Monte Lee takes blame for Clemson's postseason failures. How he plans to fix them
Monte Lee spoke with the media minutes after Clemson’s season came to a disappointing end last Sunday night and said his team deserved to be praised for everything it accomplished this season.
“Our team won 47 games this year. That was the most of any Clemson team since 2006. That’s 12 years. So make sure that our guys get the credit that they deserve for a great year,” Lee said. “It did not end the way that we wanted it to end … But give our guys the credit that they are due.”
Lee might have described the Tigers’ season as great in the immediate aftermath of the loss to Vanderbilt, but he also understands that at Clemson great seasons end in Omaha, not at home.
The Tigers made regular appearances in the College World Series from 2000-2010, advancing to Omaha four times during the 11-year stretch.
Clemson made four additional Super Regional appearances during that time, meaning that Clemson won at least a regional eight times from 2000-2010.
But Clemson has been abysmal in the postseason since then, failing to win a regional eight consecutive years. The Tigers have been outscored 36-8 in elimination games under Lee.
“The expectations from the fans, we understand that. That’s one of the beautiful things about being at Clemson, is that people have extremely high expectations,” Lee said. “College baseball in the state of South Carolina is a big deal … The fans want us to go to Omaha, and we certainly want to go to Omaha, too. It’s what we work for every single day; it’s what we work for all summer long when we’re recruiting.”
Days after saying his club deserved praise for its strong season, Lee acknowledged during his end of year news conference Thursday that Clemson did not reach its potential with a team that was good enough to advance to the College World Series.
“When we fall short, there’s a huge amount of accountability on my part as the head coach and on our staff. This is on us … We came up short,” Lee said. “We’ve got to find a way to make sure that we put together a team and the right pieces together so that we can get to the next step.”
The Tigers have plenty of talent to replace off of this year’s team, most notably first-round MLB draft pick Seth Beer, who led Clemson with 22 homers.
The Tigers will also lose leading RBI man Chris Williams (72), weekend starter Jake Higginbotham and top relievers Ryan Miller and Ryley Gilliam.
But while Clemson’s team will look different in 2019, Lee believes the Tigers could be set up to have more postseason success. Clemson relied heavily on home runs this past season, which led to inconsistency at the plate.
“I think that next year’s lineup will be a little bit more versatile from that standpoint. When you look at guys, a healthy Kier Meredith and Sam Hall. Logan Davidson is built more to be a dynamic offensive player besides a power-hitting shortstop. (Kyle) Wilkie can handle the bat pretty good,” Lee said. “I think we’ll have to manufacture more next year. I don’t think we’re going to be built quite as much for the long ball, so to speak … But I think we’ll have a nice blend being able to do different things offensively besides just go up there and hit.”
On the mound, the Tigers will return a pair of weekend starters in Jacob Hennessy and Brooks Crawford, two guys who had solid years.
Hennessy battled injuries late in the season and finished 4-3 with a 3.91 ERA. Crawford went 8-2 with a 3.24 ERA and was the only starter for Clemson in the regional to make it out of the fourth inning.
Clemson lost four starting pitchers from the 2017 squad, so all of its starters this past season were in their first year in a starting role.
“We’ve got to be able to get deeper in the ballgames … We had a team the year before that was built on starting pitching where we could go deep. This year, after losing that many guys, we didn’t have anybody in the program that had that experience,” Lee said. “It’s not that we turned to the bullpen because that’s our style … It was just that the pitching staff that we had and the starters that we had, those guys, they weren’t built for that quite yet … I think that guys like Hennessy and Brooks now will be able to be stretched out a lot more.”
This story was originally published June 8, 2018 at 3:58 PM with the headline "Monte Lee takes blame for Clemson's postseason failures. How he plans to fix them."