By William Qualkinbush.

Baseball is a numbers game, perhaps more than any other sport. Statistics drive analysis, from the dugout to the couch, and junkies love it that way.

Still, sometimes numbers can be misleading. Sometimes they fail to paint a full picture. Sometimes reality is more about the eye test.

None of those scenarios pertains to the 2014 Clemson pitching staff. The numbers tell the whole story—the whole gruesome story.

Only three pitchers recorded a sub-3.00 earned run average. Five sported a double-digit ERA, and four others failed to keep theirs below 5.00.

In other words, way too many runs were scored on way too many pitchers on the Tigers’ staff last season. Head Coach Jack Leggett and his staff are committed to making sure that type of season-long performance is not duplicated.

“I think the depth, one-through-eight or one-through-12 or whatever, is as good as we’ve had here in a long time,” assistant Bradley LeCroy told TCI in an exclusive interview.

The strengths of the staff last season were the front and the back. With Friday ace Daniel Gossett gone to the professional ranks, getting Matthew Crownover to spurn a pro contract and return to school was a necessary development for the Tigers.

The lefty was basically a co-ace for Clemson a season ago, and along with fellow southpaw Zack Erwin, he should anchor a deeper rotation in 2015.

With two spots solidified, attentions will turn to the Sunday starter role. Last season, more than a handful of players trotted out to the mound to finish off weekend series, and many of the candidates showed inconsistency from week to week.

Several candidates will vie for that third slot in the rotation during preseason camp. The leading returner might be Anderson native Jake Long, who finished third on the team with 12 starts last season. Long was in and out of the Sunday role due to a lack of command, which he has attempted to shore up during the offseason.

A pair of newcomers—Sumter native Charlie Barnes and Paul Campbell from Massachusetts—could each get an early look in the weekend rotation. Any of the three leading candidates could easily slide into midweek slots, where the Tigers struggled mightily to get quality outings in 2014.

“When we play the teams we play midweek, there are no pushovers,” LeCroy said. “You’ve got to be able to pitch, and you’ve got to be able to score runs.”

One wild card to fill a rotation spot could be returner Clate Schmidt, a junior who pitched well toward the end of last season both as a starter and a reliever.

“We’re trying to find out which role is best for him,” LeCroy said of Schmidt. “Is it the Sunday starter role, or is it a late-inning relief role where he can come in and throw his really good slider and his good fastball and help us win that way?”

Another player who could cross over at times is junior Brody Koerner, who LeCroy described as “lights-out” during the fall. Lefty Alex Bostic, who struggled as a freshman after a dynamite prep career, also made some major strides during the offseason and could be in line for an innings bump.

“He probably had our best stuff in the fall. He had a great fall,” LeCroy said. “If he can stay healthy, he could be a legit closer in the conference.”

Bostic is not the only candidate to replace Matt Campbell, who sported a sensational 0.84 ERA and recorded eight saves last season. The staff is giving a hard look to a pair of right-handed returners—Drew Moyer, who logged significant innings as the setup man in 2014, and Patrick Andrews, who is slated to return in March from an injury.

All levels of the Clemson pitching staff were in need of an upgrade this offseason, and it appears the process has been successful so far. If all goes according to plan with the pitchers, the story of Clemson baseball may look a little nicer on the stat sheet in 2015.