Clemson Baseball - Inside the Numbers for 15-1 Tigers

Clemson is off to a 15-1 start (3-0 in the ACC) heading into Tuesday's game against the Charleston Southern Buccaneers (6-11) of the Big South Conference.

Very Early Resume 

While it's never too early for a glance at the resume, the information below should be balanced with the knowledge that the Tigers are 3 games into a tough 30 game ACC schedule. 

Still, it's nice to see the number 1 beelow the RPI column:

This early in the season RPI and strength of schedules tend to fluctuate wildly from game to game and week to week and the RPI gods gave the Tigers a ton of credit for beating a Georgia Tech team that may or may not be as good as their current number 9 RPI reflects.

I mentioned both Carson Spiers and Travis Marr in this space on Friday and they both deserve another mention.  With 5 games in what ended up being 5 days it would have been easy to exhaust a pitching staff and end up in 13-10 slugfests.  Not this team. Not this year.  

Spiers earned a win and 2 saves last week and Marr started and lasted 5 innings Tuesday, then threw 3 innings of relief in Saturday's second game giving him 8 innings on the week.

There was also an encouraging outing by Spencer Strider on Saturday and Strider's an arm the Tigers may need down the line.

Whatever Clemson is paying Andrew See isn't enough.  The Tigers came into the season with 0 returning starts from 2017 and the weekend starters have combined for: 63 innings pitched, 52 hits, 52 strikeouts, 10 walks, 2.14 ERA and a 0.98 WHIP. Caveats are important here as there are big hitting opponents to come, but through 4 starts apiece these guys have been remarkable.

Pitching

Jacob Hennessy remains unhittable the first time through the order and Brooks Crawford and Jake Higginbotham have been pretty good, too, which means the Tigers have had a great chance to get early leads.

Leading Off

Georgia Tech only scored 1 run all weekend in an inning where the leadoff batter made an out.  It's really a simple formula: Get the first guy out. 

If anyone had forgotten how powerful Seth Beer can be, look no further than the bombs he blasted last weekend.  Beer puts fear into opponents and he should.  Just when you wonder if the guy is going to "struggle" (for him) for the entire year, he makes it look like Little League out there, hitting homers at will.

Bryce Teodosio had a couple of bombs over the weekend, too, but not much else except strikeouts.  Here's hoping he can swing his way out of it as he's excellent defensively and obviously has pop in his bat when he makes contact.

Batting

Quality At Bats

Patrick Cromwell takes the lead in this category, which is quite remarkable.  Many wondered about Cromwell in the 3 spot, but it appears Monte Lee knew exactly what he was doing. 

This metric is calculated different ways by different teams and at times can be subjective depending on who is measuring the at-bat.  The goal was to capture as much data as possible to better understand decisions made by the coaching staff.

Defense

The infield defense has been steady and at times outstanding, though I'm reserving judgement on Cromwell at first until I gather more evidence.  I completely understand and agree with Chris Williams at catcher, but wonder if that will have residual effects on the infield defense at some point. 

Actual vs. Expected Record

Another 1 run game Friday means Clemson is now 7-1 record in 1 run games on the season.  "Luck" has been on Clemson's side to some extent and that's reflected in the numbers below.  

Upcoming Schedule

*Baseball resume information via WarrenNolan.com.