Player Development

Jun 1, 2025, 10:56 AM

I've seen a lot of comments about player development under Bakich, and I was curious to see how much 'development' has or has not taken place. Now I don't have exact recruiting details and timelines because CBB is not as prevalent as CFB or basketball, but I think I have the information mostly correct. We saw with Monte that after 3 years is when the team started to falter, going from hosting regionals to making a regional to not even making the postseason period. This is year three of Bakich, and every year so far Clemson has hosted regional play. The results ultimately have been disappointing so far, but the team has gotten much better since Bakich's hire.

Looking at the hitters, we have 3 guys currently in the lineup who were recruited as freshman by Erik Bakich, those being Purify, Crighton, and Wentworth. Only 4 specifically this year have played any significant time, if you add McCladdie to the list. Of the 4 that have played, only 2 have had over 100 plate appearances. Monte still has a couple of his guys hitting, with Cannarella and Jarrell being the two (with Bissetta potentially being the 3rd). I think next year, we will start to see more of EB's players in the lineup, and by the end of 2027, we will have a good idea of how the team will perform. Wentworth has shown promise, Purify and Crighton both improved their OPS's, and McCladdie came out of nowhere this year to be the best statistical hitting RF we saw. The transfers underperformed outside of Listi, which is really what took this team to the floor of what they could accomplish. All four (or five if you count Ciufo) didn't have any 'development' because they, in theory, should already been developed. Priest and Gaffney I think get another offseason to figure out their hitting, but 33% of the lineup didn't need development.

On the pitching side, this clearly is not Bakich's expertise, as the least amount of EB guys and transfers are contributing. This makes sense due to Bakich being a hitting coach/recruiter for most of his assistant days going back to Clemson and Vandy. Most of EB's recruits/transfers were hurt for at least some of this year: Moehler, Lee, Samol, Gillen, Bennett, Bell, McGovern, and Kissenberth (I don't think I've heard a single thing about him since he transferred this year). A lot of regular contributors are Monte-recruited guys: Darden, Allen, Garris, Dvorsky, and Bailey (although I don't know if Bakich brought him in or not). But of guys who pitched over 20 innings, 6/12 can be directly attributed to Monte Lee. Now that's not to say they were used properly or shouldn't have developed at all, but a lot of guys who Bakich chose specifically are still waiting to get significant playing time.

That isn't to say EB hasn't developed anyone regardless of who recruited them. Cam went from SS to CF in a matter of months and has been the best CF Clemson has probably ever seen (I was born in the 90's so forgive me if there were some others from before my time). Garris went from backup catcher to top-two reliever on the staff. Mahlstedt went from long-innings-low-leverage guy to best closer in the game for most of the season. Allen, McGovern, Bailey, and Titsworth all improved from last year and became vital parts of the pitching staff, which probably kept the team afloat for most of the year. The only two who you could really say got worse is Knaak and Darden, and that is probably due to more scouting and incredible seasons by both of them last year. Hitting wise, Jarrell, Purify, Crighton, McCladdie, and even Cam improved from last year, contributing a lot to the team this season (maybe even more so than all of the transfers did).

I think this year the biggest issues were flopping on the incoming transfers, and giving them too many ABs, preventing some of the younger guys who were hungry to play from getting experience. On the pitching side, we just didn't have enough depth. Outside of two starters (and Bailey to an extent) and 4 relievers, we didn't have anyone available who could give you a scoreless inning or two. Next year, a focus needs to be on bringing in quality hitters with P3 (ACC, SEC, and B12) experience, and bringing in a couple of high velocity guys who can at least fall back on throwing mid to upper 90's if their other stuff isn't working.

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