Clemson Baseball: Inside the Numbers - Boston College Series

Clemson used the power of Seth Beer and Chris Williams along with the relief pitching of Travis Marr and friends to defeat Furman 10-5 Tuesday and move to 19-6 on the season.

Beginning today is a three game Thursday-Saturday ACC series with Boston College as the 9-13 Eagles, 4-5 in the ACC, travel to Clemson and when the series is complete the halfway point of the regular season will be upon us.

Resume 

Tuesday I mentioned the Louisville series win will look better as the season goes on and that's already turned out to be so.  The Cardinals are now top 50 in RPI, giving the Tigers a .500 record against teams in that category and enhancing their RPI and SOS. 

Tale of the Tape

Clemson now ranks 226th (of 297) in batting average, putting the Tigers in the bottom quartile in the category.  Considering a .245 team batting average to date and 0 returning starts on the mound, it's remarkable this team is 19-6.

After one appearance in the Tigers first 22 games, Alex Schnell has now seen action in 3 straight and done a fantastic job. I'd be remiss if I didn't point out Marr who, after missing all but one inning last season and taking a medical redshirt, has given the Tigers 20 1/3 incredibly valuable innings, not to mention two wins, in relief.

Marr worked out of a bases loaded, 0 out jam against Furman without giving up a run with the score 8-5 and on the season has allowed only 4 of 14 inherited runners to score on the season.

Speaking of stranding inherited runners, Carson Spiers has allowed only 1 of 17 (5.9%) to cross home plate.

Pitching

Leading Off

Slumping

There was some slump relief on Tuesday as Seth Beer had a couple of hits, including a grand slam and the Tigers totaled 10 hits.  Still, Monte Lee felt the need to shake things up and start Adam Renwick, who had not played at all in the first 24 games, and put starting pitcher Sam Weatherly at DH.  

Yes, it was a mid-week game and sometimes those result in different lineups, but these games are a valuable part of a resume when being considered for hosting regionals and supers and these moves tell me that Lee will think outside the box in an attempt to get his lineup going.

I certainly don't want to pick on a guy when he's struggling, but no one has had a tougher time than Bryce Teodosio who has struck out 17 of his last 31 plate appearances vs. right-handed pitchers and 10 of his last 17 times against left-handed pitchers. During that span, Teodosio is 2 for 28 vs. righties (.071) and 2 for 17 (.117) against lefties.  

Remarkably of Teodosio's four hits in his last 45 at-bats, two have been home runs.

Batting

Quality At Bats

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

There was sloppy defensive play Tuesday, but Jordan Greene turned in a gem and saved at least two runs with Marr on the hill. 

The Renwick experiment at first base lasted less than six innings because first base is probably the most important defensive spot on the field in college baseball and Clemson's defense is not the same without Chris Williams there. 

That's not a knock on Renwick, Patrick Cromwell or anyone else who plays first, it just that Williams is that good and could easily be the difference between a win and a loss.

Actual vs. Expected Record

Clemson is 8-2 in 1 run games on the season, and the five run victory on Tuesday moved the expected season record to 39-17.

Upcoming Schedule

The next two ACC series are very winnable, and Clemson has a couple of top-notch mid-week games sprinkled in during early April, before the Hurricanes trek to Doug Kingsmore Stadium mid-month.

Prior to the season I pointed to 8 important non-conference games (South Carolina x 3, Coastal Carolina x 2 and Dallas Baptist x 3) and suggested a 5-3 record would be good.  The Tigers are currently 5-2 in those games with Coastal coming to Clemson on Tuesday.

I neglected to include Georgia (19-6, #12 RPI) who the Tigers face twice in the coming weeks, once in North Augusta (April 10) and once in Athens (April 17). 

*Baseball resume information via WarrenNolan.com.