Clemson Baseball: Team slowly coming into focus as season approaches

In my 116 years of being a Clemson Baseball fan, I’m hard-pressed to recall one that I’m more excited about than the one that begins in a couple of days.

My line is worn out at this point, but it still stands: I’m not sure if they’ll be 14-42 or 42-14, but I’m excited for Erik Bakich’s team’s debut.

Last week, Casey Cregan and I did a Clemson Baseball preview with Jason Priester of AllClemsonTigers.com and previewed the 2023 season.

You can hear the anticipation in our voices, kind of like three kids on Christmas morning, wondering what’s under the tree.

From what we’ve read (and heard/seen in Jason’s case) we believed that former closer Ryan Ammons was headed for the Friday starter’s role and that appears to be the direction things are headed.

"Bakich said they moved Ryan Ammons from the bullpen to the rotation to be a weekend guy and he anticipates Ammons will start. Not official but a pretty big hint he’ll be the Friday guy.Bakich isn’t revealing the entire weekend plan until he meets with the team first."

We also talked about freshman Tristan Smith, who Jason believes has great potential as a true freshman.

After the show it was speculated that Smith could be the Sunday guy, but apparently that’s not the case, at least to begin the season.

"Bakich mentioned freshman pitcher Tristan Smith as a guy who could be a weekend guy at some point but it sounds like he won’t begin the year in that role."

Finally, some not so good news.  We also talked about the log jam in the field and in the lineup and when a center fielder not named Will Taylor was mentioned I asked a question that no one could answer.

It may have been answered today.

Clemson Baseball has a deep and talented squad, but Will Taylor starts the season at less than 100%

While that stinks for Taylor and hurts the team’s depth to some degree, Bakich has said this roster is deeper and more talented than his Michigan team that made it to the College World Series final in 2019.

I don’t think anyone is expecting that this season, but what a ride that would be.

Things will become much clearer over the weekend, but for now the bits and pieces of information are coming out and we’re beginning to get a little more focus on what the team will look like as Friday approaches.