Why Max Clark Is One Of MLB's Elite Prospects

Max Clark has been extremely impressive looking like the hitter we thought he would be coming out of the draft when he was, you know, the number one or number two high school player, pretty much neck and neck with Walker Jenkins going back and forth for a couple years when they were in high school. Just really outstanding hand-eye coordination that he has. He's an elite contact hitter. He does not expand the strike zone all that much. And when he does swing, he rarely misses. He just has a really accurate barrel, serves the ball all around the field. And that's the one thing right now where he does not, there's strength to him, obviously, like if you've seen just his lower body strength, there's no question about that. And I think he will eventually grow into more power once he learns to drive the ball in the air, which he doesn't really do right now. But this is what you want to see in a young hitter. I see more and more now people get excited, not so much in baseball or scouts or people in player development, but maybe just people will look at a player's pull percentage being so high and viewing that as a good thing because, okay, yeah, if you want to hit for power, you really need to pull the ball in the air with very few physical mutant-type exceptions who can hit the ball the other way, the way some guys pull the ball. But as a young hitter, if your approach is extremely pull-conscious and extremely pull-oriented and you have that quick front hip, you're going to lose a lot of adjustability in your swing. And as you start to face better velocity and sharper breaking balls and harder sliders and pitchers who can locate those pitchers better than what you're seeing either in high school or college or certainly in what low A is right now, you're going to have a lot more trouble when you're seeing those better pitches with better location higher up if you're pulling off the ball and very pull-oriented. And I get more concerned when I see young hitters like that, whereas with Max Clark, yeah, I mean, there are fair questions about how much power is he ever going to grow into, but I would rather have a hitter like that who has the ability to manipulate the barrel and put the ball in play on pitches all throughout the zone and drive the ball to the opposite field and then learn which pitches he needs to hunt for damage in which situations for pull-side damage in the air once he gets into his early mid-20s, into his later 20s, into his prime years to develop that power later on. So will he ever hit for huge power? I don't know. I don't think he needs to either. Like if he's a 15-20 home-run guy, which I think he can be, I think that's going to be super valuable as a high-on base center fielder who defends his position well too. Yeah, I'm pretty much in entire agreement. I mean, I'm with you. Like not every single player needs to be this like elevate and celebrate pull-oriented hitter. It was an interesting conversation we had leading up to the draft with Travis Bazzano versus J.J. Weatherholt because they were both neck and neck in terms of profile, tool set, track record of hitting ability, and Bazzano's real strength was that he just got the ball in the air to the pull-side so frequently. And Weatherholt was more of this like spray the ball across the field type. Would you rather have the guy who's quote-unquote optimized now or do you think it's more exciting to maybe project on what Weatherholt could be once he did that more? I don't necessarily think there is like a one-size-fits-all batted ball angle or pull versus non-pull approach. And I do think like you said, like Max Clark has the tool set and the hitting ability to make this approach work even if he never decides that he wants or needs to turn on the ball with more frequency. I do think that he has solid raw power and that he's going to get a handful of those. But more importantly to me, like he is showing all of the skills to comfortably project a plus hitter. I mean, he never misses in zone. He does not expand the zone. He's been very patient, maybe towards the extremes of patient early this year, which it's not really much of an issue for me. I think he's always had a pretty good approach. His overall miss rates are excellent. He does hit the ball the other way a ton. And I think that he is a guy who given his speed, how he gets out of the box, the intent with which he runs down the line so consistently, like he's going to pick up a lot of hits doing it that way. And I think in general, like looking at baseball at a macro level, like having different styles of hitters is just fun. And I'm with you. I look at him and I see a definite center fielder who's going to stick there. And if the power is more fringy and average in peak years, I think that's still going to be a perfectly rock solid above average player. I mean, how differently would you view him to a guy like Pete Armstrong, different physicalities and bodies, but in terms of where they're playing and their strengths and weaknesses, I think they're reasonably similar. And I would probably have more confidence in Max Clark and his hitting ability at the same time. I, I might've liked Pete Crow Armstrong more than anybody in high school. So he was here at breakout pick this year and it's looking good. So maybe you're the right guy to Well, I might be the wrong guy to ask comparing them. Cause I think, well, Pete Crow Armstrong is a superior defender. And I would say that about anybody compared to Pete Crow Armstrong as a, as a high school player. He's just a phenomenal, phenomenal defensive center fielder. He's always had that for as long as well, as long as I've ever seen him since he was 16 years old. And I, I, where I was higher on PCA as an amateur was then a lot of people was, I really believed in his hitting ability. Like I thought he was a really good hitter who had all, I guess, yeah, thinking about it now, he had a lot of the same qualities that Max has or has had, whatever you want to call it at high school or even right now. I liked his ability to make a lot of contact, use the whole field. Wasn't wasn't as physical as Max Clark. Not that Clark is all that tall, but Clark is, he's really strong. He's super strong. Yeah. He looks like he could deadlift a Volvo, right? I mean, he's, he's really strong. He's he's a thick lower half guys. Armstrong was more of a wiry ish guy in high school. Who's starting to come into more impact now. And I think we could see that same offensive trajectory potentially from Max Clark. I, I, I think I overrated PCAs pure hitting ability, maybe coming out of high school, but at least compared to Max Clark, because Max Clark right now, I mean, his end zone, they were talking about it's under 10% right now. It's the best mark of most of the hitters. We're going to talk about on the top 100 today. And it's really an elite figure. Very, yes. Very, very, the one thing in their offensive profile that stands out to me is I just think Max's plate skills are a bit better. Like I think that there's a chance for him to be a more well-rounded offensive player when the hits aren't falling. I think Max is still going to take walks. The PCA never took walks at a super high rate. Like once he got beyond low A it was kind of always a sub 10% walk rate. And so far in the majors, it's been like near the bottom of the scale, I would say. So that is maybe if it doesn't like, I think he's still a good player even with that. But I just think that gives you like a little bit more, maybe floor offensively. I know floor and ceiling is kind of tough to just throw out there, but I do think they're interesting to compare and contrast and think through.