Having lost the entirety of their weekend rotation from last spring and their top two relievers to the MLB Draft, Arizona State had a modicum of rebuilding to do on the mound for a 2024 season where anything less than an NCAA Tournament berth will be a disappointment. While their arms weren’t the main culprit to the Sun Devils falling just short of the final 64 in 2023, their lack of depth on the long relief side was evident in their late-season slide, and the MLB Draft only made that situation worse entering Willie Bloomquist’s third year as the head coach.
Not one to sit on his hands, especially in this new era of college athletics, Bloomquist and pitching coach Sam Peraza got to work early to reconstruct their staff who fit their desired archetype. Preferring pitchers with a high strike rate from the first pitch, the ASU pitching corps is almost unrecognizable from last year’s, with all different types of arms to play in virtually any scenario. The one this group shares, aside from their uniforms and filling the strike zone, though, comes in their collective youth.
Entering this season, ASU’s roster features over 20 newcomers, 14 of whom are pitchers, with ten of them being freshmen. With a daunting non-conference schedule and an always competitive array of Pac-12 opponents, these young arms won’t have much of an adjustment period and will be put to the test right from Opening Day.
“Lot of freshman arms, of course,” Bloomquist noted. “They’ll be thrown into the fire.”
“We got so many young guys,” pitching coach Sam Peraza added. “They’ve done a really good job competing against each other. It’s a mature group. They know they’re gonna have to come out and contribute right away. We have a lot more overall arm talent this year. We do have some experienced guys in case they’re up and down. They’re gonna struggle, especially early. But I’m hoping that if we give them enough experience. As we get into the meat of the season, they’re no longer freshmen. By the time conference (play) comes around, they’re no longer freshmen. They’re gonna be experienced guys, almost like sophomores. Hoping we’re able to tangle through the ups and downs with them early on and be ready to go.”
In a trial-by-fire scenario, Bloomquist and Peraza forecasted having Thomas Burns and Connor Markl be the Friday and Saturday starters, respectively. Both are on opposite ends of their college careers, with Burns being a freshman and Markl a senior transfer from Grand Canyon. While Markl has much more experience to his name and the advantage of being a left-hander, Peraza is keen on having him in the Saturday slot as the stabilizing arm of a series.
“Markl, if we started tomorrow, he would be our Saturday guy,” Peraza emphasized. “He’s done a really good job of being mature and making sure he helps the other guys along the way. I told Conor, ‘I need you to go on Saturdays. I need you to be the calming guy and the swing of that three-game series. If we win Friday, I think Conor has a really good chance to match it up against any Saturday guy out there in the country and get us the win. If we happen to stumble Friday night, he’s the guy I want with the ball in hand to make sure we even that series up.”
“I’m excited just being able to contribute to this team,” Markl responded.
Burns, a flamethrowing right-hander, can reach 95 MPH with regularity. As he goes through the usual brushing-up process, the team believes the sky is the limit for the talented underclassman.
“Tommy still has to win the Friday guy, but he’s definitely the leading candidate,” Peraza said. “He’s got unbelievable stuff, unbelievable make-up. Tough kid, very coachable. We want him to win it; hopefully, he does, but we got some options along the way.”
“I’m excited to compete,” Burns exclaimed. “I love competing. That’s what sports are all about.
With Burns headlining a long list of freshmen arms, despite the long list of young guns, Bloomquist sees an advantage in depth where most see a detriment in naivety.
“Nice mix of both (veterans and newcomers),” Bloomquist detailed. “You’re gonna see some freshmen in that rotation, certainly. Connor Markl would be a guy that I can say has probably earned himself a weekend spot right now. Thomas Burns will most likely be in that mix for the weekend. Sunday is kind of a crapshoot, I think, depending on which way we want to go. We have some talented guys that maybe aren’t in the zone as much as I would like right now. But we got guys that pound the heck out of the zone that maybe don’t have the wow factor, but they get outs. We have a nice mix of some older guys, Matty Tieding and Jonah Giblin; they have started in the past and do a great job if needed. If we need them to start, they can, and if not, they’ll be the first guys up or maybe late in the game, too. We have some options.”
In a group that has very little familiarity with Bloomquist, Peraza, and Sun Devil baseball as a whole, there are a couple of arms that aren’t new to the program. Right-handers Matt Tieding and Jonah Giblin pitched in supporting roles for much of last year, taking a share of spot-midweek starts as well as being among the first guys called out of the bullpen. Performing well in limited roles, both will likely be expected to step up into higher-leverage spots and clubhouse captains for an inexperienced Sun Devil stable.
“They are going to serve a huge role,” Bloomquist proclaimed. “Whether or not they’re starting or being the first guys out of the ‘pen to calm the waters in case youth rears its head, I think it’s important for me and Sam to manage that in a way where we have a security blanket in case something goes haywire, where we have those veterans guys who are able to calm things down if necessary.”
“They know the expectations,” Peraza continued. “I talked to those guys early, Jonah, Matt, and Tyler Meyer, and said, ‘Whether you pitch or not, we need you to help these guys grow.’ They’ve been unbelievable. They’ve been selfless. They know why they’re there, and their leadership I think has been the key to our pitching staff having success in the fall and hopefully carrying over into the spring.”
“It started in the summer and early fall, getting early work in and taking them (freshmen) under our wing,” Giblin explained. “Gotta help them mature quick. Got a lot of them, it’s about growing up fast for them, being ready to get on the field and compete. Lot of good stuff from them, electric stuff out of the young guys. Exciting to see.”
“We have some arms that have been around,” Bloomquist finished with. “Matt Tieding, Jonah Giblin, Connor Markl (not at ASU), we’re expecting those guys to lead us. That’s what we’re gonna rely on, are those guys using the experience they’ve had? A lot of times in college baseball, the experience plays well.”
Tieding and Giblin aren’t strangers to Phoenix Muni, and neither is sophomore right-hander Tyler Meyer, but a torn labrum kept him from making his mark last spring. Still progressing in his rehab process, Meyer should return early in the season and look to build on an impressive freshman year in 2022, where he made 14 appearances with ten starts to post a promising 5.46 ERA over 56 innings. Possibly being the missing link from last year’s staff, a healthy campaign from Meyer will not only lengthen Bloomquist and Peraza’s options in starters but bring another aspect of security by experience.
“Tyler’s doing great,” Bloomquist said with a smile. “He’s back up arm strength-wise, back to what he was pre-injury, or very close to it. Now it’s just a matter of fine-tuning, getting him back sharp, and getting the pitchability back to where it was. Arm strength, that was something that was kind of up-and-down all fall, but he’s got a very good chance to help us get back to form.”
“Whether or not he cracks into that rotation at some point throughout the year, we’ll see. Early on, I think it’s probably a little bit rushed to have him out there opening weekend starting, but hopefully, here in the next three weeks, he continues to progress to the point where we do have a tough decision to make whether or not we start him or have him come out of the bullpen. One way or another, he’s gonna contribute a lot if he’s healthy.”
“So happy for that kid,” Peraza said with glee as well. “Coming back from the labrum, the last two weeks, he’s getting me optimistic. He’s looking closer to the old Tyler Meyer.”
“Been feeling good,” Meyer said. “Hoping to be ready by opening weekend.”
Another intriguing piece of the Sun Devil pitching staff will come in two-way freshman Cole Carlon. A Tempe native who showcased high levels of talent both at the dish and on the rubber in the fall, Bloomquist and Peraza expect Carlon to be the team’s closer by Opening Day, where they see him overwhelming tired hitters with advanced heat at the end of games. The rest of the bullpen and the Sunday starter spot are wait-and-see cases as of now. But with the talent of arms on hand at Phoenix Muni, the potential for a resurgent season on the mound is there. The only question is if they can grow up fast enough, which, after facing a star-studded lineup in intrasquad for the past few months, is as good of a springboard as one can get.
“It’s good when they’re facing this type of lineup all fall,” Bloomquist noted. “They realize that this isn’t high school anymore. They can’t make mistakes over the plate, or they’re gonna get punished. They’re able to understand what quality pitches are, having to work ahead in counts. Free bases can kill you, all the stuff we’ve been preaching here for a couple of years. Hopefully, it will come to fruition. We’re not reinventing the game. We’re still gonna throw strikes and get ahead. We’re in a better position in that we have guys that can do that more frequently than we have the last year or two.”
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