Clemson baseball: The quiet brilliance of Max Wagner’s season

I’ve taken to calling him the “Green Bay Bambino” or some version of that name, which incorporates the unlikely combination of a young man from Green Bay, Wisconsin crushing pitches for Clemson baseball.

Wherever Max Wagner goes, baseballs leave.  Usually on a line and in a hurry. The ball jumps off his bat and perhaps even more enticing than that, it usually SOUNDS good leaving the park.

Wagner’s batting .358 and leads the Tigers in home runs (13) and RBI (39) and is 8 points away from the teams triple crown, trailing only the .366 average of Cooper Ingle.

While I don’t have the updated stats, as recently as last Saturday Wagner was batting .324 with runners in scoring position.

Wagner’s amazing .780 slugging percentage is twelth best in the NCAA and his .494 OBP is good for 43rd.

When you put those two numbers together you get an OPS of 1.274 and when you compare it to every other D1 baseball player, Wagner’s OPS+ is 160, meaning Wagner is performing at 60% over the average D1 batter.

For reference, there is one active MLB player with a higher career OPS+ and that, of course, is Mike Trout at 174.

It’s obviously not apples to apples as Trout is facing Major League pitching, but at the same time Wagner is doing it in one of the better college baseball conferences.

While I don’t know for sure, it seems like outside of Clemson, South Carolina, no one knows or talks about Wagner.  Heck, even within those that cover Clemson baseball he’s often listed under “also having a good season”.

Caden Grice’s size and freshman season make him more recognizable and Cooper Ingle quickly became a fan favorite.

But there’s a guy quietly going about his business, mashing baseballs, home and away, win or lose, when it’s cold or hot – Max Wagner.

Oh yeah, Wagner plays a quality third base, too, making only 5 errors in 33 games at the hot corner in 93 chances.

The Green Bay Bambino is quietly putting together an All-American type season.