Max Clark Talks Swing Mechanics
Oh yeah. All right. Well, welcome to another Tigers minor league report interview series. We’re uh super excited to hear to have one of the top prospects in all of baseball. You know him. You see him all over online. It’s Max Clark. Max, thank you so much for joining us tonight. Yeah, of course. Appreciate you guys having me on. Be good to catch up and look forward to 26. Yeah, absolutely. So, the the the standard question we always ask our guests is is their earliest baseball memory. Yours is very recent, but uh let’s hear about it. I would have to go. So, I was given this question beforehand and it sent me through so many years of memories and I think the best because it’s also the best story is when I So, a little backstory when I grew up um I played for a travel team from the time I was six until I was 13. So, that was like my first entrance into like somewhat competitive non little league baseball. So, at this uh at this facility, my best friend at the time, his dad actually owned it. And so, he built a like a youth baseball field in his backyard. He had a bunch of land. And so, there’s no fence. There is an airplane, little like craft airplane in left center. And it this is all like 150 foot fences. Like, it’s a whiffle ball field at this point. Nice. And so I can remember just the horror of the pole that was 400 miles away from that field and every time we booted a ground ball, swung and missed, booted any flyball, it was go touch the pole. And so we all talk about like defense now. And I I really think that I can credit the entirety of my defensive success to being horrified of running to that pole because dude, I’m telling you, it looked like a speckle out there. Yeah. And it was miserable. It’s uphill downhill on the way back and we were 6 to 10 years old. So that is that is like one of the best stories about if you ask any of those kids who played on those teams from like the time we were six to 10. Every single person knows about the poll because we were going to be the most fundamentally sound 6U baseball team ever. I said were you you playing outfield back then too? I was playing shortstop as crazy as that sounds. Um I swore I was going to be the first left-handed shortstop ever. Um to this day I still think I love Yeah, exactly. I I make my case every single day. Um I take ground balls with the infielders. I take ground balls in the offseason. Like I I’m working for it. Um but unfortunately, God had other plans and put the glove on my right hand. So I will be standing in the outfield for the uh for the eternity of my career. You know, that sounds interesting. It’s it’s almost like a field of dreams setup, you know, just picture playing baseball out in a field, you know. Exactly. Right. And then there’s there was a cornfield, of course, Indiana, middle of nowhere. um they surrounded us. So when the when it was harvest season, it looked pretty cool. Like that field’s actually still there. So it’s it’s still used with some of the youth teams that um this that my guy owns. Very cool. Y that’s really cool. And you know, and now we looking at Indiana University number two in the country in football, which is it to me it’s mind-blowing because I I’ve never seen Indiana football being the way it probably is. But as far as a baseball scene goes, even the as a Big 10 program, but as a state, you know, you think of I always think of like Don Manley as an example, you know, but there’s there’s so many player there’s such a history there that really it’s not really often talked about. No, 100%. people actually really do undervalue not just like Indiana, but the Midwest baseball. Like I know for a fact like from my class the year before me and even now I mean we had when I was a senior we had 16 power four commits in the state of Indiana. This year there’s 55. So like the the talent pools rising. Um and then like you said from the great standpoint I mean Lance, Tucker Barnhart, like all these guys also went to the same high school. Uh they went to Brownsburg and dominated. They won like two or three straight state championships. Um, and then they actually live on one of the best golf courses in Indiana now. So, it is uh it’s a good gig for all those Indiana guys. Like they all stay home. Um, and like the there’s a different culture now just about how connected like Indiana is with baseball. Um, it was always the basketball state. Like it’s what it is. Everybody’s seen the movie Hooser. Like it’s incredible. It’s in my blood for sure. Um, but like it’s it’s a different state for baseball now and there’s a bunch of good players. Like we’re going to have guys get drafted this year. We had guys get drafted last year like Bishop Leon. Um, he’s he’s with Milwaukee DAA now and he was a quote unquote like underrated no-name prospect. But I promise you I knew for a fact he was disgusting because he was at every event little small town Indiana and it’s just 94 to 97 from 50 feet because he’s got a billion feet of extension. So, um, he’s disgusting. Uh, Josh Flores is in is in I think he’s also a Brewer now. Josh Adamusi. Um, like I played with all those guys growing up. They’re they’re really good players. All Brewers. Yep. Yeah. Goho, another Brewer. No, we we kind of talked about not just Indiana, but like we’ve seen a lot of good prep players come out of uh Wisconsin over the last decade or so. Like it’s the list goes on. I mean it’s it is a very good state. That is for sure. And then yeah, I mean you we’re in Michigan. We see the guys coming from here in Ohio. You got Dingler out of Ohio. Yep. Um but uh no, Midwest baseball. It’s still good up here just because you can’t play 12 months a year outside at least. Yeah. I mean our first game is 12 degrees and there’s four people in the stands and but it’s uh it’s a blast. That’s for sure. Um so you mentioned DoubleA and now they had a taste of it. What was the biggest adjustment you had to make? Was it the timing, game planning, or something pitchers did differently at that level? Because I know in double A there’s less of a rigid schedule and I think we talked about this when we saw in Erie that you know Michigan and Lakeland there’s like you know there’s a schedule they follow but when you got to double A you realize like oh I don’t have to be there at a certain time. How much of an adjustment was that for you? Yeah, I think it I mean everybody says like always it’s it’s the biggest jump. Um it’s where you find out like who you really are as a player like and it’s it’s all true. I mean, when you look at it from just a dayto-day, you’re 100% right. Um, there’s way less uh I guess schedule um way more pro, like you got to do your things, you got to be there on time. Obviously, you know, we have set cage times and we still have our player plans and all that good stuff, but um you know, you’re showing up and you want to be lazy that day, like no one’s going to tell you to go do it. Um you have to really be yourself each and every day and go into a new day um grinding, ready to go. Um and that’s nice. Uh it’s nice to kind of have the training wheels taken off um and start playing really high competitive level baseball. I think the biggest difference really is just the pace of play um because that ranges all the way from pitching to hitting to defense. I mean especially on the defensive side, guys taking extra bases, internal clocks, stealing bases, like it’s such a different level of baseball the game. Um and it only gets better. Like AAA is better. The big leagues are obviously a whole another stratosphere. like it is it is a huge jump from high A to double A. Um but it actually brings out like the best in you in my opinion. I thought like it was hard to hit at times in HA cuz it’s ball one at your face, ball two in the dirt right down the middle throwing a three 0 slider for like no reason when it’s a 2% pitch. Like not because they can land it because they were like ah screw it. I can’t throw the heater for a strike so might as well try a slider, right? So, um there are differences in that aspect. Um but at the same time, like it was just it was more comfortable. Um that’s the level you want to be at. Like I felt very grounded. Um the pitching is 100% better. I don’t care what anyone says. Like it is a substantial jump. Um because guys just execute. Guys actually do their homework, too. Like I could tell nobody had a scouting report on me like the first three weeks. Hammered the ball. Went through a miniature adjustment phase and I picked it up cuz I was doing homework. And then it’s like you just see it all continue to level up. Like they could tell that I figured out the first scattering report very quickly and then they adjusted to something completely off the rails. Like I don’t know even know what they were throwing at me. I couldn’t figure out the sequencing. Um and it’s you can just tell guys are are doing their research. They want to bury you. Um but again, it’s a it’s a lot more comfortable to hit to be in the box when you get to be aggressive because guys are going to be way more around the zone. Um, you know, obviously the high leverage relievers, they can spray it a little bit, but you also want to be aggressive because they throw 102 with a 98 mph splitter. So, like you want to be able to go and get the heater early. You want to be able to get the hanging slider in the zone, like whatever it is. So, and that’s like coming from me like I’m overly pass or passive is a bad word, but I’m overly passive. So, it’s like I had to increase my aggressiveness, but maintain that selective aggressiveness. Yeah, it was it was interesting. I was thinking like, yeah, you the pitching you saw in DA is better than I remember opening day in West Michigan. You get Chase Burn and I was like, oh that wasn’t terribly easy. That was Yeah. No, I mean my fingers are completely numb and it’s like the first live AB I’ve seen in probably a week and it’s 100 top rail death ball slider and then some disgusting like breaking ball that I didn’t even know existed before that. And then I’m like, “All right, well I guess we’re not starting off the season with a hit.” Um, and then like that’s what I’m talking about though. Like Chase Burns throws 101. My next at bat I get to a three 0. Count throws me a slider. Like dude, I couldn’t hit your fast ball at this point in the year if you threw it to me 100 times. Like it is freezing cold. I can’t feel my fingers. And the bat feels like it weighs a pound and a half. So, I mean, it’s um it’s it’s fun. Like it’s fun to do those little mental competitions and just understand the game. Um, but I will say it was easier in double A even though the play was substantially better. Well, and so that’s it’s interesting because I felt and I got myself into a little bit of trouble with the online people when I I was a little critical of you uh especially in our Discord saying like I thought you were a little passive and it looked like you were just trying to poke singles the other way. And uh but I felt like right around June July you really started pulling the ball and pulling ball in the air and that’s like right around when you got up to Eerie and it seemed like it continued. there’s a lot of more extra base power and I I don’t know if if you feel like that was the path of your season or if I was just kind of you know fixating on it myself. I I think I mean no hate I think it’s a little bit of both. Um like the way I was getting pitched in high was substantially different than the way I was getting pitched in double A. And like that’s something that we talked about internally too. Like I was hitting like 330, but my slug was only, you know, like 450, which is a fine slug number, but it goes drastically down if you’re hitting 270, right? So, I wasn’t and like I think I had like a 38% opposite field ratio or something like that. It was just the highest it’s been in my career. But then we went and looked at like True Media and over like 65% of the pitches were being thrown on the outer half of the plate and actually in the outer third. So, even though it’s like for me and what I I struggled with and what I had to make the adjustment was were yes, they’re strikes and yes, I can take the single, but if it’s an edge pitch, like let’s find a better pitch to do damage on. Um, and that’s kind of like when I went in a slump in the middle of May. It was like I kind of gave away the opportunity to like take a single or swing in an edge pitch and pray that it gets through and started focusing more on like attacking damage zones because we have internal metrics that tell us where we do the most damage obviously. So like I started swinging at certain pitches more to allow my body to allow me to lift it in the pole side. Um cuz I mean you could swing at a change up that’s away 10 10 times out of 10 and you’re going to have a really hard time pulling it to right field in the air, right? Um it’s going away from you, there’s action down and it’s just it’s not a pitch you want to pull anyways. So it’s like for me like I can remember the South Bend series, it was like they were just throwing back door cutters the whole that’s like that’s their thing. They love the back door slider, the back door cutter, back door sweeper. And I literally just hit like five or six through the six hole and just took the single. And it’s like the average is great and you know, you can still impact the game that way, but like let’s also work on damaging the baseball. And that’s where like the the development part of the minor leagues come in. Like everybody wants to hit 330. Everybody wants to hit, you know, 25 homers. Everybody wants to do they they want their like baseline stats to look really good. And that’s important obviously, but it’s there’s a bigger picture in that and that is understanding the way your body moves, understanding what’s going to play in the big leagues because those dudes throw 99 on the outer black and the shorts stops can cover the six hole. Like you can’t like that doesn’t work every time. So we had to take that like constraint, put it on and then open up a new window to allow us to start pulling the ball in the air, drive a ball in the gap, whatever it may be. Because then that also opens up and like this is this goes into like what I’m working on now. It’s it’s like make that what it is. Like never give give away the ability to take the single the other way because there’s going to be a time where you need to do that. But there’s also times where when you get the hanging slider, you get the heater early that’s in the heart of the zone. Like go for it. Like who cares if you fly out like right go to go make an attempt to damage the baseball. And that’s where I kind of saw the shift. like when I got the double A, especially like pre-wrist injury, like that’s probably the hottest stint I’ve had in Pro Bowl. Um, except for like that week against the Dodgers, but I can vividly remember like my week against Akan in DA was probably the best week of professional baseball I’ve ever had, rookie ball to double A. And I just remember like being ultra aggressive, didn’t matter what pitch was thrown, just trying to like leverage the baseball. And that actually all started because of the way that my hips were working. Um, that’s the biggest change that I’ve made to allow me to actually lift the ball in the air. Um, you know, everybody always like talks about the question of power and is the power going to play and this is like the first year where it’s like, oh, it is there. We have to figure out how to mechanically get there. I hit the ball 112 miles an hour this year. That’s what I got to. So, like on the scale that’s like 55, 60 raw. Yeah. So then you have to figure out how do you do that but at the right angles because 112 in the ground doesn’t do anything and neither does 86 straight up. So it just took like trial and error of understanding how to really control the forward move. And that’s actually what has allowed for more space, more turn, more balls in the air because the minute I got the double A, the the batted ball profile went up. Way less ground balls, more fly balls, more line drives. Um, and I actually aired on the side of like too many fly balls, which for me, I will take that 10 times out of 10 because I struggled with getting the ball off the ground. Like, so now we have to like backtrack a little bit and just make make it work. It’s the constant adjustments. And no, I mean, that’s that was a great answer. It’s really valuable to hear the insight of an actual player because we we watch as many of these games as we can and I try to notice trends and try to tell people what’s going on, but I I’m not living it. I’m not experiencing it. I as much as I’d like to think that I could see what’s going on, I’m not noticing that you’re getting 80% pitches on the outside black. I it’s minor league angles partially the issue with like the minor leagues. That’s why it’s hard to understand like there’s no access for you guys to True Media to whatever it may be. Like we don’t we don’t even have that access. We have to like ask for it, you know? It’s hard. So trying to like understand that just for me as a player like it’s not always about the the gray line stats like it everyone always says like it always evens out. It it never evenss out because no one hits 500. So like how can we get to the best like how can we get to the best like gray line numbers but also the underlying metrics actually tell a better story as much as people are probably going to hate that. Like in the minor leagues no you could hit 500 in the minor leagues and no one would care if you hit zero in the big leagues. So, how can we get to the highest possible, you know, Eevee 90th contact rate, swing and miss rate, chase whiff, like all of the stuff that translates and how can we transfer that into the numbers part of the game? And that that’s like that was my game like or that was my like thought process the whole year was like the numbers will eventually work out. They they’re never going to even out, but they will work out. Um, and it’s like at the end of the year, uh, what, like 270, 840 ops, I think I 150 plus. Yeah, it’s the ISO. To me, the ISO numbers in DA is what I always feel that’s a good indication of things to come. and your ISO that was your highest ISO you’ve had. Yeah. Your professional career and and noticing that was to me that’s that’s an eye openener to me because we noticed that with any player that has come through when you start seeing the ISO creep up towards 200 in DA that’s a good to me at least that’s a good indication of things to come. Yeah. And I agree like I think ISO is a good number. Like I think it actually it tells a true picture. Like it tells tells a true story. Like if I can be in the 200s then that opens up a whole another realm of game. And that’s like the other thing is you start adding in more doubles, more um more triples and then obviously I had more homers this year. It’s like that’s it’s it’s starting to creep and now we just have to find ways to like replicate it because it was like if I took my double A season and just played it the whole year like that would have been awesome. Like I took obviously my my high numbers were good but they were inflated because I drew like 70 walks and like that’s great but you can’t walk your way to the big leagues. So we take out like you know I think I played 43 games in double A hit seven homers played 60s something in high hit seven homers so it’s like even that for me is like that’s cool like it was way substantially less games and the power stayed the same against better pitching too. Um and it was like I didn’t really like get the the eerie effect either like I think I only hit like one homer at Eerie. We were ready for that I think. Yeah. Yeah. It was uh first first game as a Moon Mammoth, I believe. Yeah. Yeah. Uh first home game. First home game. That’s right. Game LMCU. That place was sick. That was fun, though. Like, but that’s that is the thing that like I kind of think about myself is like how can we make it to where the the numbers that aren’t seen on the top shelf like stay the same per level? Because that just shows that you’re not getting like dominated. Like even if the numbers of the like gray numbers are bad, if your underlying numbers are good, it at least shows that you’re either having a swing issue, getting unlucky, like it tells a tells a more true story. And you know, it’s funny, we basically whenever we post a highlight, the first comment is always call them up. Doesn’t matter what level could be in the big less, they’re going to call you up to whatever is higher. Yeah. U it it is always one like because you guys have put up these these great stats and people are like, “What’s taking so long?” And it’s like I assume there’s underlying stuff they want you to work on. I don’t know if they communicate that with you, but um there’s always more to it, right? Like it’s it’s not just uh because Justice Bigby hit like 370 in doubleA a couple years ago. We’re like, “Oh, here it goes.” And then you got to AAA and he couldn’t replicate that and he’s back in double A. So there’s more to it than just the raw numbers. Yeah, 100%. There’s just there’s so many stats out there that like even me I grew up with it and I still don’t even understand it all. Like it’s I mean they could tell you like my chin angle at half a jump from center field. Like I I don’t even know dude. It’s insane. So well cuz the the hardest battle is like understanding what you need to but also not letting it consume you. And especially like when I first got there I wanted every metric ever because I didn’t have any of those in high school especially not in Indiana. Like we had one singular prostalker gun. Like that’s it. So, it was it was nice to at least have substance and then actually, you know, two years later like you understand what it all means and you can actually apply it. Yeah. I think if anybody’s bothering you about the [ __ ] angle, just tell them to go away. I guess unless it’s Lombard or whatever, but um No, it is it does crack me up just thinking about because I I could picture even 10 years ago uh coaches acting like u you know the coach from from major league and be like, “Clark, I want you hitting the ball on the ground and running. Use those legs.” Yeah. Exactly. Uh but I have you didn’t run a ton this year. I you still what stole 19 bases or whatever. I don’t is that partially because you got McGonagal and Braneno and those guys hitting behind you. Is it like an org thing or is it just something you you not really focus on? Honestly, it was a little bit of So the first six weeks I didn’t have my legs under me. Um I actually had a miserable case of shin splints as crazy as that sounds. Um so it was actually tough. Like the first six weeks I got I mean I I think I think I attempted two bases. Um and then that was like when everyone just started raking and it was like I would get I would get a read on a pitcher and then the second pitch Kevin hit a homer. It’s like all right well this is like I mean what do you do? The Dayton series. Yeah. Score like 75 runs or something like that. More than that. We played three g we played three of the five together. So me, Brucey, and Kevin were in the lineup back to back to back three times. Every single game started three to zero because Brano hit a home run. Every single first at bat of those three games. It It was That was the most absurd performance I have ever seen in my entire life out of a player. Especially the grand slam um that put us ahead that literally you couldn’t even see it. He hit it so hard and it was about right here on his head. just pure tomahawk. Our hitting coach, Matt Malot, literally goes, “Hey, Bruce, they’re gonna throw you a fast ball.” And he goes, “Okay.” And first pitch, like just destroys it. And like it was one of those things where like I don’t even know it. It was an out-of- body experience for all of us because we were all just like he’s going to hit a homer and then he did. Like we just knew it was happening. So especially I couldn’t imagine walking Kevin and being like that was a good idea. Like I I love I love their manager, but like I you can’t you just have to pitch to both of them. You can’t walk one, load him up and let Brano hit and you can’t let Kevin hit and like I mean you just you have to do something because they also like they didn’t just walk him. They let Kevin hit but they didn’t even come close to the zone. Yeah. So then you know a Heater’s coming the first pitch next at bat and it’s going to be close cuz he’s thrown four straight and I mean it looked like a dude hitting off a tea. I mean like it it couldn’t have been better. It it was incredible. No, I remember too the Dayton announcer was that was the most complimentary he’s ever been about West Michigan. He was like the Tiger system has been and he basically said politely the Tiger system has been trash for a long time. Yeah. And it was like I think it was the Sunday or Saturday game or whatever it was, but I remember him just it was like a five minute we we clipped it because it was just like it was like astonishing. He was I remember seeing the clip. It was awesome. Yeah. He said they kept drafting guys from the ACC and SEC who could not play. I was like oh jeez it’s kind of rough but it’s true. Yeah. Lord. Uh but no, that’s another interesting thing and it’s stuff like we can’t know this. We don’t know this. or will never tell this to fans or whatever, but how injured you guys are throughout the course of the season. And I remember when we met you guys in in Erie, both you and Kevin looked like you’d been swimming with alligators. Your legs were absolutely chewed up. I’m like, you just never see this. But yeah, how how often are you like 100% healthy during the season? First game of the year. That’s about it. I mean, like literally, it’s the fatigue doesn’t set in. Um especially now that I’ve had a year under my belt, the fatigue didn’t really start hitting me until July. Um, and I got really lucky because like both years I’ve gone first, you know, three months July hits, I go to the futures games, get a huge second win. It’s just pure adrenaline. Like it’s really exciting. Then I got called up like the week later, another spurt of adrenaline. So for me, like this year it was awesome because I was starting to die at the end of that Dodgers series because it was just like we played the same teams like seven time. We played Lake County 14 times in the first half. You know what I mean? And it’s just like mentally it’s it’s so mentally draining even if it’s not your fatigue like bodily yet. So I’m like get me out of here. Luckily I do I do end up getting called up. We are all so ecstatic. Like especially with me, Kevin, and Brie all going at the same time. That was unbelievable. Um really cool moment. Lots of adrenaline. And then I had like a pretty good first series in DoubleA which was exciting. and then immediately to the futures games came back and then the playoffs too. So the playoffs added like another third spurt because my August was miserable. Obviously the wrist like was not fun to deal with. Um and then like I got through it but I at that point I was dragging cuz I had been like on meds like trying to get healthy and then you finally get healthy and then playoffs hit and it’s like the biggest like no because nobody cares anymore. Like once playoffs hit it’s like all I want to do is win. That that’s all that matters. There’s no mental fatigue. There’s no bodily because it’s all adrenaline. And then you just go out there and play. You play free. Both series were fun. Altuna and Binghamington packed it out. Like it was And then obviously Erie, but like that was a given. Um but like it was it was so so nice. This this year I definitely felt at least competitive through the whole year. Like when we got to September last year, I literally felt like I was swinging a table. Like it it it was just so hard. Well, and I think that’s one thing that also kind of goes un under sort of appreciated is is being able to stay healthy. Like I I know you had you had the wrist briefly where I thought, you know, when it happened, I’m like, “Oh [ __ ] that’s that’s a handmade.” Me too, brother. Me too. And and then I swear last year there was something I don’t know if it was ankle or something in Lakeland. I’m like, “Oh no, that’s bad.” And you came out of the game and then you were back like the next day. I’m like, “Oh, wow.” Yeah. I’ve gotten lucky, man. Like I do put a lot of time into the body. like I’m on every single like dietary supplement you can t take to increase recovery. I track it all. Um I’m a big like I use a pisen band which is very similar to like a whoop. Um but it tracks everything like eat clean, sleep, all above. Um and so I just take pride in it. I also think like from a strength foundation I’ve built so much longevity just from playing football. Um because the weight room it it taught me so much different like ways to move than I would have learned just doing what I was doing in high school. Um and then once we got to the Tigers, that profile has been unbelievable. That movement profile is completely incredible. Um it’s made me way more mobile, way more comfortable. Um but yeah, I mean the one in Lakeland last year, I guess I just like slid wrong. Um, my hip like felt like it exploded, but nothing happened at all. I think I just like popped my hip and it was probably something I needed for like five years and it finally went. Um, and then I was fine. Like I didn’t even I walked off the field and I was like, “Dude, I feel fine.” So that was huge. Um, and then the wrist was just like a nerve misfire or something cuz nothing even came over it. Um, just got some like Advil and couple days of rest and I was like fine. Um I you know I like it was a little like painful I guess during the end of the season um just because I had pissed it off. Um but after that like by end of August like I forget who we played at the end there like that Altuna series I was feeling fine. Um the the last regular season series I felt pretty good. So um but yeah or Portland that was the first week I felt like 100% again. So, so as far as like you know you you talked about playing football is it too I feel like sometimes growing up like all of us Chris Chris and I both played multiple sports at the same time and I feel now like for example I have my nephew and my niece who are both playing travel baseball travel uh uh softball and they are my brother’s got them into other sports. Do you think that that is I think to me something that’s not stressed upon that I think that kids seem like they’re getting in that one track way too early but like I the best some of the best athletes I’ve ever seen for example best guy on my basketball team was a guy who played playing professional hockey so how important you were talking about the the importance of football do you think that that’s still that’s lost upon that kids are getting specialized way too early in your I 100% do I’m a huge advocate for multisports I played baseball football my entire life. Um the only one I didn’t play through high school is basketball. Didn’t play my senior year. Um and I completely stand on the fact that you you should be playing multiple sports. Um I think like 10 yearear-olds who are playing baseball year long is like ridiculous. Like go play football with your friends, go play soccer with your friends, whatever you want. Like you look at uh like Jacob Lombard right now, one of the best players in the 26 class. Freak athlete. Freak. Probably the best athlete in that class. and he plays baseball and then he plays soccer and it’s like it’s just so different. You’re training so many different muscles by playing different sports. There are things that I would have never done had I not played football. Um agility cuts, like 10 yard flies, all this stuff in short bursts that have translated. I mean, I played receiver, so tracking a fly ball in center field, the exact same thing as tracking a football. Run to the spot and catch a damn thing. I mean, breaks, cuts, routes, all of this has helped, at least for me, tremendously on the defensive side. And then also all the conditioning that comes with those. Like I’ve never been in better shape than when I was playing all three. I mean, when I especially when I was playing basketball, like I was completely toned, completely shredded. Like I I still wish I kind of did like just play that too. Like I wish I was still running around and doing all of that. And um it it just helped so much for me. I loved it. Um, I just don’t think that like I don’t think you’re really losing that much by playing another sport. Now, I get it if you know basketball season bleeds into baseball and and baseball bleeds into football like in Texas, I get that. Like, whatever. Like, it’s tough. But if you can play baseball and run track, if you can play baseball and play football, like, I know you can’t play three at those massive prep schools, but being able to do something else, play pickup basketball. I played pickup basketball my entire high school career. we’d go to some rec center like move around, run, jump, all this stuff that just trains twitch uh fast twitch muscle fibers like it is so important at least for me because I’ll still do things like a lot of my sprint work now um and like agility work is very similar to the stuff I was doing in football and this is how like how professional baseball athletes are trained. So it all blends together when it comes to like strength and conditioning. So having as many different muscle groups activated, strengthened, elongated is so important. And it goes for all the sports. I saw a clip of of Nick Sabin talking about how he used to he used to go after track athletes uh to play corner or defensive back and then he they could never catch the ball. Yeah. Went to baseball players. He’s like, “Yeah, it’s like you said, it’s like tracking tracking a ball. Tracking a football is same as tracking a baseball.” Yep. Um, now the uh along the lines of that training, you’ve been posting a lot of videos of you doing, you know, swings uh and I think you’re working on uh bat speed. Yeah, you’re working on a lot of a lot of things, but I saw one comment about that. Yeah, I do. So, I’ve been following a program that um one of my train so my current head hitting coach from Franklin um he actually has a buddy who is the head coach at Hanover College and they created like a little miniature like bat speed program using the driveline bats um and then we amplified it and it’s been incredible. I did it last season uh or excuse me last offseason. It really helps not just like build bat speed but it helps speed up the body and help help it sink. Um, like a lot of things that people like don’t understand about bat speed is it doesn’t just mean like how obviously how fast you can move the bat, but your rest the rest of your body has to move fast too. Um, it all is all based off of kinematic sequencing, which is the way in which your knee, torso, hip, arm, it all syncs up and delivers at the same time. And so swinging uh it’s a 3737, a 3636 with the barrel load, a 3636 with the hand load, and then a drop 10 like a little baby T-ball bat. And so it’s all about different sinking, different weights, turning them as fast as possible, but also like maintaining your normal swing. Like I don’t I don’t really change my swing when I do bat speed. Like I’m taking the same swing. It might get a little dramatic at time, a little forward. Um, but it’s forcing you to turn because if you don’t, like especially with the green bat, the green is the one that’s barrel loaded. If you don’t turn that, it just falls out of your hands. It’s so heavy. Same thing with the like the 37 inch 37 ounce. If you don’t stay tight with that, like you’re going to hit it off the handle and it’s going to hurt really bad. So, um, like it’s it’s just little things like that that force synchronization, that force fast move movements, um, and just help build it. I mean, overall, like my my goal I’ve always had like plus blast speed, but the goal is to just continue to raise the ceiling with it. I don’t need to be the guy that’s averaging 79. Like, I’m not that’s not my game. That would never will be. I make I make too much contact to have that level of bat speed. But like if we can get into, you know, the averaging like 73 in game, 74 in game, and then like the the bat speed 90th being at 79 miles an hour, getting to a 50% fast swing rate, like little things like that that do make a difference and actually do matter. That is what because this is a huge you guys are going to get probably destroyed by like all the drive line people saying that that hate drive line saying how bass feet stupid. So be ready for that. But like it’s not just about like it’s not just about your top end bass speed. Like there’s so many different things that go into it and it it genuinely for me it’s not just about pure bat speed either. It’s it’s synchronizing the body um and swinging different weighted bats helps me do that. Well I think when people think about like increasing bat speed they just think of you swinging harder or faster or whatever and yeah not staying online or whatever. to me. You know, it’s funny you say, you know, if you don’t stay tight with that 37 that it’s you just go off the the the handle. Yeah. So, you’re kind of negatively training yourself or or negative reinforcement. It’s it’s just the swinging equivalent of running and touching that pole. Yeah. 100%. Yeah. It’s funny. It all comes around. Yeah. The the head guy at Dryline, his name is escaping my head. I think it’s like Kyle Body. Yeah. Body. Yeah. And like he just put out a great tweet about how like the the misinformation about bat speed is is ridiculous. Like especially after the Blue Jays hitting coach came out and was like emphasizing how they train bat speed and every Twitter goon got a hold of it and was like bat speed’s stupid. It’s like no it’s not. It’s incredible. And when people were in the 70s and 80s they were also trying to swing the bat harder. Same thing with like exabilo and launch angle and all this [ __ ] It’s like we just have terms for them now. You guys just said, “Let me hit it harder and farther.” Like, it’s the same idea. We’re all just trying to create a better moving body to deliver a better and cleaner barrel. Like, we want to be as efficient as possible, as fast as possible, and create as much force. Just because we have tools that can measure that now does not mean it’s a negative. Yeah. Or I mean, you know, if you’re a doctor and insulting people on batting swings and stuff like that, wink, you know, I mean, it also doesn’t help your cause either. That guy’s not a doctor. Yeah. Anyway, he’s got a bunch of letters in front of his name. So do I. Um, go ahead. Sorry. I No, no, you’re good, man. I was That’s incredible. That’s incredible. It is, you know, it is wild seeing all the old players and I I appreciate the older players who are like, “This this stuff is interesting. I wish we had that this when I was young, but there are a lot of them. They’re like like I was taught to swing down on the ball and that’s the way it should be.” Yeah, it’s like and I when I talked to dudes who actually like were great like I sat and talked with Ryan Klesco and uh Ken Griffy Jr. for six innings during the feature game. They use all the terms we do. Ride, cut, sink, sweep. They know it, they understand it, and they’ve adapted to the fact that that’s what’s used now. Like, and those dudes are some of the greatest hitters of all time. some of like the greatest players of all time and it’s just they understand like Jonah Tong was on the mound and uh like I think Klesco said it looked like really steep and he was like and then literally King Griffy goes like yeah it’s got a ton of ride. I was like whoa I did not expect that like that was cool. So then we just started diving in and it was like I we talked about like the numbers and like what they mean and what’s average and how it relates to gravity like how it relates to the barrel what what you have to do and it’s like it’s very easy to understand. And it’s just like the ability to not want to adapt, I guess. But it’s just you see you see people who actually like changed the game back in the day that were like just generational of generational players that are willing to understand it and like think it’s good. Like that’s that’s a good sign. Yeah. Yeah, like George Bret came and talked about like he was on a podcast last year about launch angle and how his bat always stayed through the plane and he’s basically saying what people are saying now and just putting in modern terms. 100%. Yeah. Uh so one of the last questions I want to ask you is terms of like as you’re talking about um your offseason evol like evolving as you continue to grow on. What is your before spring training routine look like? Does that look different now than it did last year as you get ready for spring training as you kind of do do more rest? Um, how do you prepare for that comparatively speaking from high school to your to present day? I think so. When I first got out of high school and I was first like my very first offseason, it was like go go go. I think I excuse me. I think I peaked a little bit early. I think that’s why I got tired at the end of the year. Like I didn’t understand the the actual fatigue of playing 130 games. come back after last year. Took three weeks off probably of swinging. Um maybe maybe a little more, but I took more time off like understood what I needed to do. Um but I still had to start pretty early because I had changes to make like sub substantial changes. And then fast forward to this year, it’s like this is the first year where I’ve gone into an offseason and I didn’t want to tinker. I didn’t want to change anything. I didn’t need to necessarily change anything. Like there are little things that I’ve been given internally to like work on and cues and ideas and what might work, but like the biggest thing I’ve done is like add a toe tap. That’s that’s what I’m working on right now. I think it’s going to be gamechanging for me. But it’s like that’s it. And that doesn’t change anything. How I hold my hands, how I move my body, how I do any of that. So it’s made this off season a little bit easier in terms of like I can attack each day with the same goal. I don’t have to keep changing each and everything. It’s all about efficiency. Like the if I could like name this off seasonason, it would be efficiency. Turning the barrel as efficiently as possible, getting the body in the position as efficiently as possible and ready to go like at release. Like I hate that term, but like actually like being ready to go instantly. Um getting like a cue I’ve always said is like getting the slack out. Like I don’t want slack in my body. I don’t want to feel loose, but I don’t want to feel overly tight either. like I want to feel strong and ready to go. Um, and just being in a mode or in a in a position that allows me to interact with any pitch, lift it, play it, whatever I need to do in order to actually get a result I want. So, this has been one of the best offseasons ever because it’s all just like challenges. It’s it’s let’s hit this pitch, let’s hit this one, let’s use this bat. like so many different things that I could have just thrown at myself in order to create these moves. Whether it’s weighted bats, marv balls, regular baseballs, constraints, belts, doesn’t matter. Because there’s no real change. It’s all about just reinforcing, excuse me, my current moves and making them a little bit better because that’s like we’re at the point where there isn’t a lot of change. It’s it’s all about reinforcement. It’s all about, you know, until there’s a substantial change that needs to be made, you just keep reinforcing what you’re doing to make it, like I said, as efficient as possible. So, it’s been fun. Um, I’m excited personally, like I’m ready to get down to Florida. Uh, I go down early every year, so get in the sun. It’s freezing here already. So, uh, run around. Yeah, exactly. Like, run around, throw the ball, take some reps in the outfield. Um, but yeah, I’m I’m ready to get down there. ready to, you know, play some baseball. Yeah. You know, it’s interesting that that uh it does feel like you’re at that point where you talked about earlier about just, you know, trying to adjust to the adjustments. It’s kind of the cat-and- mouse game now where you’re getting to these guys who are the same, you know, getting close to the same talent level and same level of execution. It’s all about the adjustments now. Um, and so the last thing I want to talk to you, and I we talk to you as long as you want to talk to us, it’s it’s always a blast. Super enlightening. Uh, but I do like I do like talking about other players uh players you played against and so forth and so on because it’s it’s kind of interesting like uh you know I I kept seeing Nick Morabito in the AFL and I’m like stole that hit from you in the ninth inning in game two. I’m like oh god what a ridiculous catch that was. Yeah, great catch. And and you talked earlier about getting tired of playing. I can’t I can only imagine how tired it tiring it must be to see uh it’s it’s tiring enough to watch because we see the the Cleveland affiliates in and hia AA and Triple A. I don’t I could I don’t need to see Jonah Oula ever again. Yeah, exact Midwest against only the White Caps player of all time. Like literally the greatest. But yeah, so you get you get that and and I I assume you’re going to get a ring for the White Caps. Um, but you know, we get to double A, we see see guys like I think Raj was out there for before you guys were up there. He he caught Yarlon Susanna early in the season who and then you guys I don’t know if you were in that game when he pitched. He’s the one that exploded my wrist. So Oh, okay. There you go. Yeah. So it all melts together. But then like those two dudes from Somerset, is it Lraange and Rodriguez Cruz? Like there’s some legit arms in DoubleA. I’m just kind of curious about players who stuck out to you. Yeah, I mean like from an arm standpoint, I I mean, uh, Trey Gibson was the best arm I saw in DoubleA. He I I mean, he literally made one start and was like, “All right, I’m going to triple AAA.” It was ridiculous. Um, the tunneling, the stuff like it it literally looked like a big leager. Um, everything was tight, everything was firm, and he could put it literally wherever he wanted it. Um, it it was impressive. Like it was one of those days where like I walked in the park and I was like, “Shit, I hope I get a hit today.” Like I hope I get one. Um and hopefully he gets out of the game in, you know, four or five innings. Like he was electric. Um and then like you said, ERC is disgusting on Somerset. He’s he has some of the best spin I’ve ever seen. Um spins everything hard, throws everything hard. Um I was more comfortable against him just because of the heater. Um his heater played to my bad path. So, if I could just lay off spin, we’re in a good spot. Uh, really good splitter, though. Then, obviously, you look at Lraange. I mean, it’s 102 mph at and he has one of the most ridiculous change ups. And same with Susanna. Like, I’ve never seen someone that throws that hard be able to like command a change up like that because usually they just throw a 92 m hour sinker. This was like a real 93 mph change up. It was It was disgusting. Um, I thought Wine was really good on Bingmpington. Um, I thought I had the best abs against him. I I felt very comfortable. I got some really good swings off, but he had four legit pitches. Um, trying to think of who who Oh, uh, I don’t remember who it was on um, Altuna. But, uh, disgusting splitter. Oh, Emanuel Chapman. Best splitter I’ve seen. Really good stuff. And then I’ve seen I think I think he was on um what’s Baltimore? That’s Chesapeake. Yeah, Chesapeake. Chesapeake. Uh Jawan Watts Brown. Great. Like really good dude. Tons of good stuff. Oklahoma State. Yeah. OSU. He got traded from the Blue Jays. I faced him in lowway. Um and then I got him when he got traded. Uh, he punched me twice on six pitches, but I got him back on a homer, so it checks out. It all evens out. But he has he is the best curveball. I’d give him the best curveball award. Those are Yeah, that’s a that’s a good, Susanna. Watching him playing early in the year in the first game of the season where he was able to drop his he was hitting 103 and then he went in there and just dropped at 91 and was like, “What the [ __ ] are you gonna do with that?” Yeah, dude. That’s like that’s what we all talked about as guys is like Lraange is like the firepower. Like he has an electric heater. It’s like death sinker and like kind of carry. Like it plays like carry off the sinker. But Susanna just throws fuel and it’s dead straight. So that’s a little more comfortable. But then he has a way better slider. Like light years better slider. It is a legitimate 50 60 pitch. And he he that’s like he kind of commands it. And that’s what I’m talking about. Like a lot of guys just kind of throw it in there, but he throws it at your back foot and you better pray that you either foul it off or don’t swing because you are not going to you’re not going to square it up. It’s a really good pitch. Yeah. And you probably will see him at the major some point. So Max, thanks so much for joining us. One last thing. Sorry I’m monopolizing your time, but it’s it’s great hearing you talk about these other guys, but you do get to play against some guys in the Tigers or sometimes in spring, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, I’m curious if there’s there’s guys that we are not focusing on enough or people who are nastier than we would ever imagine just looking at the data or looking at the live footage. Troy Watson, ridiculous. Um, especially after like I mean I saw everybody saw the stuff from Tourett about his command. Um, but I got to play with him in DoubleA too like a couple couple starts and dude he’s a great guy. Like he’s a fun guy to be around. He’s disgusting and he’s got that like f you. Like he’s got the the pitcher like mentality. I like it. I dig it. Um and he just wants to go bury you. Like I respect guys like that. He’s got he’s got good [ __ ] Like I would be very surprised if he’s not on a big league roster. Like he’s so good. Um who else? I’m trying to think of like someone who got me good in this. Joe Miller owns me. Disgusting. Um, and his VO is like ticking up too. I mean, he was he’s like 94. He was so good in West Michigan. So good. Um, shout out my guy Carlos Lara, legend. J. Um, no, it was fun to play with him. Every time he came into clubs, we were like, [ __ ] this one’s over. Three ground balls and it’s it’s done. So, um, oh, I really liked Ellis. I faced him in live abs. Um, he was gross. And I I didn’t know who he was actually like when I when I first got there. like he it was his first year, first spring. Um could command everything like really good stuff. Um trying to think of anybody who’s like new or like really under the radar. Did Did you ever get Sears at all? I know you played with him there at the end of I got him in I don’t think I faced him this year. I think I faced him last year. All right. Um he drilled me in the elbow which sounds like out but same kind of thing, dude. like huge huge confidence. Like I love it, dude. His nickname’s psycho, so I mean that explains itself. It’s not hard to figure out why. Yeah, you watch the money. Like you watch him pitch, it’s like, dear God, what is coming at me? Um Jake Miller obviously disgusting. I got him. He’s good. Um like had you asked me this in the spring, I would have said Troy Melton. There you go. was I mean and the prophecy came true. He’s disgusting. Magno was gross. He was really tough left on left. Yeah. Um I’m trying to think I’m trying to think of one more like really obscure one that might be a surprise. Uh oh. Um reliever. He went he just went up to Hay. Uh he he I think he’s rule five eligible too. Moises Rodriguez. Marco. Yeah. Moises. Thank you. I couldn’t remember his I couldn’t just say Rodriguez I Moises. Yeah, he is just high octane. Gross. Good stuff. Command whatever. But like 101 and some good off speed, too. Like he has good offerings. Nice. No, that’s awesome, man. I appreciate that. That’s it’s always it’s just super enlightening to get uh somebody to hear from somebody who’s who uh who plays the game at a high level, a very high level, and also can speak the game. So I like you know we’ll see we’ll see you out in the field this year and then you know 25 years down the line we’ll see you in the booth or wherever you want to be. So sounds good to me. Absolutely. Well Max uh thanks again for the time and congratulations on what’s going on here in a few weeks and uh enjoy the time before season starts and we’ll see you I’ll I’m going to be down in Lakeland this year. So we’ll see you down in Lakeland and uh Perfect. Yeah, continue the videos man. They’ve been awesome and keep killing it and uh um yeah congratulations again man. Thank you. I appreciate it, guys. Thanks so much. All right, let’s just end this here. Okay.
The guys talk to outfielder Max Clark about swing mechanics, toughest Tigers pitcher he has faced and his offseason plans.
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4 comments
Stoked to hear this one
Wow. This is really cool guys. Max seems like a good dude and a really smart ball player. I can see him being the Tigers CF and leadoff hitter for the next 10-15 years.
Terrific interview , what a personable guy , I love the last question about the Tigers pitchers heliked .
Really enjoy these interviews.