(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)
Opening Night is fast approaching, beginning what some might say is a make-or-break season for head coach Tracy Smith at the helm of Arizona State baseball. One crucial aspect of Smith’s quest to bring a national championship back to the Valley of the Sun has been filled: the role of pitching coach.
Mike Cather, who spent the last decade coaching and scouting at various levels of Major League Baseball, most recently as the Miami Marlins minor league pitching coordinator in 2016, was brought on in July to right the ship that is the ASU pitching staff.
Smith’s pitching coach during his first two seasons at ASU and his final year at Indiana in 2014, Brandon Higelin, was relieved of his duties in late December 2016. Smith took the role upon himself in addition to his head coaching title for the 2017 season.
In a season that saw multiple players either leave or be dismissed from the program, along with the end of college baseball’s longest streak of consecutive 30-win seasons (54), ASU’s team ERA for the year ballooned to 5.54. In Smith’s first two years in the desert with Higelin guiding the staff, the team ERA finished at 4.19 and 4.03 in 2016 and 2015 respectively.
In his first foray into college coaching, Cather brings invaluable experience and expertise from storied organizations such as the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs to the bullpens and mound of Phoenix Municipal Stadium.
Much is made about how vast the jump from college baseball to the professional ranks, but for Cather, making that jump down the ladder has been perhaps his favorite aspect of the job so far.
“I enjoy the fact that I have the same players consistently,” Cather said. “In the minor leagues, if you had a guy that had some success, he was gone mid-season. So you don’t really get a chance to build those relationships as closely as this. I think from my standpoint and a coaching standpoint, it’s the relationships that’s the biggest part and the thing that makes you the most happy.”
Senior Eli Lingos, the incumbent Friday night starter after seizing the role to begin last season, spoke about the impact that Cather has had on him personally through fall practices and into the preseason.
“[We’ve been working on] getting over my front side and keeping the ball down better,” Lingos said. “I was able to throw strikes last year but a lot of the times they weren’t quality strikes, so he’s just been focusing on pounding the bottom of the zone.
Along with trying to improve Lingos’ mechanics, Cather is also trying to upgrade the Temecula, California native’s repertoire, with the addition of a slider. Cather praised Lingos for how he has taken on the task of throwing the pitch effectively.
“I think his mindset on the pitch has improved,” ASU’s pitching coach said. “I think a lot of times when guys are throwing breaking pitches, they’re trying to see the break. And I want to try to get away from that. I want him to try to spin the ball as fast as he can, aggressively. I think the tightness and the late action to the pitch has been significantly improved, and I think there’s more swing-and-miss there.”
Another apprentice of Cather’s that hopes to take the next step this season is junior left-hander Connor Higgins. After tallying only 12.2 innings as a freshman, Higgins saw time in 19 games in 2017, finishing with 39 innings and an ERA of 3.92. He was one of only three ASU pitchers with at least 10 innings pitched to have a season earned run average under four.
Having an incredible frame to work with, standing at 6’5” and weighing in at 240 lbs., his mechanics and motion are crucial to his success on the mound.
“Connor was one of those guys that really didn’t use the most important aspect of his body which is his core and his legs,” Cather said. “Last year, he’s got a great strong arm but he’s had some triceps soreness due to poor mechanics. Where he would throw a pitch and then pop up, we’re just staying through the pitch a little bit longer, longer deceleration, less strain on the arm.”
Higgins, who was drafted by the Texas Rangers in the 35th round of last year’s draft but chose to return to ASU, applauded Cather for the improvement that he sees in himself leading into 2018, where Higgins figures to factor greatly in the Sun Devils’ late-inning relief formula.
“Mike has really made me more of an athlete, if that makes sense,” Higgins said. “I’m really feeling more fluid with everything I’m doing, instead of just hucking it as hard as I can every time. He’s really making me feel more fluid and everything is going towards the plate… My arm feels the best its felt in years.”
The man who will ultimately bear the brunt of the outcome of Cather’s success is Smith. As he heads into his fourth season manning this program while finally having an entire roster of his own players, Smith understands the importance of having Cather on board to be the pitching coach, allowing Smith to focus on leading the team as a whole.
“[Cather] knows what he’s doing. He’s coming from ten years of professional baseball, and he’s going to put his stamp on it,” Smith said. “I saw some of our initial bullpens already coming back and I said to Mike, ‘If you could see where we were last year at this time, compared to those bullpens I just witnessed, let’s keep moving in that direction.’ So I think he’s going to make us all better.”
