Midseason College Honors | Weekend Preview
In seven previous seasons has a head coach at the NCAA Division-I level, Monte Lee had never seen anything like it. And, two years later, he’s still not sure he’ll ever see it again.
It was the spring of 2016 and Lee was in his first season as the head coach at Clemson University, an Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) program at a football national championship school located in Clemson, S.C. That 2016 season would be memorable in many ways but what made it truly remarkable was the performance turned in by 19-year-old freshman outfielder/first baseman Seth Beer.
Beer graduated from Lambert High School in Suwanee, Ga., a semester early so he could enroll at Clemson in January 2016, and promptly made himself right at home in far northwest South Carolina, on a campus that sits about 95 miles from his home in Suwanee.
In his first season facing high-end collegiate pitching, Beer slashed .369/.535/.700 with 18 home runs, 70 RBI and 57 runs scored; the on-base percentage was elevated by his 62 walks and 15 HBPs (against 27 strikeouts). He was named the Perfect Game/Rawlings National Freshman Player of the Year.
Eyebrows were raised; jaws were dropped. Pro scouts were salivating while thinking ahead to the 2018 MLB June Amateur Draft.
“Seth’s freshman year is one of those things that I just doubt that I’ll ever see it again,” Lee told Perfect Game during a telephone conversation this week. “You never say never in this game, but Seth’s freshman year of college baseball was almost like a guy winning the triple crown in the big leagues.
“I’ve never seen a college player have that kind of offensive year, along with it being a true freshman,” he said. “It was unbelievable to watch.”
While Beer was not able to exactly duplicate those numbers during his sophomore season or even 29 games into his junior campaign in 2018, he has continued to perform at a first-team All-American level; he is the undisputed leader of this year’s No. 9-ranked, 23-6 (8-4 ACC) Clemson team.
The Tigers have won seven of their last eight heading into a three-game ACC series at Notre Dame this weekend. Beer leads the team in every slash category at .286/.443/.633 and has a team-high 10 home runs to go with 25 RBI and 27 runs.
Beer’s stat-line was bolstered by his performances in four Clemson wins last week when he went 8-for-13 with four home runs, four walks, 12 RBI and seven runs and was named the PG/Rawlings National Player of the Week.
Beer was 1-for-3 with a double, a walk and an RBI in the Tigers’ 6-1 win over Coastal Carolina on Tuesday night, and to his way of thinking he was simply doing his job while helping the Tigers to five important wins over an eight-day stretch.
“The biggest thing that coach asks is what are you going to do when the big moments come, what are you going to do when things aren’t going your way and I really agree him on those things,” Beer told PG during a separate telephone interview this week. “I really think that the best teams in the country are the ones that step up when things aren’t going their way.
“You look around the country and there are so many good players on so many good teams, and the ones that end up in Omaha at the end of the year are the ones that come through in those big moments and stepped up when things weren’t going their way.”
The Tigers haven’t had to overcome adversity all that often this season, but there certainly was one of those “big moments” when their mettle was put to the test; it came in their third ACC weekend series of the season.
North Carolina State, now ranked No. 5 in the country, came into Clemson in mid-March and posted a series sweep, handing the Tigers their second, third and fourth losses of the season. The losing streak hit four when they promptly dropped a 9-5 non-conference decision to Coastal Carolina in their next game.
Tents could have been folded at that point in time, especially with a three-game set at No. 22 Louisville next up on the schedule. The Tigers responded by winning two-out-of-three against the Cardinals and they’ve now won seven of eight.
“We stepped up and won at a hard place to play like Louisville,” Beer said. “I feel like we have a lot of young talented guys that have stepped up for us and we have veterans that are leading by example. In my opinion we can dictate our own destiny; the sky’s the limit for us.”
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IT WAS FORMER CLEMSON HEAD COACH JACK LEGGETT WHO RECRUITED Seth Beer to the school, and when Leggett was let go in June 2015, Beer reopened his recruiting.
Lee landed the job, and Beer was the first recruit he called because he felt it was important to make sure the young prospect was still on board. The new staff made Beer a priority, and after several telephone conversations Beer came in with his family for a face-to-face meeting with Lee.
“I felt pretty good about it and he felt pretty good about the direction we were going to go and what our plan was for him, and it all worked out,” Lee said.
A big reason it worked out was because Beer was old for his high school grade and he really wanted to get on a college campus and be with other freshman who were his same age. He remembered talking with Lee about hitting for hours during their early conversations, and soon after he told the head coach he wanted to play for him at Clemson and he wanted to play in the spring of 2016.
“He’s been one of the best coaches I’ve ever had. He’s a great leader of this ballclub and he sets a great example for our guys,” Beer said. “My real dad was a football player through-and-through, and with Coach Lee I kind of think of him as my baseball dad. He respects all of us players, but he’ll get on you if he needs to, and that’s you want.
“You want a guy who isn’t going to be stepping on eggshells around you and telling you how good you are, and then down the line somebody tells you you’re not doing the right thing.”
Beer started his journey to Clemson playing on Georgia high school fields and went on from there. Like every other talented kid who becomes involved with Perfect Game at a young age, Beer entered that world and dreamed of one day playing in the big leagues and testing his talents against the best players in the world.
Growing up in Suwanee, Ga., Beer felt like he was a big fish in a small pond, and once he started experiencing PG tournaments and showcases he realized there were bigger fish in even bigger ponds out there. With that realization, his baseball education was officially underway.
“The thing that it tells you is there are people that are working just as hard or harder than you out there, and there are kids are just as good or better than you out there,” Beer said of his PG experiences. “It’s up to you and you alone to be able to dictate what your goals and your opportunities are to make (those dreams) happen. For me, that was the first time I saw that light and it was exciting; it was cool.
“It was competitive, and it made me more competitive,” he continued. “All of a sudden you’re putting your skills up against other kids’ skills and that’s what you live for, that’s what you want.”
One of his teammates at Clemson is junior third baseman Grayson Byrd from Milton, Ga. Byrd was at Louisiana State for his freshman season in 2015 but transferred to Clemson and redshirted in 2016.
The transfer served as a reunion of sorts for Beer and Byrd, as they were teammates on the DeMarini and Georgia Roadrunners teams Byrd’s father, former big-leaguer Paul Byrd, coached back in 2012-13.
Perfect Game spoke with both Beer and Paul Byrd during Beer’s all-tournament team performance at the 2012 15u PG BCS Finals National Championship; Beer was already showing up on scout’s radar screens. Paul Byrd, who pitched in the big leagues for 14 seasons, saw something special in the then 15-year-old Beer right from the get-go.
“He has a beautiful, beautiful left-handed swing … that smooth, left-handed swing that you just cannot teach,” Byrd told PG. “He’s quiet at the plate and he goes through the baseball quick, and once guys start throwing hard, that’s really important. He has all the necessary tools to not just make it to the big leagues but to be an impact player.”
Beer played in a couple of 15u PG tournaments in 2011 before diving in head first with five PG WWBA and PG BCS tournaments in 2012, all with the Georgia Roadrunners. He was named to the all-tournament team at three of those events, the first of 11 all-tournament selections he would earn from 2012-15.
As far as athletics was concerned, Beer’s focus was now firmly on baseball, which hadn’t always been the case. He was also an elite-level, age-group swimmer who as a 12-year-old in 2009 held 11u and 12u national records in the 50- and 100-meter backstroke and was characterized in swimming circles as an “Olympic hopeful” with a shot at making the U.S. team for the 2012 London Games.
While Beer continued to swim for his high school team it was baseball that consumed him, and he continued to develop into a top national prospect. He earned invitations to both the 2014 PG Junior National and PG National showcases and returned to the National in 2015 when he earned Top Prospect List recognition.
Beer started playing for Jeff Petty and Canes Baseball in 2015, and was named all-tournament at both the 17u PG WWBA National Championship in Emerson, Ga., and at the PG WWBA World Championship in Jupiter, Fla.
Beer was playing all this baseball in the summer of 2015 because he was still listed as a class of 2016 graduate. That was before he decided to graduate early and become a class of 2015 prospect, which opened the door for his remarkable freshman season at Clemson in the spring of ’16.
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COACH MONTE LEE SERVED AS THE HEAD COACH AT COLLEGE OF CHARLEST0N from 2009-15 before arriving in Clemson, S.C., in time to take charge of the Tigers’ program for the 2016 season. The Tigers went 44-20 and 42-21 and advanced to an NCAA Regional in Lee’s first two seasons; the 86 wins tied for 12th most in the country in 2016-17.
After his monster freshman season, Beer’s’ numbers dipped ever-so-slightly during his sophomore season in 2017 when he slashed .298/.478/.606 with 15 home runs, 53 RBI, 51 runs, 64 walks and 14 HBPs. A career .324 hitter with a .494 OBP after 2½ seasons and 154 games (154 starts), Beer was named a 2018 PG Preseason First Team All-American first baseman.
It is, without question, the career on-base percentage that jumps off the page. He has collected 168 hits, drawn 162 walks (against 76 K’s) and been hit by a pitch 33 times in those 154 games.
When it comes to his approach at the plate, Beer said it’s actually quite simple: he’s always just looking for strikes he can hit. He learned that early when Paul Byrd began pitching to him as a 13-years-old and he instinctively was able to recognize and lay off of pitches that were just outside the strike zone.
“It’s something that he’s always had; it isn’t anything that we’ve taught him,” Lee said. “This is a God-given thing that he has. He’s got as good as hands and eyes as anybody I’ve ever seen. His strike zone discipline is good … and he’s just one of those guys that sees the ball differently than other guys; you’re not coaching that.”
Beer was one of five starting position players to return from last year’s 42-21 squad (17-13 ACC, 3rd Atlantic Division), joining Byrd, sophomore shortstop Logan Davidson, junior second baseman Jordan Greene and senior catcher Chris Williams. Beer felt there could be something special about this Tigers’ team as soon as preseason practice got underway.
“We kind of drew off of each other when it came to gaining confidence,” Beer said. “One thing that I found different this year from past years is that our intra-squad (games) and our scrimmages were lights-out. Both teams wanted to win, and they were going to scratch and grind until they got there.”
Despite losing all four of his primary starters from a year ago, Lee calls this season’s Clemson pitching staff the deepest he’s had in his three years at the school, especially in the bullpen. For that reason, Lee has no problem turning games over to his pen simply because those guys have been so effective.
Through 29 games, Lee had used 14 pitchers in relief. Sophomore right-hander Carson Spiers made 13 appearances, freshman left-hander Mat Clark 12, junior righty Ryley Gilliam 11, senior righty Ryan Miller 10, and freshman right-hander Travis Marr nine (Marr also made one start).
The weekend starters are sophomore left-hander Jacob Hennessy (3-1, 194 ERA), junior right-hander Brooks Crawford (2-1, 3.16) and sophomore lefty Jake Higginbotham (3-1, 4.11).
“The collective effort of our pitching staff has been very impressive,” Lee said. “We thought we were going to have a good bullpen just looking at the names and the guys. We didn’t know who was going to start for us this year … but when we were looking at our staff knew we had a lot of guys who could pitch out of the bullpen.”
Lee also feels like this is the best defensive team of his short tenure, with a bunch of guys who can really catch and throw the baseball at a high level. Offensively it’s a team that has shown some pretty good power led by Beer (10 home runs), Williams (7), Davidson (4) and Byrd (4).
“I really believe that this team is special, and I really think that we can be a team of destiny. We’ve got the talent and we’ve got the ability,” Beer said.
“We’ve got to stay healthy and consistent,” Lee said when asked if this team is capable of advancing beyond an NCAA Regional this season, providing it gets there in the first place. “The thing about the demeanor of our club is we’re so laid-back. Our guys don’t get in a panic; they don’t ever get real amped-up or fired-up for a game. They’re just really cool and collected and laid-back regardless of the situation.”
Baseball is a team game, of course, but its likely the Tigers will go only as far as Beer can take them, and they need to take advantage of his presence the remainder of this season. PG ranks Beer as the No. 58 overall (college, juco, high school) prospect in this year’s draft, so this will be his final season in a Clemson Tigers uniform.
“You run his college numbers – his walk-to-strikeout ratio and his power numbers – and you put that in a computer and put that in front of the analytic guys, I don’t see how you can’t take him extremely high in the draft,” Lee said.
Beer admits to entertaining thoughts about the draft, but his focus is on finishing his collegiate career with a flourish, much he like he started it back in the spring of 2016. And while that season was “unbelievable to watch” in Lee’s words, Beer’s whole career has brought nothing but joy to the Clemson baseball community.
“It’s not only that he’s put up such unbelievable offensive numbers in his three years, it’s that he’s hit some of the biggest clutch, most dramatic home runs in huge situations,” Lee said. “You just don’t see guys that can rise to the level of competition like he can. That’s what makes him special.”