Piecing Together the 2009 Baseball Schedule

Since ASU's Athletic Department always refuses to put out the schedule until about January, here's what I have pieced together from the schedules of other schools:

Feb 20-22 Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Feb 26-Mar 1 Hosting Tournament: Oregon State, others TBA
Mar 5-7 Holy Cross
Mar 10-11 Kansas State
Mar 13-15 Kansas
Mar 20-22 Arizona
Mar 27-29 @ USC
Mar 31-April 1 @ Cal State Fullerton
April 3-5 @ Washington
April 7-8 @ Arkansas
April 10-12 Washington State
April 24-26 @ Cal
April 29 Challenge @ Chase vs. Arizona
May 1-3 @ Oregon State
May 5-6 San Diego
May 15-17 Oregon
May 20 @ Arizona
May 22-24 UCLA

Kipnis to Return? Blair Starts Game 1 of Cape Cod Finals

It looks as if Jason Kipnis, the 4th round pick for the San Diego Padres, will most likely be returning to ASU. From the San Diego Union-Tribune:

Fuson said a deal with Kipnis "doesn't look like it's going to happen." Persons close to ASU's team, too, expect Kipnis to return for his junior season as the centerpiece player to a program that sent 14 players to the minors this summer. The Padres and Kipnis are more than $600,000 apart. The player the Padres signed from the third round is another center fielder/leadoff man, Blake Tekotte. After 25 games with Eugene, Tekotte was batting .337 with five homers and 11 doubles.

"Kipnis is a good player," Fuson said. "We'd like to have him (for the average price) where we took him."

This is great news for the Sun Devils. Wallace and Davis may have drawn all of the accolades, but Kipnis was the motor of the 2008 squad. His return automatically puts the Sun Devils back in contention for Omaha, most likely with Matt Newman and freshman John Ruettiger rounding out the outfield. The main questions for the Devils will be who will properly replace Petey Paramore at catcher and as the inspirational leader?

Kipnis will be playing in the Cape Cod League Championship Series, which starts Wednesday at 3 PM EDT for the Cotuit Kettleers. ASU's Seth Blair will be taking the mound for Cotuit against the Harwich Mariners.

If you want to watch Seth Blair pitch live, just click here for the live online stream.

Sun Devils in Professional Baseball Progress Report: Part 1

Andre Ethier - Pictured to the left during some rookie hazing in 2007. Even though the Dodgers are still in the hunt for the playoffs, Andrew Ethier is contributing less than in his first two seasons. He's on pace for his best season total in homeruns, but also his worst in terms of average and strikeouts. Part of his decline in numbers could be because he hasn't been able to find his groove in a 5-man rotation of Jones, Kemp, Rameriz, Pierre and himself. He could have easily faded in to oblivion with the Manny Rameriz addition, but has only improved since the Dodgers acquired ManRam. Takes out frustration on his "Rock Band" drums.

Andrew Romine - Currently burning up the basepaths in Cedar Rapids Iowa for the Angels Single-A affiliate Kernels. Making up for his medicore .256 average with 51 stolen bases. Has been raising his average recently after a season long slump, hitting .289 over his last 10 games.

Brett Wallace - Adjusting to the wood bat very well. Batting .341 so far over his first 131 at-bats, with 5 HR, 24 RBI and an OPS of .961. Was the Minor League Baseball Player of the Week for July 28-August 3rd after hitting safely in 7 straight games. Recently talked to us about moving into the professional ranks.

Brooks Conrad - Had a cup of coffee with the A's in July before getting sent back down to Triple-A Sacramento. Made the least out of it, batting .158 over 19 at bats with the big league club. Has rare power for a second baseman, but needs to pick up his average and his walks for Billy Beane to take a second look at him.

Colin Curtis - Stuck with the Yankees Double-A affiliate Trenton Thunder for the time being. Just isn't spectacular at the plate, even though I guarantee he's still sparkling with the glove. Trenton hitting coach Tom Wilson described Colin's struggles this season:

“Just a little mechanical thing, it’s technical to get into. It’s just a little mechanical thing, and it was something that myself and our hitting coordinator talked about. Colin’s going to play in the major leagues at some point, whether it’s next year or the year after, I don’t know. Maybe it could be with somebody else, but he’s going to play in the big leagues."

Dustin Pedroia - The mainstream media can't get enough of this guy. Has one ring and is looking to add another this season, that is if the Red Sox don't blow it and miss the playoffs. Is currently the Red Sox emergency catcher. Displaying some power this season with 10 HR. Trained at API in the offseason, which obviously didn't include dance lessons:

Pac-10 Baseball Tournament Could Start by 2010

With Oregon starting to play under George Horton in 2009, there will be no excuse for the Pac-10 not to at least entertain the idea of holding an annual baseball tournament. Kendall Rogers of Rivals.com outlines some of the possible benefits of such a tournament, mainly highlighting fringe teams like Washington State who would have a better shot at the field of 64 with a decent showing in a post season tournament:

Washington, Oregon State and Washington State were snubbed from
the tournament in 2008, while California and Washington in 2007, and Washington and Washington State in 2006 are additional examples. By instituting a conference tournament, the Pac-10 would level the playing field with other power conferences.

"Come selection time, it's not hard to notice teams that get into the tournament because of how they play in their conference tournament," Marbut said. "If you're under .500 in our league, you're not going to get in. Having a conference tournament would only help teams in that regard."

Leake Shining for Team USA

Mike Leake, who has been playing on Team USA this summer, displayed what he is capable of at the plate today. Leake was one of 7 Americans to homer against Lithuania in a 30-1 route. Playing in Ostrava, Czech Republic, Leake had a 4 RBI game, 3 of them coming on his 1st home run of international play. Team USA is currently 17-0.

Leake got the start today at 3B over Fresno State's Tommy Mendonca, who was the toast of Omaha this year with his stellar play at third base. He continues to struggle in the field, with a fielding percentage of .885. Leake is hitting .261, but his best work by far has been on the mound, where he is 2-0 in 6 appearances (1 start), with a 0.90 ERA and a K/9 ratio of just a hair under 9.

Sun Devils in the Bigs Links

Ian Kinsler's hit streak ended as the Rangers were shut out yesterday against the Twins.

ESPN is known for covering the Red Sox a little too much. The good part is that means they have obligatory articles on Dustin Pedroia.

Jeff Larish just got sent back down to AAA Toledo.

Brooks Conrad and Travis Buck (Athletics AAA affiliate) led the Sacramento Rivercats to a 10-1 win last night over the Las Vegas 51's.

Conrad, Buck, Matt Spencer and Petey Paramore are a part of the work in progress Oakland A's.

Eric Sogard continues to dominate in A ball for the Padres, hitting at a .306 clip.

A DC sports blog thinks Zech Zinicola will be in the Nats bullpen by next season. He's made the jump from A to AAA just think season, and he could make the major league level by September.

Saw this on Deadspin the other day...check out Beau Vaughan's picture on MILB.com.

CJ Retherford is doing well in Winston-Salem (White Sox, A ball) with 15 homeruns this season. Nice picture of him at the top of the article.

Brett Wallace got to go to the All-Star game this year, being in town for the Golden Spikes Award Ceremony. The award, obviously, went to Buster Posey.

Seth Blair a Cape Cod All Star

If you would have told me that Seth Blair would be a Cape Cod All-Star and that Jason Kipnis would be struggling at the plate for the Cotuit Keetlers, I wouldn't have believed you. But Blair has turned it around since his freshman year struggles at ASU, with a 2.28 ERA and a 2-1 record in 4 starts, including a complete game shutout.

The big turnaround for Blair is attributed to his improved strikeout to walk ratio, which is at 3.6:1, which is infinitely better than the 1:1 ratio he posted for the Sun Devils this season in 9 appearances.

His last appearance is something that Sun Devil fans should be looking at for next season. Complete game 1 hitter, 10 K's. It looks like our pitching staff has a very promising #2 starter next season behind Mike Leake.

Kipnis Ends Cape Cod Slump

Jason Kipnis has been slumping this summer playing for the Cotuit Keetlers of the Cape Cod League. The 4th round pick by the San Diego Padres might have been trying to up his value through a good summer, but he might just be worn out. The guy played nearly every inning for the Sun Devils this season, then had to go right into the Cape Cod League.

That slump came to an end yesterday. From CapeCodTimes.com:

Cotuit 8, Wareham 3
WAREHAM — Jason Kipnis picked a good time for his first home run of the season. With Cotuit leading 3-2, Kipnis(Arizona State) lifted a three-run shot over the left-field fence in the fourth inning to give Cotuit a lead it didn't relinquish. Kipnis went 2 for 5 with two runs scored and three RBIs.

Kipnis is hitting .261 in the Cape this season with only 5 extra basehits. For the Sun Devils this season, Jason hit .371 with 16 HR.

Oregon State Baseball Players Get Jail Time

It's no Loren Wade, but needless to say it was probably a huge distraction this season.

From the Wenatchee World Online:

CORVALLIS, Ore. — Oregon State outfielder John Wallace and
former Beavers pitcher Anton Maxwell have been sentenced to 15 days in jail for
firing rifle bullets that struck a neighbor's house and car.

Maxwell, 22, and Wallace, 21, pleaded guilty in Benton County
Circuit Court to recklessly endangering another. Charges of criminal mischief
and unlawful use of a weapon were dropped.

"Let's call this what it was," Benton County Judge Locke
Williams said at Wednesday's hearing. "It was monumental
stupidity.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Disappointment Rant

(Photo Credit: Ralph Freso, EVT)

I guess it's good to see some real emotion out of our players after Murphy orchestrated a fake fight. Now let's see if other teams fall for him being a real baseball coach when he's on the job search, because it's just an act. Honestly, if Lopez down at U of A orchestrated something like this we would all be on Cactus Ranch, Sparky's Bullpen and the newspaper comment boards letting U of A have it. Arizona isn't a team that can give out much criticism right now, considering Jon Gaston just pulled off one of the dumbest moves ever by shushing the Miami crowd. Point being, the fake fight is the type of antic that you would want to see done down in Tucson so we can all laugh at it, and now, there's just major disappointment amongst our fans that Murphy would make a mockery of his own team.

This is far and away Pat Murphy's most talented team offensively, and he couldn't put it together enough to win 2 games against a regional 4 seed. This series wasn't even close. Fresno State whooped ASU, and they deserve all the credit for not folding after Mike Leake had one of his best outings of the season on Friday. Coach Mike Batesole led his group of 8 seniors and convinced these guys that they are among the best, while Murphy tells his players how much they suck.

Murphy threw his own players under the bus multiple times, like telling ESPN that Greg Bordes was "the worst shortstop in Division-I baseball." How about actually praising Greg for doing a great job at short this season since Marcel Champagnie and Mike Leake couldn't do a damn thing defensively for you, leaving Greg to have to come in and do mop up duty at the position all season. Oh yeah, and how about developing something that resembles an actual bullpen so you don't have to rely on Mike Leake to throw two days after tossing 118 pitches. Come to think of it, you do have a bullpen, and his name is Tommy Rafferty. You rode the 5th year senior all year and you leave Mike Leake in to give up that bomb to Susdorf when his arm is jello. Way to possibly ruin a kids arm and his chances to play for Team USA this summer. Good call.

Murph doesn't deserve all of the blame. Brett Wallace and Ike Davis choked in the final two games, combining to go 3 for 17 and 9 LOB. These guys aren't amateurs anymore, so I can rail on them a bit. They we're just as much a part of that stupid fight as Murphy was. Supposedly its part of tradition, as Jeff Larish and Travis Buck did the same thing a few years back to get the team fired up. The problem Jeff Larish and Travis Buck actually performed in the clutch with help from their teammates. The rest of this year's edition of the Sun Devils didn't need any firing up, they were getting on base more than enough times to get left on by Davis and Wallace, who we're having the two best offensive seasons witnessed under Murphy's tenure.

ASU had 15 players drafted, and our top five commitments got drafted by pick #42. Maybe its time for someone else to come in for the rebuidling effort so Murphy can go to a cushy SEC job, like Auburn. My first pick is Virginia's Brian O'Connor. He's taken Virginia to the tournament every season since he moved to UVA after being an assistant at Notre Dame. He's a very intelligent baseball coach who can develop a pitching staff, and his players seem to want to play for him, which is more than I can say for the man we got in the dugout right now.

It all makes you almost want to root for an SEC team.

CBB Review: Baseball 1 Win Away From Omaha

The Arizona State Sun Devils dispatched the Fresno State Bulldogs 12-4 in the first game of the Tempe Super Regional at Winkles Field-Packard Stadium at Brock Ballpark on Saturday night.
The Bulldogs got on the board in the top of the first inning but Arizona State answered that run in the bottom of the inning. Ryan Sontag hit a two run homer in the bottom of the third inning to put the Sun Devils up 3-1.

Read more on this from The College Baseball Blog

NMSU Head Coach Rocky Ward talks with CBB about Tempe Super Regional

As a part of their Super Regional Preview, The College Baseball Blog interviewed NMSU Coach Rocky Ward and got his thoughts on Fresno State's ability to pull the upset this weekend in Tempe:

Sam Wasson: What are Fresno State’s chances against the #3 national seed
Arizona State?
Rocky Ward: I think it’s good for them because they haven’t
played them. Arizona State has a lot of tradition but they have as much year to
year tradition against Fresno. They won’t know Fresno very well. I think that
Fresno will have a pretty decent advantage from that standpoint. Sometimes when
the teams don’t know each other very well the lower ranked team on paper has a
little bit of an advantage because sometimes they have a little bit more
motivation, they’re a little hungrier. It’s going to be the same type of things.
When you’ve got a lower ranked opponent playing at a host’s facility game one is
absolutely imperative. They have to win game one. If they win game one I think
it makes it a 50/50 shot for them.

Click here for the rest of the entry.

CBB Tempe Regional Thoughts on Day 2

From The College Baseball Blog

Bryan Young - (Tempe, AZ) – Who Is Mike Jones? The Arizona State version of Mike Jones is now the answer to a trivia question. A three run home run over the right field wall in the sixth inning complimented a couple of great catches in center field on Saturday night. But the question is, name several Arizona State athletes who have hit both a home run and caught a touchdown pass for the Sun Devils? [Thanks for the question TerryLee]

Aaron Baker looked great for Oklahoma with two home runs on the night. However the entire rest of the Sooners roster were only half as effective as Baker, with just the one other run between them all.

Unfortunately Carl Spackler has no “Cinderella story” left here in Tempe. After an inspirational performance on Friday night the Stony Brook Seawolves were eliminated during the day game. Head coach Matt Senk was quoted stating “Arizona State and Vanderbilt are tremendous teams and it was an honor to compete against them.” Well coach Senk, it was an honor to watch your team play. Your players and fans represented the America East conference well. Not Masters champions this year, but maybe you can pull off the miracle next year. [Caddyshack 1980].

For the rest of this entry, click here.

CBB Recap of Stony Brook vs. ASU

(Lisa Olson, East Valley Tribune)

While I'm covering the Cal State Fullerton regional for The College Baseball Blog, Brian Young of CBB has a full recap of yesterday's action:

Brian Young - (Tempe, AZ) -

Brett Wallace was huge for Arizona State, but Stony Brook would not give up
in a thrilling game that bounced back and forth all night Friday.

3,425 baseball fans enjoyed a great game on a marvelous night that featured
five lead changes before a thrilling end to a Stony Brook rally wrapped up the
game for Arizona State in the ninth.

Freshman Matt Newman started the game and looked good for ASU, but after
putting down the first five Stony Brook batters in order, the Seawolves put
together a two out rally in the second to tie the game. In the third
Stony Brook kept at it took the lead and made ASU go to the bullpen
first.

To read the rest of this entry, click here.

ESPN CWS Preview

ESPN does a quick preview of the top 8 seeds in Division I Baseball Tournament.



Kyle Peterson is selecting Rice to take home the title this year. Last year, he picked Arizona State to win the title, and we all know how that turned out.

Ranking Brett Wallace, Sabermetrically

Scott Bordow of the East Valley Tribune had a comprehensive piece on Brett Wallace's career in today's paper, chronicling his early success, failure last year in Omaha, and what he learned from that experience to to make him one of the best ASU has ever seen. Wallace has had a monster year, but I wanted to see where this season ranks statistically along side former Sun Devils over the last decade. Since the statistics on the official site of the Sun Devils only go back to 1997, I compared him against players since that season. I used Bill James' basic Runs Created Formula [(H+BB)*TB]/(AB+BB), and divided that by games played to find Runs Created Per Game:

Ike Davis '08 - 1.53
Brett Wallace '08 - 1.49
Mitch Jones '00 - 1.47
Don McKinley '97 - 1.46
Casey Myers '00 - 1.41
Brett Wallace '07 - 1.38
Andrew Binebrink '99 - 1.36
Willie Bloomquist '99 - 1.35
Dustin Pedroia '04 - 1.22

So, according to theory, Ike Davis and Brett Wallace are having the two best single season performances in recent Sun Devil history. How do they compare to some of the top names in college baseball this season in terms of runs created per game?

Buster Posey (Florida State) - 1.85
Jeremie Tice (College of Charleston) - 1.69
Gordon Beckham (Georgia) 1.56
Ike Davis - 1.53
Brett Wallace - 1.49
Yonder Alonso (Miami) - 1.44
Justin Smoak (South Carolina) - 1.43

You can't argue much with Bordow's claim of Wallace being one of the best ASU has ever seen. You could say the same though about Ike Davis, who has been just as productive over the past three seasons as Wallace. Either way, its obvious this team has the offensive production to make a statement in Omaha this year, as long as the pitching staff can be solid. Runs created and other sabermetric stats are used more and more by teams to evaluate talent. Both Davis and Wallace are slated to be taken in the first round of the MLB draft in a couple weeks, and Brett has even been blogging about the road leading up to the draft on MLB.com.

Baseball Commentary: Two Weekends Left Til Regionals

After attending most of this weekend's sweep against Loyola Marymount, I have some thoughts on the state of our team.

First off, Greg Bordes should have gotten the start at shortstop last night in place of Mike Leake. Defensively, Leake (3 errors in two games, plus a botched double play opportunity last night) hasn't been much better than Marcel Champagnie and also could have used the day off. Bordes came into the game late and immediately made a play on a ball up the middle that was executed like he's an everyday shortstop. On the basepaths, Leake was indecisive, getting thrown out by about 5 feet on a steal attempt. I heard one lady behind me utter, "Why is Murphy having Leake steal a base? He's our best pitcher. If he gets jams an ankle, we're screwed." Growing up with an overprotective mom, this comment sort of made me cringe, but I still think that Leake could have used the day off against a weak Loyola Marymount team to get Bordes in for a full game. With that being said, Leake will be pitching and playing the field quite a bit this summer when he plays for Team USA.

Josh Satow got a great boost in confidence Sunday with a dominant performance over LMU. After being dominant last year, Satow has been less than stellar in his last few starts, getting shelled by UCLA, Cal State Fullerton, Oregon State and Stanford. Seth Blair and Stephen Sauer are shaky at best out there right now, combining to give up 12 hits over 6 innings to this Loyola Marymount squad, somehow only surrendering three runs. Mike Leake is our only dominant start right now, even though Matt Newman had a great performance against Wichita State and could see some more time on the mound if our staff continues to struggle as Pac-10 play comes to a close.

Tommy Rafferty continues to be consistent in relief, notching his 11th win of the season last night. He came in to the game in the 7th inning, pitching two perfect innings, striking out four. Then with one out in the ninth LMU pinch hitter Brent Mendoza hit a bloop single into left, Kyle Brule came into the game and subsequently let Mendoza and what seemed like the entire Lions roster cross home plate, giving up six runs in a third of an inning on two three-run homeruns by Sean Dovel and Angelo Sonco. I give Pat Murphy credit for getting Brule into the game to see some action before the Washington and Arizona weekends, but with a WHIP hovering around 2.0, you've got to think that he was due to have a bad outing.

Jason Kipnis is getting his second wind. He had six hits this weekend last and had a great catch crashing into the wall in center on Sunday. His hustle is giving this team its spark right now. Last night in the seventh inning while on 2nd base, Kipnis advanced to third base after the third baseman fielded a Petey Paramore ground ball and threw to first. Both runners were safe on the play, and then subsequently perfected the double steal during Greg Bordes' at bat. In the bottom of the 8th inning, Kipnis tripled. The offense is clicking after a 16 hit performance, but at the same time, our pitching staff gave up 18 hits to a weak Loyola Marymount team. Kiel Roling and Ryan Sontag are proving to be very reliable bats to supplement Wallace, Davis, Kipnis and Paramore, which is something that Buck, Larish and Curtis didn't have in 2005.

Ike Davis should be back this weekend to face some tough Washington pitchers. The only question is how to best utilize Kiel Roling, who had a superb weekend offensively and defensively. Roling will be splitting time between DH and first with Davis coming back. With Ike back in the lineup and Brett Wallace continuing his success at the plate (16th and 17th homeruns this weekend), the Sun Devils should take at least two of three from Washington, no matter who is starting on the mound for the Sun Devils in our last home series of the season (before regionals, of course). We're ranked #3 by most polls right now behind Miami and North Carolina right now, but the fact that we're 12-3 against top 25 teams gives us an edge heading into the tournament. The Sun Devils are a game up on the Cardinal in the Pac-10 standings, who have to play the same competition as ASU, with the only exception being that all six of their remaining games are on the road. That being said, if ASU takes care of business as usual they should be on their way to clinching another Pac-10 title while playing the Wildcats.

Photo credit: Ralph Freso, East Valley Tribune

For your weekend enjoyment

All the talk has been about the cheerleading program being "cut." At least its something to talk about during the slow offseason, but honestly, who cares. Think about it, most cheerleaders who were any good in high school were pipelined directly into the Greek system anyways.

On to stuff that actually matters...

The time of the Georgia game has officially been set to 5:00 PM, on ABC.

Start your tailgates at 2:30. No word on if Georgia QB Matthew Stafford (left) will partake.

If you want to get up to date on the state of Georgia football, check out this video from Dawgpost.com. Be warned, accents are very similar to the KKK meeting from Harold and Kumar 2.




Recruiting news this week has been all about the verbal commitment from Montana QB Brock Osweiler. Osweiler had already given a verbal to Gonzaga for basketball, but felt so strongly about joining the Arizona State program that he was literally losing sleep over it. If you're wondering if he could rescind his commitment a second time, read what he told the Billings Gazette about talking to other football programs:

"Florida State was scheduled to come, (as were) Alabama, UCLA, Washington State, and Stanford and none of that bothers me anymore. I'm going to call those guys and let them know where I'm at and let them know they can move on. That's how solid I feel about this."

Pretty confident we've got another "quarterback of the future."

Josh Barrett talks to Sporting News Radio about his college career and transition to the Broncos. Also, Barrett's former partner at safety Zach Catanese was signed by the Jets.

Baseball takes a half game lead over Stanford in the Pac-10 with a 10-5 win over UCLA. Kipnis (2 HR), Champagnie, Sontag, Wallace and Paramore had 3 hits a piece. Devils Digest has a great comprehensive report on the performance. Dan Zeiger of the Trib had a piece Friday on the road Ryan Sontag has taken to get to this point. The Sun Devils are 11-5 in conference with 8 games left to play. ASU radio announcer Tim Healey talked ASU baseball today with Calling All Sports.

Recap on Last Nights Baseball Action - "Let's Play 10"

by Bryan Young of TheCollegeBaseballBlog.com

(Fullerton, CA) – It required extra innings on Wednesday night at Goodwin Field, but this time it was Arizona State that pushed across a pair of runs in the final inning to defeat Cal State Fullerton 10 to 8, and earn a split in the two game mid-week series. There was plenty of offense early, but as the temperature cooled on Wednesday night, so did the bats. After ASU pushed across a single run in the top of the sixth to tie the game up, it was nothing but zeros until the top of the tenth. After two fly balls to the outfield retired the first two Sun Devils, a walk and a pair of plunked batters loaded the bases up for sophomore Raoul Torrez. Having struck out already four times earlier in the evening, Raoul didn’t wait and slapped the first pitch he saw through the middle, bringing home the winning as well as an insurance run.

To read more on this entry, click here.

news from around "al gore"

Well, time to resurrect good old PFN. With little to no news on this site lately, you would think Sundevils have nothing to cheer for, when in fact, you couldn't be further from the truth. The beginning of the Baseball season was always one of my favorite times of the sporting year at ASU. I mean, the history and tradition of our baseball team is arguably better than any of our other sports, plus we're ranked #1 and this is our second best start in school history. No better place to go get in a few well placed creative, loud, and smart heckles out of your system than 201 S Packard Dr. Just don't cheer too loud or the security will kick you out and you'll have to write a three page paper on the topic of "why rules are important." Yes I am a little bitter... assholes.

ITO: "Will the defendant rise"

CROW: "Me the judge, jury, and prosecutor find the defendant, Nick Saia, guilty of sitting in an empty seat at packard stadium not intended for students. You are here by sentenced to 6 months behavioral probation and required to complete a 3 page paper on why rules are important."

apparently I may have not been the only one breaking rules at the time... Lets hope I was.
ASU LOOKING INTO RECRUITING, ACADEMIC VIOLATIONS [espn.com]

Arizona State has begun an internal investigation into allegations of academic fraud and recruiting violations in its top-ranked baseball program.

Former player and team manager Mikel Moreno told the East Valley Tribune he had made the allegations to university officials, who launched the investigation.

-moreno

let the rumor train start rolling...

narc!

one more piece of bad news... a new bachelor is back and ready to make the rounds. He recently reserved a table at axis radius and two bottles of Grey Goose

(deep breath)
now the good news

Lute might not like what he sees when he comes back. "MY EMPIRE IS CRUMBLING!" His team is now the #2 team in Arizona and his rivals, (us) received some great news today: James Harden will return for his sophmore season. [EVT]

Lets keep our fingers crossed for a good PAC10 tournament showing this weekend and a possible selection to the big tourney. WWHSD? whatever DE does... dominate