If Seth Beer can teach young aspiring baseball players one thing it is this … find a specialty on defense and work on it just as hard.
“I think a lot of kids do not believe in that, and I was one of those guys,” Clemson’s two-time All-American said. “I am here to attest that it is something you have to work on, just like you do hitting every day.”
Beer spent most of the fall working on his skills at first base and has played some there in the preseason as well. However, with catcher Chris Williams not healthy enough to play behind the plate at this time, Clemson head coach Monte Lee moved the senior back to first base and Beer back to right field.
That is where the two will be on Friday when 12th-ranked Clemson begins the 2018 baseball season against William & Mary at Doug Kingsmore Stadium in Clemson. Game 1 of the three-game series will begin at 4 p.m.
Williams played mostly at first base in 2016, when former All-American Chris Okey was catching for the Tigers.
“Once Chris Williams is healthy enough to go behind the plate, I would anticipate leaving Seth in the outfield because we have some options we can put at first base,” Lee said.
Lee added the coaches feel Beer, who played in right field his entire freshman year, is moving extremely well in the outfield.
“He is playing a better in right field, right now then I have seen since he has been here,” the Clemson head coach said.
Beer says he is ready to do whatever his coaches want him to do.
“I have gotten as prepared as I can for first base and right field and left field, too,” he said. “They are all in the mix. I can’t predict where I will be playing (at the end of the year), but I have prepared for those two positions and whatever the situation asks is where I will be at.”
At times, Beer might have to DH as well for the Tigers. If that is the case he okay with it. However, he prefers to play in the field because it keeps him in the game mentally.
“It is just something as a kid, you grow up playing a position and you grow up hitting,” the junior said. “That was one of my biggest things this off season, was to focus hard on defense because you know as talented as Clemson is, the ACC and everybody beyond that and every level beyond that, specialty defense is very important.
“That is something I bought into this off-season, and I really think I have made some big strides.”
Beer does not need to make very many strides at the plate. The junior won the Dick Howser Award, as the nation’s best player in 2016, and is a career .333 hitter. In 125 games, he has 34 career home runs, 123 RBIs, 108 runs, 126 walks and has 30 doubles. He has a slug percentage of .651.
It has been eight months since the Tigers last played a game, and Beer says he and his teammates can’t wait to get back out on the field and play someone besides themselves.
“We are just ready to go out there and compete and compete against somebody who might not be your roommate or friend … somebody you have to talk smack with after a good start or a bad at-bat or whatever it might be,” he said. “We are just excited to see some other competition and just go out and compete.”