Iowa baseball adds Creighton transfer Anthony Watts

The Iowa Hawkeyes‘ offseason retooling continues. Iowa added Creighton right-handed pitcher Anthony Watts via the NCAA transfer portal.

Originally a product of Waukee Northwest, Watts makes his return to the Hawkeye State with three years of eligibility remaining. In his lone season at Creighton, Watts made eight starts across 14 overall appearances. He compiled a 2-3 record with a 5.15 ERA with 26 strikeouts against 25 walks.

“I will be transferring to the University of Iowa to complete my final 3 years of eligibility. Go Hawks,” Watts wrote in his Twitter announcement.

In his senior season at Waukee Northwest, Watts registered a 9-1 record with a 1.20 ERA, 0.92 WHIP, .167 opponents batting average and 121 strikeouts in 62 innings pitched. He also threw the first no-hitter in school history and a 16-strikeout no-hitter without a walk. Those types of numbers and performances earned him Iowa Pitcher of the Year, first-team All-State and first-team All-Conference in the Central Iowa Metro League.

Per On3’s Kyle Huesmann, Watts chose Iowa over offers from TCU, Washington State and Baylor. The 6-foot-4, 175 pound righty joins recent transfer portal additions Brant Hogue from Oklahoma State and Reece Beuter from Dallas Baptist.

“I want to come in and help the team out any way I can. They see a weekend spot wide open and think I have a shot to earn that role. However, there is a lot of high leverage innings to fill in the bullpen,” Watts told Huesmann of his potential role with Iowa.

He also shared a little bit about his pitching arsenal with Huesmann.

Anthony throws a fastball/sinker that sits in the low 90’s, but reaches as high as 95 mph. He says his best pitch is his slider (85-86), but he also has a changeup (80-82). He plans to spend the offseason improving both of his offspeed pitches. According to D1Baseball advanced stats, opponents hit .272 on balls in plays against Watts, while 47.3% of balls in play went for ground balls. – Huesmann, Hawkeye Report.

Watts is the third transfer portal addition for Iowa since the 2023 season ended. He joins Oklahoma State left-handed transfer pitcher Brant Hogue and Dallas Baptist right-handed transfer pitcher Reece Beuter. Hogue made just three appearances last season with Oklahoma State before a partial UCL tear ended his season with the Cowboys.

Before that, Hogue tossed 59 1/3 innings with the Iowa Western Reivers, surrendering just 11 earned runs to post a 1.67 ERA across 13 starts and 14 overall appearances. Hogue ended the 2022 season with a perfect 6-0 record and he racked up 93 strikeouts against just 16 walks. His strikeouts per nine innings while at Iowa Western was 14.11. Hogue had one complete game performance as well.

Beuter made 15 appearances with the Patriots, compiling a 4.86 ERA across 16 2/3 innings of work. The 6-foot-1, 196 pound redshirt junior struck out 15 and walked six.

The trio of Watts, Hogue and Beuter join a list of newcomers that will be hoping to build upon one of the best seasons in Hawkeye history.

Iowa also signed right-handed pitcher Sam Hart out of Indian Hills Community College in November and Ganon Archer out of Kirkwood Community College in December. Here’s a look at the rest of Iowa’s 11-man signing class from November.

Iowa ended the 2023 season with a record-tying number of wins, finishing with a 44-16 mark and a regional final appearance against Indiana State.

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