May 30, 2023; Oakland, California, USA; Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Bryce Elder (55) delivers a pitch against the Oakland Athletics during the first inning at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Neville E. Guard-USA TODAY Sports.
Texas Men’s Baseball plays their first game in the Coral Gables Regional on Friday against Louisiana, and sticking with the baseball spirit, I wanted to take a look at how the two most recent Longhorns to reach the major leagues have been playing so far this season. Kody Clemens, who made his debut for the Tigers in May of 2022, and Bryce Elder in April of the same year for the Braves, have been busy in their short careers thus far. Let’s take a look at the path and the numbers.
Clemens, the son of MLB great Roger Clemens, played 3 seasons for the Longhorns (2016-18) as second baseman and showed tremendous poise in the field, along with immense improvement as a hitter by the end of his time in Austin. As a freshman, Kody hit .242 with 5 home runs and 28 RBI’s. As a sophomore, Clemens only had one fielding error yet slightly regressed hitting wise with a .241 average and only 23 RBI’s. In 2018, however, Clemens hit an astounding .351 with 24 home runs, 72 RBI’s and 87 total hits. Kody was selected by the Detroit Tigers in the 2018 draft as the 79th overall pick, and made his debut just over a year ago today. His first hit came on June 13th of 2022 and was in-between the majors and minors fort the rest of the season. He hit just .145 in 117 at-bats with 5 home runs and 17 RBI’s, but, like his college seasons, has shown a large improvement in his young career. Before the 2023 season, Clemens was traded to the Phillies and has since been an important role-player for the World Series runner-ups. So far, Clemens is hitting .250 in 68 at-bats with 4 home runs and 10 RBI’s. The future for the young infielder seems to be bright.
Let’s shift over to the man with potentially an even brighter future: Bryce Elder. Elder, of the Atlanta Braves, made his 11th start of the season Tuesday night and even has the lowest ERA… in the entire MLB. He played for the ‘Horns from 2018-2020 and also showed dramatic improvement in his time at Texas. In 2018, he posted a 5.55 ERA with 40 hits given up in just over 35 innings pitched. In 2019, Elder dropped his ERA down to 2.93 in 83 innings pitched (!) with 86 strikeouts, and in 2020, finished with a 2.08 ERA. Drafted in 2020 by Atlanta, Elder debuted last season and had a solid 3.17 ERA in 54 innings pitched. This season, the young star has a league-leading 1.92 ERA in over 65 innings pitched with 56 strikeouts. In the month of May, Elder started 6 games and didn’t give up more than 2 runs in any of them. It’s safe to say that Bryce is having a career year, and he’s just getting started.
Both Clemens and Elder are starting to show the league what they can do, and I am excited to see what the ‘Horns do in their first regional game on Friday.
–Twitter: @RSwantkowski
