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Arizona State head baseball coach Pat Murphy will hold a live chat on Tuesday, November 23 at 2 p.m. (Arizona Time). ASU's 11th-year head coach will answer your questions regarding the upcoming 2005 season, the recently signed top recruiting class in the nation as well as varoius other topics.
Murphy has an overall 774-3670-4 record in 20 seasons as a head college baseball coach and owns a 401-196-1 record at the helm of the Sun Devils. He has led ASU to the NCAA Tournament in seven of the last eight seasons and the Sun Devils have been ranked in 97 straight national polls.
Feel free to leave any questions prior to the chat and then visit www.TheSunDevils.com on Tuesday to chat with Coach Murphy.
Pat Murphy became only the third head coach in Arizona State's modern baseball history when he was hired in August of 1994. Following in the footsteps of legendary head coaches Bobby Winkles and Jim Brock, Murphy's 10-year tenure at the helm of the ASU program has been marked with great success. Since inheriting the Sun Devil program, Murphy has carefully nurtured the tradition of excellence in Tempe, at the same time establishing himself as one of the top collegiate head coaches in the nation. He has guided Arizona State to top-12 national rankings in four of the last eight years, including an appearance in the 1998 College World Series national championship game. Murphy's ASU squads are always present in the national top 25, including a streak of 97 consecutive weeks in the polls (53 in top 10).
In 10 seasons at the helm of the Sun Devil program, Murphy is 401-196-1 and has led the Devils to the NCAA Tournament in five straight years and seven of the last eight. He owns an all-time 29-22 record in NCAA Tournament action as a head coach and is 20-14 in postseason play at ASU. His coaching accomplishments include becoming the youngest collegiate coach to reach 500 career victories (with 75 percent of the wins at the Division I level). Averaging over 42 wins per season in his 17 years at the Division I level, Murphy is on track to become the all-time winningest coach in NCAA history if he were to coach 20 more years until he was 65.
In 20 years of coaching at the collegiate level, Murphy owns a career 774-367-4 record. At the Division I level alone, Murphy has recorded 719 wins in 17 years, averaging over 42 wins a year. Before arriving in Tempe, Murphy took a virtually unknown Notre Dame baseball program from a non-fully funded sport into the national spotlight. His Notre Dame teams averaged over 45 wins a season during his seven years in South Bend.
His success is also evident in preparing his players for professional baseball. Over the last four years, 29 Sun Devils have been selected in the annual MLB Amateur Draft. ASU leads all Division I schools with 78 draft picks during the Murphy era. Most recently, three-time All-Pac-10 selection Dustin Pedroia was drafted in the second round by the Boston Red Sox.
Murphy's squads continue to demonstrate excellence in the classroom as well, as ASU boasted more First-Team Academic All-American selections (three) in 1999 than any other program in the nation. It was the most selections by an Arizona State baseball team in the history of the school. ASU has had five selections to the Academic All-American team since 1999, ranking third among all NCAA Division I schools, and 36 Devils have earned All-Pac-10 academic acclaim under Murphy's guidance since 1995. In addition, in his 20 years as a head coach, he has never had a player declared academically ineligible.
Murphy has also helped keep alive a streak of 43 straight years in which ASU has posted 30 or more victories. In the rivalry series against the University of Arizona, he has guided ASU to a 34-16 record (.680) in his 10 seasons in Tempe, never losing a season series to the Wildcats. The Sun Devils won four of five games last season and have defeated their in-state rivals in 16 of the last 20 meetings.
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| Moderator: We will begin the live chat in about five minutes. Coach Murphy will be ready to answer some of your questions then. |
| Moderator: Alright, Murph just arrived. He is going to answer questions for about 30 minutes. Enjoy! |
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| Ty (Tempe): What impact will Joey Hooft have this season? Can you give us a little more information on him. |
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Pat Murphy: Joey is going to be a leader on this team when it is all said and done. He has been in a lot of big games with his three years at Miami and has been to Omaha twice. He will be a big part of our team when it is all said and done. |
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| Ryan (New Orleans, La): Once again Coach you have managed to put together a pretty tough schedule this season, with many tough opponents on the road. I understand the tough schedule plays a big part in ncaa post season selection, but do these tough schedules year after year have a more underlying meaning to the team, such as the maturity of your players, than just a post season birth? |
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Pat Murphy: With the landscape of college baseball and the way the selection process has gone, the RPI and strength of schedule are big factors. We want to have playoff-type baseball atmosphere every weekend to get our guys ready for the postseason. We also want our fans to have chance to see college baseball at its best. |
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| Ben (Gilbert): You have put together another solid schedule, especially on the road. What was the motivation for putting road games with Tulane, East Carolina and LSU? |
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Pat Murphy: Lots of questions about our schedule, so I'll stick with this. Playing at Tulane, ECU and LSU will put our team in front of our pretty hostile crowds. I don't think there is any better place to play than at LSU. They have great fans and it is going to be a great weekend of college baseball. |
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| Peoria, AZ: Can you talk about who you expect to start for the Devils this year? |
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Pat Murphy: It is really early to tell exactly who are starting nine will be, but on the mound Jason Urquidez, Erik Averill and Zechry Zinicola are names that are in the mix. Brett Bordes made some great strides this fall and I expect him to put together a solid junior season. Some other names to add in the mix will be Ty Marotz and junior college transfers Kevin Dryanski and Tony Barnette. |
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Pat Murphy: In the field, Jeff Larish will move back to the infield. Fans will be excited to see freshman shortstop Andrew Romine. Other candidates for infield spots include Joe Persichina, Joey Hooft, Seth Dhaenens and Vinny Biancamano to name just a few. |
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Pat Murphy: In the outfield, expect Travis Buck, Colin Curtis, freshman J.J. Sferra and redshirt freshman Rocky Laguna to all see playing time. Redshirt freshman Taylor Holiday also had an excellent fall and is a utility player. Tuffy Gosewisch is a three-year starter behind the plate and will be one of our team leaders. |
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| Carl, Tempe: ASU has not been to Omaha for 6 straight years, the longest drought in School history. How will this team be able to reach Omaha, let alone restore the program to a national title (last one in 1981) contender which we have not seen since the 80's? |
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Pat Murphy: Omaha is always motivation for success in this program. There is no question we are disappointed we have not been back to Omaha. There are a lot of factors that go into this and our players and coaching staff go into every practice and every game with ambitions of a national championship. The landscape of college baseball has changed drastically since ASU's last national championship in 1981. We have had a rough draw with some of the seedings, but we are ready to get over that hump and move on. I think we have been a national contender almost every year. We played for the national championship in 1998 and have finished in the top 12 in the nation in four of the last eight years. |
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| Martha, San Diego: I think it's great to open the season at home against Long Beach State. Will there be an effort made to schedule more regular season match-ups with Big West teams in future seasons? (Fullerton, Riverside, Irvine, Northridge) I guess it's a matter of coordinating schedules. Good luck this year. Thanks for having the games available via online. |
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Pat Murphy: We are very excited for our season-opening series against a great program like Long Beach State. It should be a great way to start our season and get our fans ready for another exciting home schedule. The Big West has really come on strong as a baseball conference and we strive the play the toughest teams year in and year out. |
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| Ty (Tempe): Do you think Larish will rebound from last season and put up the big numbers from his sophmore season? Is he completely healthy this season? |
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Pat Murphy: Jeff did a really unselfish thing last year by moving to the outfield to help our team. His numbers didn't reflect the type of player he is and I fully expect him to have another big year for the Devils again. He has put on more strength in the offseason and has had a great fall working out in the infield. |
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| Jacob, Washington DC: Coach Murphy,
Good luck on the upcoming year. I was just wondering who determines the players that have the numbers retired and hung on the outfield wall and do you see any numbers added soon? |
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Pat Murphy: The numbers on the outfield wall reflect some of the greatest Sun Devils of all-time. It takes into account their professional and college careers. We are very proud of the players that have come through this program and I think you will see a few more names added in the future... |
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| Tony (Tacoma, Wash.): You have always had a lot of Washington players on your roster. Do you recruit certain states harder than others? Who is the next Travis Buck or Colin Curtis for the Sun Devils? |
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Pat Murphy: The state of Washington has produced some very solid Sun Devils. Most recently Willie Bloomquist and Travis Buck. We go where the best players are and Washington has been a proven place to get some good talent. |
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| Darnell (Tempe): How does the pitching staff look right now? Will Urquidez be the "ace" of the staff? |
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Pat Murphy: Jason did a great job last year for us and having him back in our program after the draft last season is huge. We expect Jason to be our ace and go out there on Friday night and give us an advantage. |
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| Ty (Glendale): Has our recruiting strategy changed at all in the past couple years? It seems that the past two seasons we have not lost the type of high school players we have lost to the draft in the past. (Fielder, Jones, Loewen, etc.) Do you see this as chance or is Jay looking for a firmer college type player than he has before? |
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Pat Murphy: The MLB draft has really changed what players are ending up in college. Jay Sferra does a great job identifying the type of player that will best fit our program. We have been fortunate that a lot of projected high picks have ended up at ASU. I think this trend will continue, which certainly benefits college baseball. |
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| Tommy (San Diego): Who are some of the former Sun Devils that are getting close to making the major leagues? Do you think Willie Bloomquist will ever get his shot to be an everyday player with the Mariners? |
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Pat Murphy: I expect there to be a few Sun Devils in the big leagues in coming years. Dustin Pedroia will be in the big leagues in the next two years, and I don't think that will come as a surprise to anyone who watched him during his college years. Mitch Jones had 39 home runs last year and deserves a shot with an organization. Brooks Conrad with the Astros, Chris Duffy with the Pirates, Mike Esposito with the Rockies and Andre Ethier with the A's are also moving along quickly. |
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| Bob (Surprise, Ariz.): How difficult is it to plan out a team with only 11.7 scholarships for a team that usually has 35-40 players? |
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Pat Murphy: It is one of the biggest challenges our program and many west coast schools face. We do not have financial private aid such as Rice, Stanford or USC and we don't have state scholarship programs like Louisiana, Florida or Georgia. So, essentially we have less money to spread around than those programs. Year in and year out we are still competing as a top 10 program. This is a major issue in college baseball that everyone is talking about. It creates an uneven playing field. |
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| Greg (Houston): I saw you guys when you came down and beat Rice last year and was very impressed with the way you played and were not intimidated by one of the best pitchers in the nation (Niemann). How would you describe Sun Devil baseball to the average fan? |
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Pat Murphy: Scrappy and playoff-type baseball every play. Our guys play hard every game and that is the trademark of our program. We have a lot of guys go on to play professional baseball every year and we get tons of comments from scouts around the nation that say our guys play the game the right way and respect the game. |
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| Pat (Chicago): Coach Murphy-
Do you have any equipment suggestions for my boy's HS team? |
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Pat Murphy: Wilson and DeMarini!!!!!!!!! |
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| Karen C. (Tempe): Hey Coach!!! Who is going to be the biggest surprise of the season and how are the freshmen adapting? |
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Pat Murphy: I think the biggest surprise of the season will be Ty Marotz. The freshman are adjusting at a typical rate. Thanks for all that you do for Sun Devil baseball. |
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| Jonathan N. (Scottsdale): Hey Coach Murphy, just wanted to say nice job! What do you think of high school baseball in Arizona, and how tough is it to recruit local products in AZ? Thank you. |
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Pat Murphy: High school baseball in Arizona is getting better and better every year. I would say it is in the top 15 in the nation. I would love to get to the point where we could have an all-Arizona team. The Diamondbacks and Jerry Colangalo did a great job of putting a great deal of importance on baseball at the grassroots level. |
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| Ty (Tempe): Any spunky leadoff guys to fill Pedro's shoes? |
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Pat Murphy: There are a bunch of possibilities between Joey Hooft, J.J. Sferra and Taylor Holiday. Pedro's shoes will be pretty tough to follow. There wasn't a better college baseball player over the last three years. |
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Pat Murphy: Thanks for coming. Have to get back to work. We'll do this again sometime soon. I hope all the Sun Devil faithful have a great Thanksgiving and don't forget to tune into the football game on Friday to cheer on ASU. Go Devils! |
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