Clemson baseball: MLB alumni – Strider throwing flames, Beer optioned

Clemson baseball is down to five alumni in the Major Leagues with the news that Seth Beer was optioned to AAA Reno last weekend.

Beer got off to a hot start including hitting a walk-off home run in the Diamondbacks opener and was batting .400 as of April 16, but hit a horrific slump, going 2 for 42, including 0 for 21 to end April, before being sent down.

On the season for Arizona, Beer is batting .210, with a home run and nine RBI in 81 at-bats.

Meanwhile, over on the World Champion Atlanta Braves, Spencer Strider is still lighting up radar guns and opposing batters.

Strider is 0-1 with a 2.61 ERA in 9 appearances across 20.2 innings, giving up only 12 hits and walking 9 to date.

Strider has become the darling of the internet for his triple digit fastball.

https://twitter.com/PitchingNinja/status/1527018657708122113?s=20&t=ExgkPiPKqQer__eQMK_0yg

It’s been a remarkable ascent for Strider, a fourth round pick who had Tommy John Surgery at Clemson and pitched only 94 innings in the minor leagues before getting a shot with the Braves last September and never looking back.

Strider pitched in 26 games at Clemson from 2018 to 2019, starting 10, going 5-2 with a 4.71 ERA in 63 innings before being injured.

After being selected by the Braves in 2020 Strider did not pitch in the minors that season due to the pandemic wiping out the minor league season.

Beer, of course, is Clemson royalty batting .370 with 18 home runs and 70 RBI as a freshman in 2016, and totaling a .322 average with 56 home runs and 177 RBI in three seasons with Clemson before being selected by the Houston Astros in the first round of the 2018 MLB Draft.

The Diamondbacks are in a rebuilding mode and the odds are Beer will get another shot this season to prove he can hit at the big league level with the team before it’s all said and done.

For Strider on the other hand, things are looking brighter than ever, as rumors begin to swirl that the long reliever could be shifted to the starting rotation soon.

From the depths of Tommy John surgery just a few short years ago, to a quick trip through the minors and on to the Atlanta Braves, one gets the sense that this is just the beginning for Spencer Strider.