Junior pitcher Ryan Kellogg fires from the mound during Saturday's intrasquad scrimmage on Feb. 7, 2015, at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. (J. Bauer-Leffler/ The State Press)Since ASU baseball head coach Tracy Smith arrived in Phoenix, there’s been a discernible change in the program’s attitude and culture.
So at an intra-squad scrimmage on Saturday with 34 alumni in attendance, including two-time World Series champion, Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia, Smith was frustrated by what he perceived to be poor effort.
With 11 incoming freshmen still acclimating to the rigors of college baseball, there’s a sense of urgency to have everyone on the same page.
“We’ve got to have an identity,” Smith said. “That’s the part that I’m disappointed with, because I’m not sure what the identity of our team is, so that’s the thing I think we’ve got to shape up moving forward.”
From botched pickoff plays to miscommunications on popups and simple throwing errors, there was plenty for Smith and his staff to revisit leading up to Friday's season opener against No. 12 Oklahoma State.
“We’ve had way too many mental mistakes, and the physical mistakes, which to me are a lack of concentration,” Smith said. “Honestly, I’m not very happy. … It’s not OK — we do this in conference play, go out and kick the ball around and stuff like that — I don’t want to rely on bats every single day to bail out what we should be doing.”
ASU won’t have problems hitting with its loaded lineup. The Sun Devils led the Pac-12 last season in batting average (.284), hits (560) and were second in slugging percentage (.386) and on base percentage (.371).
Conversely, the defensive statistics show plenty of room for improvement. Smith will not tolerate numbers close to that of last year. ASU finished last in team fielding percentage (.965) and, as the former would indicate, also recorded 76 errors, the most in the Pac-12.
“If we want to play at a high level within our conference and be relevant on a national level, that caliber of baseball, that effort, that lack of intensity, that lack of focus isn’t acceptable,” Smith said.
With just five days before the start of the season, how does Smith plan to fix this?
“All we can do is address it, and the greatest motivator in the world is the bench," Smith said.
“The ironic part for me is, we had some decent practices leading up to this. The lights were on, the crowd, whatever — and what I saw in some of our ‘coolness’ stuff because the fans were in the stands, got me a little bit upset," Smith said. "We know the way we’re supposed to play, and it shouldn’t matter if there’s a crowd in there. I’m hoping it was an anomaly. But we’ll find out.”
Smith’s disposition as an honest evaluator of his team doesn’t mean he’s cherry picking some of the more negative happenings of what was otherwise a great day at Phoenix Muni.
ASU baseball head coach Tracy Smith talks to his players after practice at the Phoenix Municipal Stadium on Jan. 28, 2015. (Daniel Kwon/ The State Press)Athletic director Ray Anderson and senior associate athletic director Don Bocchi visited the press box prior to attending the ASU-Arizona basketball game, and the two conversed with guests about their confidence in their new coach’s demeanor and the direction of the team.
“When you start building the culture of a winning program, it should bother them as much as it does me as a coach,” Smith said. “I don’t expect it to be the same, but they’re smart guys. They saw it, and we had a little talk afterwards. And we’ve got to hold ourselves to a higher standard, and that’s got to come from them internally as players.”
Concentration is an acquired habit that someone like Smith has accrued over more than a decade of coaching and three seasons of playing professionally at the Single-A level for the Chicago Cubs organization.
“To me, it’s a mindset of, ‘Are you into the game? Are you into every pitch?’” Smith said. “ It’s how you take infield, it’s how you come on and off the field, how you react — those are all things that are coachable, and within our control.”
Smith has three sons of his own, all high school or college athletes. He’s learned that a balance of patience and stern instruction is crucial as a leader of young adults — he’s a 48-year-old man, he concedes.
“Sometimes I have to take a step back. I’m new, and they’re still trying to figure me out. But we’re not going to judge yet. You judge people at the end of the season and coach them during the season.”
Reach the baseball beat writers:
smodrich@asu.edu or on Twitter @StefanJModrich
Justin.Toscano@asu.edu or on Twitter @justintoscano3.
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