PHOENIX -- USA Baseball announced its 55-player preseason Golden Spikes Award watch list on Thursday, featuring three members of the Sun Devil Baseball program in Spencer Torkelson, Alika Williams and Gage Workman.
The announcement begins the process of identifying the top amateur baseball player in the country for the 2020 season. The 43rd Golden Spikes Award will be presented on June 11 in Omaha, Nebraska, for the second consecutive year.
Headlining the 2020 watch list is two-time Golden Spikes Award semifinalist Torkelson. In 2019, Torkelson became one of 29 athletes since 2007 to be named a semifinalist more than once.
It is the first career recognition on any Golden Spikes Award list for both Williams and Workman, who were previously named to assorted Preseason All-America teams this Spring.
The preseason watch list features 55 of the nation's top amateur players, from high school and college baseball. The Golden Spikes Award Advisory Board will maintain a rolling list of players, allowing athletes to play themselves into consideration for the award throughout the season.
Arizona State and Vanderbilt lead the list of schools represented on the 2020 list with each school boasting three players.
The Sun Devil selections bring ASU to 23 all-time Preseason Golden Spikes Award watch list picks since the program began releasing the list in 2008. The 23 all-time selections are fourth among all Division I programs while ASU's 21 individual selections are third in the NCAA.
Sun Devil Baseball lifts the lid on the 2020 season this weekend at home at Phoenix Municipal Stadium in Phoenix with a three-game series against Big East opponent Villanova beginning Friday, Feb. 14 as well as a Top-10 matchup against last year's College World Series runner-up No. 8 Michigan on Saturday evening.
The season opener will get underway ay 6:30 p.m. AZT. Saturday's doubleheader will feature a 12 p.m. game against Villanova followed by a 6 p.m. first pitch against Michigan. The weekend will wrap up with a 12:30 p.m. contest on Sunday afternoon. All games this will be streamed live online through the Pac-12 Network Plus with Saturday night's tilt against the Wolverines also taking place on Facebook Live.
Fear the Tork
The announcement begins the process of identifying the top amateur baseball player in the country for the 2020 season. The 43rd Golden Spikes Award will be presented on June 11 in Omaha, Nebraska, for the second consecutive year.
Headlining the 2020 watch list is two-time Golden Spikes Award semifinalist Torkelson. In 2019, Torkelson became one of 29 athletes since 2007 to be named a semifinalist more than once.
It is the first career recognition on any Golden Spikes Award list for both Williams and Workman, who were previously named to assorted Preseason All-America teams this Spring.
The preseason watch list features 55 of the nation's top amateur players, from high school and college baseball. The Golden Spikes Award Advisory Board will maintain a rolling list of players, allowing athletes to play themselves into consideration for the award throughout the season.
Arizona State and Vanderbilt lead the list of schools represented on the 2020 list with each school boasting three players.
The Sun Devil selections bring ASU to 23 all-time Preseason Golden Spikes Award watch list picks since the program began releasing the list in 2008. The 23 all-time selections are fourth among all Division I programs while ASU's 21 individual selections are third in the NCAA.
Sun Devil Baseball lifts the lid on the 2020 season this weekend at home at Phoenix Municipal Stadium in Phoenix with a three-game series against Big East opponent Villanova beginning Friday, Feb. 14 as well as a Top-10 matchup against last year's College World Series runner-up No. 8 Michigan on Saturday evening.
The season opener will get underway ay 6:30 p.m. AZT. Saturday's doubleheader will feature a 12 p.m. game against Villanova followed by a 6 p.m. first pitch against Michigan. The weekend will wrap up with a 12:30 p.m. contest on Sunday afternoon. All games this will be streamed live online through the Pac-12 Network Plus with Saturday night's tilt against the Wolverines also taking place on Facebook Live.
Fear the Tork
- Projected as No. 1 Overall Pick in several early MLB mock drafts and a unanimous Top-3 Pick in any mock draft he's not listed No. 1, junior first baseman Spencer Torkelson figures to pace a potent offense against this season.
- He Would be just the third first baseman selected #1 Overall (Ron Blomberg 1967, Adrian Gonzalez 2000) and the first right-handed first baseman to go #1 in MLB Draft history
- For the second straight season, Torkelson was named an Unanimous All-American after another eye-popping campaign and went on to compete for the U.S. Collegiate National Team for the second time this summer as well.
- Torkelson needs 25 home runs to break into the NCAA all-time Top-10 in career homers and in doing so would become the first player in the BBCOR era to even sniff the feat. He would be just the second player since 2000 to have a career home run tally that left him in the Top-10 in NCAA homers (Matt LaPorta, Florida).
- Torkelson has 48 homers in his career, needing just nine to surpass Bob Horner's long-standing school record of 56
- Last season, Torkelson was the Pac-12 home run leader for the second season in a row, finishing the season with 23 – good for fifth in the nation. He became the first Pac-12 player to lead the conference in homers in back-to-back seasons since Oregon State's Michael Conforto 2012 and 2013, though it should be noted Conforto only hit 13 and 11 in those seasons.
- Torkelson is only the third player in Pac-12 history to have back-to-back 20+ home run seasons.
- Torkelson ranked in the Top-10 in the Pac-12 in a slew of categories including homers (1st), walks (41/8th), average (.351/8th), hits (85/3rd/33rd nationally), runs (69/3rd/18th nationally), RBIs (66/2nd/27th nationally), slugging (.707/3rd/17th nationally) and total bases (171/1st/5th nationally).
- Torkelson led the team with 27 hits with runners in scoring position, recording 27 hits on 67 chances (.403)
- He was an extremely tough out to end the inning, extending the inning 26-of-67 times with two outs (.388) with a team-best 35 two-out RBI - 15 more than any other player on the roster.
- Hit or not, Torkelson consistently found a way to successfully advance baserunners, doing so 71 times on 142 opportunities (.500).
- With his first home run in the series against Cal, Torkelson has homered in every single Pac-12 ballpark in the league despite being just a sophomore.
- Torkelson has played 29 weekend series at ASU and homered at least once in 23 of those. He has played 20 Pac-12 series and homered in 18 - the season finales against Cal (2018) and Stanford (2019) being the only exceptions
- Defensively, Torkelson made huge strides and helped turn 10 more double plays than any other player in the Pac-12 (57), which was a testament to some of the impressive stretches and picks he has made to make those possible.
- He had just four errors on the year despite being sixth in Pac-12 in defensive chances (476) and one of those came while he was playing out of position in right field for one inning in a game earlier this season.
- Joined Brett Wallace as the only other player in Sun Devil history to be a two-time semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award.
- Alika Williams quietly continued to put up impressive numbers as a sophomore, embracing his role as a cleanup hitter with All-Pac-12 honorable mention accolades with a .333 batting average with 53 RBIs - easily a career high in the category. He had just 20 total RBIs as a freshman.
- When he did get RBIs, he tended to get a lot of them. He had 16 multi-RBI games was second on the team with nine games with three or more RBIs.
- Williams homered four times and recorded 12 doubles and three triples. He slugged .474 on the season - nearly 150 points higher than his freshman total of .333. With 19 extra-base hits on the year, he far surpassed his freshman total of nine.
- The sophomore was incredible when falling behind in counts, posting a .409 average (18-of-44) when facing 1-2 counts. Of his 71 hits on the year, 41 came from behind in the count.
- He was 37-of-105 (.352) on two-strike hitting on the year - striking out a team-low 28 times while walking 33 times, making him the only player on the roster with more walks than strikeouts.
- 20 of his 53 RBIs (.377) came when falling behind in counts.
- The sophomore was incredible at advancing baserunners this season, leading the team with a .593 average with 73 advancements on 123 opportunities.
- Williams was ASU's most productive hitter with the bases loaded, going 7-for-14 (.500) with a team-best 16 RBIs.
- Defensively, Williams was second in the Pac-12 with 149 defensive assists.
- He has helped turn 36 double plays, which was good for fourth overall in the Pac-12 and first among non-first basemen.
- His defensive efforts allowed him to be named a member of the Pac-12 All-Defensive team as a result.
- Gage Workman was one of the hottest players in the Sun Devil lineup of at the end of the season and finished the year batting .330 with 40 runs scored, 42 RBIs and eight home runs. He had hits in 20 of the final 26 games and multiple hits in 12 of those.
- He was second on the team with 20 two-out RBIs and successfully advanced runners 63 times on 125 chances (.504)
- In Pac-12 only games, Workman had a .330 average - the best total on the squad while his 25 Pac-12 RBIs were second on the team.
- In Pac-12 only games, Workman was tied for 10 in the league with 19 walks.
- His .430 on-base percentage was 12th in Pac-12 games and the second-best among all Sun Devils in the category. His .623 slugging percentage in Pac-12 games was 9th in the league and second on the team.
- Workman had eight home runs on the season, a new career high. His 23 extra-base hits surpassed his freshman total of 20.
- The sophomore earned Honorable Mention honors on the All-Pac-12 team.
- Workman had just three errors in Pac-12 games at third base on 80 chances (.964) and helped turn 17 double plays on the season en route to Pac-12 Defensive Honorable Mention honors.