Clemson Baseball: 3 Tigers listed in Top 200 College Baseball pitchers

There is much unknown about Erik Bakich’s first Clemson Baseball team, which kicks off the 2023 season next Friday at Doug Kingsmore Stadium against Binghamton.

Bakich has said himself that this is a deep and talented team, one he believes is more deep and talented than the Michigan team he led to the College World Series final in 2019.

While that certainly perked my ears up, I’m trying to keep an open mind and stay even-keeled headed into the season.

As I’ve said a few times previously, I have no idea whether the team will end up 14-42 or 42-14.

In my mind, pitching was a big issue under Monte Lee’s reign.  The Tigers hurlers generally dominated early in the season against weaker non-conference opponents, but struggled as the season went on.

One of the most notable issues was starters failing to go deep into games, taxing bullpens and putting relievers in high-stress situations repeatedly.

Recently, D1Baseball.com released a list of the Top 200 Starting Pitchers and 3 Tigers made the list.

Barlow appeared in 17 games, starting 15 last season and certainly showed flashes at times, but finished the season 2-4 with a 4.84 ERA.

Grice pitched only 6 innings last season going 2-0 with a 3.00 ERA, with 7 strikeouts and 7 walks.  From my point of view, the stuff is there, but Grice is going to need innings, which he failed to receive in his first two seasons at Clemson.

Ammons was electric out of the bullpen at times, striking out 40 in only 27.1 innings across 25 appearances, all out of the bullpen.

Word out Clemson is Ammons is being developed as a starter, but no roles have been defined per Bakich, at least as of last week.

Clemson baseball had 3 starting pitchers listed in the top 200 in college baseball, but questions remain

All three are intriguing for different reasons.

Can Barlow harness those flashes consistently?

Will the staff stick with Grice on the mound long enough to let him develop?

Will Ammons stuff translate into a starter role that can provide length?

Typically when there are a lot of questions about a team it’s a bad omen for the season ahead, but that’s not how I’m feeling about this team for some reason.

There’s a 0 in the loss column and I’m feeling optimistic that we’ll see marked improvement in this team.

I’m not sure how that will translate to the win/loss column, but I’m willing to give it some time.