4 years ago Tracy Smith was fired after going 1-2 in the Austin, TX regional. He had the youngest lineup in America, lost 4 pitchers to tommy john surgery, and still made a regional for a 3rd straight season. Upon being eliminated, it was decided that a regional loss was too "mediocre" for ASU and Smith was fired.
At the press conference a hand was raised and a question asked. "Former Oregon State coach Pat Casey was looking to get back into coaching, is he someone you will call". The question was asked by Kendall Rodgers who owns D1Baseball. A site many believe is the premier college baseball site in the nation. It caught Ray Anderson off guard and he mumbled some type of "we will check all avenues" boiler plate response.
There would be no call to Pat Casey. There would be no coaching search. After a brief discussion with Andy Stankewicz that was more formality than anything else ASU only made 1 phone call.
Graham Rossini went with a fellow Pat Murphy alumnus and a former co-worker with the Diamondbacks. ASU Baseball's favorite son, Willie Bloomquist.
While publicly Bloomquist had supported Smith, behind the scenes he made it known that he wanted to be hired and believed that he was capable of taking ASU out of regionals and back to Omaha. Social media had been asking for a Bloomquist hire for years and message boards had pushed his name. Bloomquist was hired and a flood of optimism reentered the ASU program.
Former ASU Baseball players have made close to $500m in MLB salaries and fans believed that because Willie was "one of them" he could crack the code and open the wallets. After all, ASU Baseball is not Pitt Football. It was not some shadow of its former self. It wasn't long ago that Barry Bonds and Dustin Pedroia were earning MVPs, Andre Ethier was playing in all-star games, Kole Calhoun had won a gold glove, Fernando Vina was on Baseball Tonight, Pat Murphy and Don Wakamatsu were MLB managers, and Tork was a #1 overall pick. Sun Devils were at every level of baseball and Willie was the man to bring all of it back together.
Unfortunately to date, the only part of that plan that has been true is Willie has taken us out of regionals. Meaning he hasn't qualified.
College athletics run on emotion. Athletes and boosters alike want passion. Go and pull any Bloomquist interview from Hod's Youtube channel and listen to the coach. On a scale of 1 to Kenny Dillingham I don't think Willie is a 3 even at his best. He sucks the energy out of the room.
He complains about ASU's lack of NIL but his NIL pitch to the fan base is "NIL is ruining the game, will you write a check". To his credit he is fine with the AD paying players, but he does not want to compete in the NIL space. Because of him, ASU hasn't. He complains about the pitch clock about the transfer portal, and any other new change the game may have.
His pitching philosophy is aimed at high pitch count strike outs instead of efficiency leading to pitchers being gassed by the 4th inning. His hitting approach is to swing early never allowing opposing pitchers to shoot themselves in the foot. All 4 of ASUs non conference weekend series were against Q4 opponents at home which is an RPI nightmare.
The man who was hired because of how well he understood ASU has fundamentally misunderstood college baseball.
His apologists blame the lack of LSU level money while much lesser programs with newer coaches out perform us. Programs like Kansas, Cinci, and West Virginia. Not to mention the team down south that has not 1 advantage over ASU. When I ask what he has done to earn more time the only answer I get is Rossini writing more checks.
ASU's investment into scholarships and stadium upgrades isn't a reason to stick with a coach who is trying to figure it out. It is a reason to bring in a coach that has a Super Regional on his resume.
And here's the irony of it all. For all of his warts. For all of his missteps and shortcomings, Bloomquist has the chance to add a super regional to his resume and be that coach. He's got a roster stacked with upper classmen who will be drafted. He has experience on the mound and the pick of several guys who can throw 96 MPH+ from both the left and right side. He has speed and power, lefties and righties, a solid defense, a stacked offense, and one of the deepest bullpens ASU has ever had. Just go win.
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