It’s been a historically successful season for the Sun Devils, but is it sustainable and what can kind of implications will it have for the immediate future? We answer those questions and more we fielded from ASU fans regarding the baseball team.

Realistically, what is your opinion of a successful season judging on where we are at right now? 25-1 is a tie for the best start in program history. Should we expect a regional, super regional, CWS appearance?

-- To preface this, I’m not one of those people who judges a successful season based upon preseason expectations. Optimists only seem to bring that up when things start to go bad. Sure, New England Patriots fans in 2007 would have been ecstatic to hear Brady and Belichick were headed to another Super Bowl -- heck, they may have been able to get a bet in on it. But situations change. I don’t think many Patriots fans look back on that year with glee. At 18-0, they should have won the Super Bowl. That would have been a successful season. My point in all that is to say I’m not basing my answer on the fact that no one expected anything -- well, except, maybe that Ray Anderson was going to fire Tracy Smith -- from ASU baseball to start the year. Now at 25-2, though, there are expectations.

As for where those expectations put ASU in terms of postseason history, Devils Digest writer Joe Healy wrote in the huddle this week, “ASU will reach 40 wins in the regular season simply by going about .500 the rest of the way. Since 1993, ASU has won 40 or more games 11 times. Of those 11, nine resulted in at least a Super Regional appearance. Of those nine, there were six College World Series appearances (including the now forfeited 2007 appearance). The two regional losses in a 40-win season since '93 came in 2000 and 2004.”

With that, my opinion of a successful season is a berth in the Super Regionals. When I first saw this question, I initially thought simply hosting a regional would make most fairly satisfied in Smith’s fifth year, a sign of him righting the ship. But then I started to think about it. I have a feeling the consensus among ASU players, coaches and fans of a regional loss wouldn’t be great. Say that scenario plays out, would anyone really be out at Phoenix Muni in five years, reminiscing about past teams and be content with ASU’s talent in comparison to its finish. Doubtful. Heck, I know there’s a large faithful that is still disappointed the 2008 team with Brett Wallace and Ike Davis missed out on the CWS by one game and probably doesn’t classify that as a successful season.

However, I don’t think ASU will reach the Super Regionals and fulfill its so-called ‘successful season.’ My prediction is that they host a regional but fail to come out of that. More on that below.

Are you surprised the thin roster numbers haven't hurt ASU yet now that it has played nearly 30 games?

-- In a word: Yes. With a roster that includes just 25 players and 13 pitchers (including two-way player Marc Lidd), it doesn’t, on paper, seem like ASU can sustain its torrid start. At some point, one would think, a few bats are going to go through slumps with no one to step in. At some point, ASU should have run out of arms. But it went 25 games without showing nearly any of that perceived weakness. Then Sunday and Tuesday happened.

In Sunday’s five-hour 17-16 win over Arizona, starter RJ Dabovich exited early after shaky control of his off-speed stuff. That forced ASU to use six relievers, including its main quartet of Erik Tolman, Brady Corrigan, Sam Romero and Chaz Montoya. Wanting to rest them, the Sun Devils had a Tuesday ‘bullpen day’ against Long Beach State, hoping its young, inexperienced relievers could throw a few innings each and simply keep the game within reach for ASU’s high-powered offense. Instead, they gave up nine runs in two innings in what became ASU’s second loss of the season. That’s kind of what I expected to happen more. Unlike most teams, one bad start, in some ways, leads to tough scenarios in two games for the Devils.

As I wrote after that LBSU game, if that happens during the first or second game of a regional, I wouldn’t be too confident that ASU could come out on day three and win a game, let alone two, should they need to. Right now, the numbers just don’t work in ASU’s favor. Now, this could change by the end of May, but as of now, there aren’t enough reliable pieces at Smith’s disposal in the bullpen.

Given who you expect back in 2020, do you think the program can sustain this type of success, or are you worried that this may be a fluke year?

-- I started to look at the roster and I realistically only see, max, four players leaving Tempe after this season: Senior Sam Romero along with Hunter Bishop, Friday-night starter Alec Marsh, and DH Lyle Lin, who will all likely leave to the draft. Bishop, of course, is going to be the toughest to replace, and in all honesty, they probably won’t replace his production. The nice part is that all those freshmen from 2018 like Spencer Torkelson, Gage Workman, Alika Williams, and Drew Swift will be experienced juniors on the infield, keeping some continuity amongst the lineup. With 10 pitchers coming in next year, I think ASU will have options, should Marsh leave for the draft. Don’t be surprised if his replacement is internal, possibly a starting-rotation promotion either Erik Tolman or Brady Corrigan. If there is any good to ASU’s struggles the past two years, it finally has a backbone and foundation to build off of. Combined with adequate depth, I see no reason Smith and Co. couldn’t sustain it past this season.

Can you fill us in on how recruiting is going, some of the players we may be seeing in Sun Devil uniforms in the coming years?

-- ASU’s 2019 recruiting class is not its prototypical No. 1, stocked and loaded group most have grown accustomed to. After back-to-back 23-win seasons, that was to be expected. It’s 16-man class ranks 23rd in the country, backed by only one Top-100 recruit in shortstop GJ Hill. Some of my biggest takeaways from the class: It includes just one junior college player in lefty Justin Fall, who posted a 0.90 ERA for Brookdale CC, and carries 10 total pitchers, headed by left-hander Cooper Benson (Perfect Game’s 104th-ranked player) and righty Seth Tomczak (Perfect Games 144th-overall prospect).

The Sun Devils obviously needed a pitching-heavy class with just 13 currently on its roster and because they don’t boast any Top-25, Top-50 prospects, I doubt the class is affected much by the draft, as has been the case in past years. Here’s a full report on the 2019 signing class.

With Bishop’s rise, many have him climbing into the top 15 picks in this June’s draft. If he keeps up this trend, do you think he cracks a sub top 10 pick? Also, Torkelson was the favorite earlier in the year in some publications to go number 1 in next year’s draft. Although his slugging is down, everything else is trending up. If he holds his hype and gets drafted in the top 10 next year that would be two years in a row that ASU players get selected in the top 10? My question would be when was the last time ASU players went that high in back to back drafts?

-- The last time Sun Devils were drafted in the first round in back-to-back MLB drafts was 2009 and 2010. Pitcher Mike Leake was taken No. 8 overall by the Cincinnati Reds in ‘09. Then in 2010, Pitcher Seth Blair was taken 46th overall (Still considered to be in the first round because it was a compensatory pick.)

You don’t have to go back far to find the last time ASU had back-to-back players drafted in the Top-15. In 2008, Brett Wallace was taken 13th overall by the St. Louis Cardinals (Ike Davis went at No. 18 to the Mets that same year.) Then, of course, Leake was taken at No. 8 the next year.

Now to actually get to your question. The last time two Sun Devils were taken in the Top 10 of back-to-back MLB Drafts was 1965 and 1966. In ‘65, the Kansas City A’s took outfielder Rick Monday No. 1 overall after Monday helped ASU win the 1965 national championship, hitting .359 and winning The Sporting News National Player of the Year. Then in ‘66, the A’s again went to the Tempe pipeline, selecting Reggie Jackson with the 2nd-overall pick. After hitting 15 home runs (most in a single season with a wood bat), Jackson also won national player of the year honors in ‘67.

As for the possibility that Hunter Bishop and Spencer Torkelson could replicate Monday and Jackson’s draft achievement, it’s a little tough to project right now. Bishop is climbing up most boards, that’s for sure. Some places, like FanGraphs, have Bishop as a Top 10 prospect. If he keeps up this pace and hits over .400 with about 25 home runs, it would be tough to think he wouldn’t be among the first 10 taken. Though the internet isn’t littered with 2020 MLB mock drafts, Perfect Game has Torkelson as the No. 1 prospect for ‘20. MLB Draft Express also has him becoming the fourth Sun Devil to be first off the board in the MLB Draft (Others include Rick Monday in ‘65, Floyd Bannister in ‘76 and Bob Horner in ‘78.)

Despite the home-run decline, Torkelson is nearly hitting .400 again with 43 hits and 32 RBI. If I had to guesstimate, too, I would say Torkelson gets about four hittable pitches every game. Teams aren’t throwing to him and he’s still putting up ridiculous numbers. Hard to think a team would pass on him. The only thing going against Torkelson is his glove, he has nine errors in just a year and a half at ASU. Seemingly a prototypical designated hitter, maybe there’s a chance a national league team would pass on him at No. 1 but even that seems doubtful.

Where does this year’s offense rank among all-time ASU baseball teams? All-time college baseball teams?

-- ASU’s offense is good, but I don’t think it’s time to start comparing it to all-time college baseball teams. Heck, it’s only No. 3 in the country this year in team batting average at .338. And I was trying to research where some of ASU’s current numbers compare to past teams but ASU hasn’t updated its website with past stats so I wasn’t able to access it. Sorry. I would have to guess, though, that some older Packard teams had that beat by a wide margin.

Does ASU have any sweet alternate uniforms to wear this season?

ASU does, in fact, have new grey alternate uniforms to wear this season, although I’ve only seen it wear them once or twice this season. As for the “sweet” part of your question, you be the judge.