Exclusive: Inside Look At the Defensive Development of Max Clark (Part 2)

COMSTOCK PARK, Mich. — Sitting in the seats at LMCU Ballpark, an American League scout watched as Max Clark patrolled center field.

An inning before, Clark had slightly misjudged a fly ball, but that wasn’t what the scout was focused on.

“Watch his face,” the scout said. “He never stops analyzing. If he misses something the first time, he’s smart enough to self-correct the next time around.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen the wheels stop turning.”

Inspiration

Throughout his own development journey, Clark has found inspiration in a number of Major League players for a variety of reasons.

In the Chicago Cubs’ center fielder, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Clark sees a lot of himself, and watching Crow-Armstrong’s success, Clark is making sure to take notes.

“That dude is so dominant,” Clark said.

“When you look at the percentages, he’s at a 25% success rate on balls that are 5% catch probability or lower. You don’t do that unless you’re getting immense reads. The speed can only take you so far.

“Route efficiency, pre-pitch jumps, all of that matters. I mean, he literally makes 10 five-star catches a year. Like, it’s disgusting to watch. He’s so good out there. He’s fluid; it’s not like he’s trying to force it; it’s just calculated. It’s easy.”

In longtime Tampa Bay Rays center fielder Kevin Kiermaier, it was the mix of raw feel and athleticism that Clark still holds onto.

“I mean, (Kiermaier) is the greatest defensive center fielder of all time,” Clark said. “It’s all pre-pitch moves and again, another fast guy. Pete Crow-Armstrong is faster than Kevin, and Kevin was still able to cover more ground just because of the successful jumps and the ability to have some really good route efficiency. I feel like watching those two guys, it’s just different watching them patrol an outfield.”

Route Efficiency

Clark’s approach to route efficiency combines hip-clearing and line drills with a whole lot of running mixed in. While the process may be multifaceted, to Clark, it’s staying within the basics that he picked up in his early days of playing baseball.

For Clark, batting practice is the closest to live action, and he’s grown to making the most of those reps during the season.

“What I’m doing right now is a lot of it is working on like hip drills, clearing hips in the right way, and creating space to move in a straight line,” Clark said.

“A lot of issues are caused by either bad hip mobility from not getting cleared. Then you have to run around your hip essentially, and that creates some curve to your line.

“I have taped lines and try to run directly in line with those. It’s honestly pretty elementary. There’s no one-pill fix for that. It’s multiple, tedious reps of running in a straight line and understanding how to break at certain angles, understanding angles.”

With Clark spending seven days a week in the batting cage during the offseason, running is staying as much of, if not more, a priority.

“Right now, I’m still working on my lines,” Clark said.

“I’m trying to get my legs underneath me again, and I’m running every day, because at the end of the day, you can’t lose your speed. That’s the most important tool, and then everything else falls in line.”

“It’s all stuff that we grew up doing, and we’re still doing it today. Elementary drills that you have to be perfect at in order for it to even come close to translating when balls start flying 110 miles an hour in the gap.”

Arm Conditioning

Following an internal throwing program provided by the Tigers’ organization, Clark has found the program to reflect a lot of similarities to how he conditioned as a pitcher while he was still in high school.

“I feel like the reason I throw hard is that there was a time in my life when I was training to pitch,” Clark said. “So, I’ve been working on understanding the way the body moves, and the way your arm syncs up. The game really speeds up when a runner is going from first to third, and you want to throw him out.

“For me, my miss is that I love to throw it straight in the ground,” Clark said. “Yes, I throw hard, but I need to be able to understand the way the body syncs up, like not getting your arm out in front of your body, and just slowing the game down in order to make a clean, crisp throw. I throw the plyo balls, and like a pitcher, I long toss, I do all that. For most of us, that’s pretty normal now.”

On average, during the season, Clark estimates making about 30-40 throws per game for about nine months. At the conclusion of the season, Clark will take about two weeks off from throwing before picking back up and continuing the Tigers’ throwing program.

“I’ve never had any arm issues,” Clark said. “I love letting it fly and just conditioning it to stay healthy. I’ve gotten used to throwing every day. I like to throw every day. I’ll take my first two weeks off when I get back and put the ball down, and then I’ll go throw that first week back, and it feels like I’m throwing a medicine ball and I’m throwing it 60 feet, so I like to keep it moving.”

For Clark, that conditioning mindset also extends to the weight room. While adding size will add strength, Clark maintains the belief that without movement and conditioning, you carry a larger risk of the body not operating as it should when it’s working in optimal form.

“You don’t want anything to tighten up and then start ripping balls and see something explode, so you gotta keep it conditioned,” Clark said. “Just keep it well-oiled and keep it moving forward.”

In making the transition from pitching to the outfield, Clark has discovered that there is still plenty of intertwining between the conditioning practices of different defensive positions.

“I do a lot of your normal stuff that you’d see as a pitcher doing,” Clark said. “Honestly, I’m trying to stay as strong as possible and gain more arm strength. I already have an above-average, inching towards elite arm, but there’s always room, and one or two miles an hour could be the difference-maker in throwing someone out, so it never hurts to try and get more out of it.”

From a Pitcher to an Outfielder

Coming into professional baseball, Clark’s foot speed and arm strength have always been his calling card.

With throws from the outfield clocking as high as 98 miles per hour, for Clark to secure himself in the outfield, it became a matter of re-thinking the use of his arm, while maintaining its natural strength.

“It’s funny,” Clark said. “On the mound, I actually had very short arm action, so I actually retrained my arm to get a little bit longer and stay behind the ball a little bit more.”

“When I pitched, I was a cutter, sinker guy, so for a while, when I first got into pro ball, I was throwing from center field, and I was throwing two seams that ran back across the entire outfield.

“I had to relearn how to throw the ball efficiently,” Clark said. “The velo has always been there, so it was about throwing it efficiently, staying behind it, and getting some carry on it. You don’t want to get so long that it takes forever for the ball to get out of your hand, but you want to have clean enough arm action to where you’re getting behind the ball, getting out in front of it, and then back-spinning it to wherever you need to go.”

One of the ways Clark has challenged himself is by achieving a four-seam grip on his throws from the outfield. When it comes to the efficiency of a delivery, ball grip can make or break a throw.

“You have to find a way to get a four-seam grip and get it directly to your target,” Clark said. “It’s been fun. I actually enjoy that process of throwing. I mean, it’s just reps and reps and reps of really efficiently spinning the ball because that’s actually the hardest part, especially when the game speeds up.

“When somebody hits the ground ball, the quarter turn of the seams to at least get it on the floor and then still have a good grip on the ball is actually one of the toughest things. The last thing you want to do is have a weird grip, and then you throw a splitter to the third baseman from 180 feet. That’s not going to do anybody good.”

As the West Michigan Whitecaps neared the conclusion of their game, the American League scout sat there for a moment.

“That’s the baseball IQ of a big leaguer,” the scout said. “(Clark) is a guy who, if he doesn’t know the best way to do something, nothing is going to stop him from figuring it out.”