Bubba Chandler enjoyed time at Clemson, will remain Tigers fan

On3 imageby:Matt Connolly07/15/21

MattConnollyOn3

CLEMSON — Bubba Chandler only spent a few weeks at Clemson, but the third-round draft pick by the Pittsburgh Pirates has a “special place in his heart” for the Tigers, according to his high school coach Jay Lasley.

Lasley spoke with ClemsonSports.com about what the draft process was like for Bubba Chandler and how he enjoyed his short stint at Clemson as a football and baseball player.

Chandler was projected to be a first-round pick but ended up falling to the third round. He is expected to receive well over slot value from the Pirates and will pitch and play infield for the organization.

Here’s a Q&A with Bubba Chandler’s high school coach at North Oconee High — Jay Lasley:

Q: What do you think of the fit for Bubba with the Pirates?

“I think it’s going to be great. I think the fact that they’re going to give him a chance to hit and to pitch allows him to kind of spread his wings as a player, rather than some organizations I think really liked him as a pitcher only.

I think the Pirates are willing to give him a chance and see if he can do something that very few guys have done at the professional level. And if it works out they’ve got a phenomenal two-way player, a steal in the third round. If it doesn’t work out, you’ve got an arm that projects to be an upper-90s arm, maybe a guy that’s going to throw 100 miles per hour by the time he’s a grown adult. I think it’s a good move.”

Q: What was the draft process like for Bubba with him slipping to the third round?

“You knew going into it it was going to be hectic, it was going to be crazy. A lot of things could happen. I was just trying to be there as a sounding board if he needed that, because in the end it’s about him and his future and just trying to help him whichever way we could as a coaching staff.

At the end of the [first] night we spoke, and I think if anything it put a chip on his shoulder. I think he realized that professional baseball is a business. It’s not all about who’s the best or talent and things like that, because some moves were made that were more about business than a player’s skill level. So I think for him it was a hard introduction to that part of sports.

I think it put a chip on his shoulder. He’s a very, very competitive kid. So to sit there and have to watch players that he feels like he’s as good or better than get selected in front of him… he wasn’t mad. You could just see there was a little fire burning there that wasn’t there at the start of the draft.

I think that’s one of those things that will help him in his professional career, to remind him that this is a business and to remind him that there were people that doubted that he belonged in the first round. So for him I think it can be a situation where in the end it pays dividends.”

Bubba-Chandler-Clemson-QB

Clemson QB Bubba Chandler was drafted on Monday. (Matt Connolly/ClemsonSports.com)

Q: What’s Bubba like as a competitor?

“You tell this kid he can’t do something and he’s gonna do it. You give him a mountain to climb and he’s going to attack it. He loves to compete, and he competes in such a way that he has such a joy, and he brings such joy to the game. He loves to play. He loves to get out there, whether it’s football, basketball, baseball. Whatever it is, he loves to get out there and compete.

The kid’s got some confidence, man. He has confidence in his ability. Baseball’s a sport that sometimes will make you second guess yourself. For Bubba I would say it’s his confidence in who he is. To think, a year ago, this kid weighed 175 pounds. We sat him down and I said, ‘Hey, this could happen’ … You’ve got millions of reasons why you need to add some weight. He turned it into a competition, and the guy crushed it.”

Q: People know a lot about Bubba as a pitcher. Describe him as a hitter.

“He’s a switch hitter. He’s actually a better right-handed hitter. I think that’s the side of the plate that he hits for more power and he can hit for a higher average. I think from the left side the power’s not quite as good. But he can hit for a good average on that side. The thing about Bubba is, as a hitter he’s raw.

He needs at bats and he needs to grow. … An organization like the Pirates can see, ‘Hey, this kid spends half of his time playing football.’

So he missed out on a lot of at bats in the summer and a lot of at bats in the fall. I think they look and see that this guy’s not even scratching the surface on what he is as a hitter. So I think him having a chance to be a hitter at the professional level… If it works out, awesome. But if it doesn’t he’s so competitive, he’ll never have to question, like ‘Could I have done this?’

I think he could hit his way to the big leagues if he wasn’t a pitcher. I mean I could very easily see him playing third base, switch hitting or picking one side of the plate. He could play his way into the big leagues. I know there’s been a handful of kids drafted in the state of Georgia that I feel like have made it there as a position player, I feel like he’s as good or better than some of those guys coming out of high school.”

Q: What was his short time at Clemson like?

“I think he was very excited. He spoke with somebody at Clemson… they told him how proud they were of him. They told him how excited they were for him, which made him feel good. He was very excited that they were happy for him. He’s ready to chase this [baseball] part of his dream… But he loved it. Every time you talked to him when he was at Clemson, all he could talk about was his teammates and D.J. (Uiagalelei) and coach (Brandon) Streeter and the strength coach (Joey Batson) and coach (Dabo) Swinney. I think his time there was very enjoyable. I think it’ll be one of those things that he’s going to be a Clemson fan… he’s got a special place in his heart for Clemson.

Talking with Chase (Brice), he said, ‘He’s going to love it, coach. It’s a special place.’ I think he got a chance to see why Clemson football is one of the best programs in the country, not only because of the players but just how they go about things, the way they do things. He really enjoyed it.”