Jeremy Accardo was a pitching coach in professional baseball for the past eight years and worked with some of the best pitchers in the world. But when the opportunity arose to come home and coach at his local university, he couldn't pass it up.
When Accardo heard ASU was looking for a new pitching coach, he made sure his friends who knew head coach Willie Bloomquist knew that he was interested in the job.
Bloomquist officially added Accardo to his staff as the Sun Devils' pitching coach in late June 2024. The incorporation of Accardo brings in a coach with an eight-year career in the big leagues as a relief pitcher in addition to his professional coaching.
His coaching resume features two years in the New York Mets' minor league system, three years with their major league club as a pitching strategist and assistant pitching coach, and the last three seasons in the Milwaukee Brewers organization as the Triple-A affiliate Nashville Sounds' pitching coach.
Accardo's time with the Brewers organization taught him a lot about analytics and pitching data, which makes him a fit for ASU's team with its newly built pitching lab.
READ MORE: ASU baseball embraces analytics with new pitching lab
"(Accardo) has been outstanding with these guys, very positive with them," Bloomquist said. "We've incorporated some of the analytics of the game in with what he's doing. He's a lot smarter at that stuff than I am, so I let him do his thing with that ... He's got these guys buying into what he's doing."
As a native of Mesa, deciding to leave the professional baseball world to come to ASU and be closer to family was an easy choice. Accardo said he's enjoyed being able to go to all of ASU's sporting events with his kids and feel like he's part of a community.
"Growing up here, this meant something to me," Accardo said. "Obviously, I wasn't at the caliber to come here back in the day, in the early 2000s, but coming back here with my family around here and just what this program meant to me when I was little, it means the world."
Now that he's finally a Sun Devil, Accardo is dedicated to helping his pitchers reach their maximum potential. Accardo intends to help his pitchers by getting to know them as people before he starts making any adjustments with them. He also works hard to know when to be hard on a guy, when to be easy-going and when to be a cheerleader and instill confidence in his players.
"That's the beauty of the chess game that is coaching, understanding that timing is everything and more important than the message sometimes," Accardo said. "If we stick to that and focus on little things, the big things happen, and that's where we get to all be a part of something special here."
Accardo's goal is to create "a culture of growth and confidence" so his players believe in themselves because he believes in them. The message that Accardo often gives his players is to not let him believe in them more than they believe in themselves.
"He's amazing," senior right-handed pitcher Jack Martinez said. "He's one of the best I've had. His ability to establish confidence in kids is unlike anything I've seen."
One of the reasons why Accardo connects well with his players is because of how open he is with them. He tells them the things that he's done well in his career and the mistakes that he's made. Accardo is an open book for his players; he leaves his door open if anyone wants to stop by and chat or just eat lunch.
"I'll have my lunch and go sit up in his office and talk about baseball, football, hockey, his kids and what they're doing," redshirt senior right-handed pitcher Jonah Giblin said. "He's a player's coach ... We all trust him."
Accardo emphasized the importance of having an open office for his players because it helps him connect with his players through conversations about anything in life. But, those conversations can obviously be about baseball as well, and Accardo said there are sometimes open discussions about the adjustments a pitcher may be making on the mound that lead to a solution.
Accardo joined the coaching staff because he wanted to be a Sun Devil and be closer to home. He wanted to be around his family and kids more often. Now, he's around "his kids" at home and on the field.
"These kids are my kids," Accardo said. "I treat them like they're my kids ... These boys mean the world to us as a family, and their careers mean everything to me. So they're going to get every ounce of energy I got in helping them achieve their goals.”
Edited by Henry Smardo, Sophia Braccio and Natalia Jarrett.
Reach the reporter at jmjanes1@asu.edu and follow @JackJanes_ on X.
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Jack is a graduate student studying sports journalism. This is his second semester with The State Press. He has also worked at Walter Cronkite Sports Network and The Sporting Tribune.
