Few more baseball thoughts...

Must confess to not being a baseball recruiting junkie (or any ball recruiting junkie, for that matter).

Football recruiting is so high profile that you still have a basic idea of the highly touted guys who are coming in. Baseball is a different story; sometimes the signing class isn't even announced by the school until the guys actually get to campus.

A closer inspection of Clemson's incoming baseball class leaves you pretty darned impressed with the job that Bradley Lecroy has done. As we pointed out last night, this staff has to be absolutely ecstatic that it lost just one freshman to the MLB Draft. The fact that five of these guys could've gone in the fifth round or above indicates that the Tigers' talent is about to undergo a significant upgrade.

Of course two more losses to the Gamecocks hurt like heck for Clemson fans, but South Carolina presented an example of several talented young players coming in and making big impacts once they became adjusted to the college game.

If you ask me, lack of offensive talent was the biggest issue in 2012. There was a regular void at the bottom of the batting order. And when Jay Baum or Jon McGibbon were going through slumps, there was no one there to push them and replace them. The depth of talent wasn't there, and that's something that should change with this class.

Couple more baseball thoughts:

-- The biggest question moving forward might be who replaces Jason Stolz? Not a great hitter, but four errors all year? Goodness, that's strong. If you put that fielding with Brad Miller's 2011 hitting, you might have a No. 1 draft pick.

-- Like Stolz, Spencer Kieboom was often a liability at the plate but he was tremendous at catcher. Garrett Boulware will get a look there. Freshmen Matt Reed and Kevin Bradley could also be contenders, and don't discount the possibility of the staff bringing in a JUCO catcher if the administration signs off on it.

As most of you know it's sometimes impossible to get a JUCO to Clemson. It's a regular headache for the football, basketball and baseball staffs. But baseball was able to get JUCO infielder Shane Kennedy out of Florida a few months ago, so maybe the path is paved to get another one -- particularly if "another one" is being recruited by some of Clemson's biggest rivals.

LW