Clement's Clout

By Eric Stephens
January 11, 2005

LOS ANGELES--Not everyone in the state of Iowa grows up on a farm. Jeff Clement is certain of that. But the junior catcher at Southern California still hears the stereotype when he tells others where he's from.

"Yeah, I get that a lot," Clement said.

Clement's home in the Hawkeye State was not on acres of farmland, but on a block with many others in the medium-sized city of Marshalltown, about 50 miles northeast of the capital city of Des Moines.

The one experience he had on a farm was a two-week stint in eighth grade that he'd rather forget.

"It was the worst job I've ever had," he said. "I had to get up at the crack of dawn to pull the tassels out of corn. It's called detassling."

The images of this miserable experience were as vivid as if they occurred last week.

"In the morning there's dew all over them. The corn is at a high level so the leaves are cutting your arms and hitting your throat," he said. "So you get wet and then it starts to get warm. As you dry off, you feel all crusty. And then it gets hot. And you have all these clothes on because you didn't want to get cut up in the morning. Now you're sweating and it's 95 degrees and high humidity. It's not fun stuff.

"I remember thinking, I'd rather be in school now. That's saying something. I didn't like school all that much."

Clement can laugh about it now. The memory of it all makes putting on the equipment for a workout at Dedeaux Field in 80-degree temperatures in December seem like, well, paradise.

USC might be thousands of miles away, but it has been the right place for the lefthanded slugger who's eager to please. Being a Trojan and playing in one of the nation's best conferences has been just about everything he thought it would be.

Clement's junior season will be unlike any other. Scouts from every major league team are already sizing him up with an array of questions as they prepare reports for the June draft. Can he handle hard stuff inside? How does he call games? How quick is his release? Does he have big league power? What will it take for him to sign?

Why all the inquiries? Blessed with a quick swing and raw power out of a thickly built frame, the 6-foot-1, 210-pound Clement will go into the 2005 season as a potential first-round pick after two strong seasons at USC and a couple of impressive summers with Team USA.

"The thing that jumps out is he's a lefthanded-hitting catcher with power," one National League scout said. "The ball jumps off his bat. I've seen him do it with wood and there's no difference. He's attacking the pitch rather than just making contact."

Fast Start

Clement didn't take long to make an impact. In 2003, he led the Trojans with a freshman-record 21 home runs--eclipsing school marks held by Eric Munson and Joey Metropoulos--while driving in 53 runs and hitting .298.

Big things were expected of Clement last year in his sophomore season, but he got off to a slow start because of illness and injury. He contracted mononucleosis last January prior to a baseball-related trip to Cuba and missed the first two weeks of the season. Then he had to play through an injured wrist after getting hit by a pitch in an early-season game. Still, he batted .293 and led the team with 10 home runs, 43 RBIs and 38 walks.

Showing much improvement behind the plate, Clement threw out 27 of 66 basestealers (41 percent), including four of five in a game against Stanford.

"Anybody that watches him this spring will see that there won't be any doubt about his defense," Southern California coach Mike Gillespie said.

That's a change from when Gillespie saw Clement play in high school. Back then, the only real question about Clement was whether he could be a catcher at the major league level.

"There's no doubt that he was raw when he got here," Gillespie said. "I know that pro scouts felt he was a position-change guy and maybe he would wind up as a first baseman or a left fielder. But that's not what they think now."

Scouts visited the USC campus in December to talk with Clement and get answers to some of their questions, only to find the catcher focusing on returning the proud Trojans program to the postseason after two years without regional bids.

"I'm not even thinking about that kind of stuff right now," he said of the draft. "I try not to pay attention to the talk because that's what it is . . . talk. What people think is going to happen usually doesn't happen."

Yet Clement realizes he could be on a fast track once he is drafted.

"I don't know what my ceiling is as far as my ability, but I plan to get the most of what I've got to get to that level," he said. "I don't want to look back when my career is over and say I could have done this differently or I could have done that differently."

Groomed For Success

Those who know the 21-year-old say it's no coincidence Clement already sounds like a big league player. Growing up in Marshalltown, he was already in the spotlight. As a 12-year-old, he was on the local all-star team that reached the Little League World Series.

And that didn't compare to his senior year at Marshalltown High. Clement broke Drew Henson's national high school career home run record of 70 (finishing with 76) and led his team to an Iowa state championship. It was a story that made newspapers across the nation and had one hometown newspaper devoting an entire page to his record-breaking moment.

"I think we were all amazed by the amount of publicity it generated," said Brad Clement, Jeff's father. "It was a big thing in the media but it was never a big deal to Jeff at all. The only thing he was concerned with was winning. As a parent, how he handled that was almost as pleasing as what he did on the field."

Clement has had this dream planned for a long time. He was a 12th-round draft pick out of high school--in part because of this commitment to Southern California--but believed he could do better. He chose USC over Arizona State and nearby Nebraska because of its unmatched tradition and the program's ability to turn out big leaguers. And, of course, there's the great weather to work year-round at his craft.

The only thing that hasn't gone according to plan is that he hasn't yet played in the NCAA tournament, as the Trojans are just 52-60 the last two years. He's confident that will change before he leaves.

"From a team standpoint, it's pretty obvious that we haven't had the success that the USC teams in the past had," he said. "That's been very disappointing. But that has been the only negative."

Whenever the Trojans' season ends, Clement figures to be down on the farm soon thereafter. To his relief, it won't have anything to do with detassling corn.

Eric Stephens covers college baseball for the Los Angeles Times.