Clemson’s baseball team is less than a month from playing its first game of the 2022 season, and the Tigers are still looking for an answer to their most pressing question heading into the new campaign.
Who will make up the weekend rotation?
That’s what Clemson coach Monte Lee and his staff will be working to nail down once the Tigers begin team practices Friday in preparation for their season opener Feb. 18 against Indiana at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. Lee said he’s still evaluating six primary candidates for those three weekend spots, though a familiar name is leading the pack.
Right-hander Mack Anglin is once again in line to be the Tigers’ Friday night starter after taking over that role last season as a redshirt freshman. Despite his 2-6 record, Anglin was solid in his first season as a weekend starter, posting a 3.99 earned run average while allowing 48 hits and striking out 75 in 56 ⅓ innings. The 6-foot-4, 220-pounder limited opponents to a .227 average.
It was good enough for Anglin to be taken by the Washington Nationals in the 13th round of the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft over the summer, but Anglin decided to return to school in an effort to improve his stock. Anglin went on to have three strong starts in the Cape Cod League for the Wareham Gatemen, hurling 12 ⅔ innings without allowing an earned run while striking out 16 and walking just three.
“Mack has dominant stuff,” Lee said. “Has a chance to be a top 3 round draft pick type of guy, but he needs to have that Sam Weatherly type of junior year, that transition from bullpen guy to being a dominant Game 1 guy. That’s kind of what we envision with Mack. Mack has a chance to be that guy, but we need him to take that next step in terms of consistency. So Mack definitely, I would say right now, would be the frontrunner to be our No. 1 starter.”
While things get a little more fluid after that, Lee said he feels “pretty confident” that another third-year sophomore, Nick Hoffman, will join Anglin in the weekend rotation. Hoffman went back and forth as a starter (four appearances) and reliever (13) a season ago, recording a 3.83 ERA in 49 ⅓ innings. The right-hander pounded the strike zone with an 8-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
Perhaps the stiffest competition will be for the third and final spot. Lee mentioned fellow sophomores Geoffrey Gilbert, Ricky Williams and Nick Clayton and junior Jackson Lindley as the other pitchers vying for their place in the rotation.
Should one of them earn it, it would be a shift in roles. Gilbert, Williams and Lindley were primarily relievers last season. Of the trio’s 52 combined appearances, only two were starts (one apiece for Clayton and Williams).
“We need Nick Clayton to be a guy that can be in the mix on the weekends,” Lee said.
As for Lindley, Lee said the 6-4 right-hander is “much, much improved” after yielding 12 earned runs in a small sample size last season (4 ⅓ innings). Lee is also high on the potential of Williams, who was limited to just seven innings in six appearances last season.
“Ricky’s got electric stuff,” Lee said. “He was up to 95 (miles per hour) in the fall. Really good breaking ball. Ricky is going to be in the mix as a weekend guy.”
True freshman Billy Barlow is someone else who could compete to be a midweek starter if not Clemson’s Sunday starter, Lee said. Regardless who ultimately wins those jobs, the group will try to help the Tigers rebound from a subpar season on the mound. Clemson’s pitching staff finished last season with a collective 5.00 ERA.
“When you look at the teams that, at least that I’ve coached, have been successful, successful teams are consistent. And consistency starts on the pitching side,” Lee said. “I think being able to have a weekend rotation that’s consistent and solidified throughout the course of the year is pretty dang important.”
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