is the longest current streak in Div. 1 baseball. Florida State is close with 48 consecutive. The streak started with the 1963 season when ASU went 34-13. The team went 28-18 its first year in 1959, 32-13 in 1960, 36-13 in 1961 and 27-18 in 1962. The Sun Devils have never had a losing season in their 54 years, and three coaches (Jim Brock, Pat Murphy and Tim Esmay) have never won fewer than 30 games.
An ESpecial Coach:
In his three seasons at the helm of the Sun Devil baseball team, head coach Tim Esmay has guided ASU to the highest regular-season winning percentage in the Pac-12 since 2010. His record of 131-48 (.732) is ahead of UCLA (128-55, .699) and Oregon State (111-61, .645). He is the second-fastest coach in ASU history to reach 100 wins after passing the century mark this past season in an 11-2 win over UC Riverside on Feb. 26, and has the second-highest winning percentage among ASU head coaches at the 100-win mark (100-29, .775). Coach Esmay has posted a winning record in the 65 games he has played against top-25 teams, and also has a winning record against four of the top teams in the Pac-12, including Arizona, Oregon State, Oregon and UCLA.
Sweeping Away The Competition:
For the second time in his three seasons at ASU, coach Esmay orchestrated six three-game series sweeps. Since 1979, Pat Murphy did it four times in 15 seasons and Jim Brock completed the feat six times in 23 seasons. ASU has swept at least five three-game series' in eight straight seasons. The team also swept four straight Pac-12 home series' for the first time since 1988 and only the third time in program history (the other came in 1981). ASU has swept four Pac-10/12 opponents in a season just seven times since 1979, but have recorded at least three series sweeps over conference opponents in each of the past six seasons.
Pacing The Conference:
ASU had the most total 2012 Pac-12 All-Conference selections with nine. Joey DeMichele, Deven Marrero, Brady Rodgers and Trevor Williams were all selected to the First Team, while Andrew Aplin, Jake Barrett, James McDonald, Max Rossiter, and Abe Ruiz earned Honorable Mention recognition.
Today's Devils Are Tomorrow's Major Leaguers:
Arizona State produced an NCAA-best 10 selections in the 2012 MLB First-Year Player Draft, including five in the first five rounds for the first time in program history since 1984. Thirty-one Sun Devils have been taken in the MLB Draft in coach Esmay's three seasons at ASU, which is the most of any Div. I school in that time span.
Sun Devil Century Club:
Former Arizona State outfielder Kole Calhoun became the 100th Sun Devil to play Major League Baseball after making his debut for the Los Angeles Angels on May 22 at the Coliseum in Oakland, Calif. The 100 players Arizona State has sent to the Major Leagues is the most of any school since 1959, the year baseball became a varsity sport at ASU, and ASU has had at least one major league player on their varsity roster from 1961 through 2010, which is the longest current streak in the nation. The Sun Devils have the third-most all-time Major League players behind the University of Southern California (106) and the University of Texas (105). ASU's major leaguers all debuted since 1963, while Texas (1908) and USC (1927) have a much longer history of sending players to the big leagues. Texas' list also includes three freshman-only players, while USC has five freshman-only players.
Packing Them In:
For the eighth consecutive year and the ninth time in the last 10 years years, Arizona State led the West Coast (excluding Hawai'i) in average attendance. 82,214 fans came to Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark during the 2012 season for an average of 2,834 at 29 home games, the 22nd highest average in the entire nation. No other Pac-12 team ranked in the Top 25 in average national attendance.
A Second Half Surge:
Over the past three seasons, coach Esmay has led the Sun Devils to a 65-27 record during the months of April and May, including a 20-9 mark in 2012, a 21-10 mark in 2011 and a 24-8 mark in 2010.
He Can Really Swing The Bat:
Joey DeMichele led the team in batting average for the second consecutive season and became just the sixth Sun Devil all-time to do so (2011-12). He finished the year with a .336 batting average and was the team leader in hits with 73.
Welcome To Mr. Rodgers' Neighborhood:
Brady Rodgers finished his three-year tenure at ASU with a career ERA of 2.39 in 286 total innings, which puts him second on the school's career "Best Earned Run Average" list, behind Floyd Bannister (74-76), who had a 1.88 ERA in 396.2 innings pitched. He went 18-3 with 26 earned runs and 14 walks in 168.1 innings pitched in his three-year career at Packard Stadium. He recorded three complete games in 2012 and went the distance in back-to-back games after allowing one earned run in a win over Cal on March 23 and giving up one earned run in a loss to Oregon on March 31. He began the season with 23 consecutive scoreless innings, which is sixth-best in the school history. He also went nine innings in an extra-innings contest against UCLA.
Doing The Extra (Base) Work:
The Sun Devils finished in the top 30 in Div. I in doubles per game, triples per game and home runs per game, and ranked 18th in slugging percentage. They were second in the Pac-12 in slugging percentage at .443 behind the bats of Abe Ruiz, who tied for first in home runs with 13 and was third with 19 doubles in the conference, and Joey DeMichele, who tied for tops in triples at seven.
A Barr(ett) Of A Closer:
Right-hander Jake Barrett had 11 saves in 2012, which was tied for third-most in a single season in ASU history, and finished his career in ninth place on the school's career saves list with 13.
Making Them Earn It:
The Sun Devil pitching staff finished first in the Pac-12 in walks allowed with 129 (Washington was second at 144) and ninth in Div. I in walks allowed per nine innings at 2.33. Their strikeout-to-walk ratio was tops in the Pac-12 and 15th best in Div. I at 2.77, and their WHIP was sixth in Div. I at 1.17.
Making Them Earn It (Individually):
Right-hander Trevor Williams and Rodgers conceded a combined 29 walks and 184 hits in 224.2 innings in 2012, putting them at 14th (0.94) and 16th (0.96), respectively, in Div. I in WHIP. They were the only pair of teammates to rank in the top 30 in Div. I in WHIP.
More On Williams:
Williams finished the regular season with a Pac-12 Conference-best 12 wins, which was tied for the most in Div. I, and he was just the 25th Sun Devil in the aluminum bat era to record 12 wins. He was first in the conference in walks allowed with 13 and had a streak of 40 1/3 consecutive innings without issuing a walk that ended on May 19 in an 8-4 win over Washington. It started on April 6 in an 8-2 win over Oregon State and stretched across seven starts, including consecutive starts without a walk.
A Dynamic Duo:
Williams and Rodgers ranked second and fourth, respectively, in the Pac-12 in ERA, with Williams at 2.05 and Rodgers at 2.27. They were the only pair of teammates in the conference to rank in the top seven.
A Formidable One-Two Punch:
Abe Ruiz and Joey DeMichele combined for 134 hits, 100 RBI, 19 home runs and 238 total bases, and the duo accounted for just under a third of the team's RBI, just under half of the team's home runs, more than a fourth of the team's total bases and just under a fourth of the team's hits.
Stars And Stripes (And Maroon And Gold):
Right-hander Trevor Williams is participating for the USA National Collegiate Team this summer, becoming the 19th Sun Devil since 1984 to suit up for Team USA. ASU has had a representative on the team each year since 2007, as Brady Rodgers and Deven Marrero competed on the squad in 2011, Drew Maggi played in 2010, Matt Newman in 2009, Mike Leake in 2008, and Petey Paramore and Brett Wallace in 2007.
Saying Goodbye:
Seniors Abe Ruiz and Joseph Lopez, and graduate student Adrian Gomez were honored on the field as part of Senior Day prior to ASU's 9-6 win in Sunday's game. Lopez graduated in Spring 2012 with a B.S. degree in Health Sciences (Health Policy).
Rankings:
The Sun Devils were ranked No. 17 by Baseball America in their preseason poll, the 26th straight season ASU has been in the preseason Top 25, the longest streak in the nation.
Home Is Where The Heart Is:
The Sun Devils, who held a 10-game home winning streak from April 5 against Oregon State until May 16 when they lost to Arizona, went 23-6 at home in 2012, including 14-1 against conference foes (they went 1-1 against Arizona at home in two non-conference games). Five of those victories came against ranked opponents (one vs. Cal State Fullerton, three vs. Oregon State and one vs. Arizona). ASU is 87-16 at home, including eight postseason games, since 2010. They went 36-3 at Packard in coach Esmay's first season and followed up with a 28-7 record in 2011.