Interview with Atlanta Braves reliever prospect Corbin Clouse

Chase: The Braves are known by places like Baseball America and MLB Pipeline for their active social media fan base when it comes to prospects. What has been your experience in interacting with that fan base?

Clouse: The fan base on social media is amazing. I really try not to get caught up in all of it because it’s just social media, and that goes for the good and the bad things said. End of the day, I just need to go out and play the way I play. It is really good to see a fan base accept a late round guy out of a small town and college and root for him, so to that I say thank you, Braves fans!

Chase: In college, you threw a pair of fastballs along with your trademark slider and a curve, with a change making a rare appearance, per one scouting report found on the interwebs. What is it about your sinker and slider that makes them so effective against hitters on both sides of the plate? Any particular odd grip that you learned along the way that has helped or just the way it’s always broken out of your hand?

Clouse: I really don’t have an answer as to why they are so effective. I know my two-seam runs and dives a lot, so much that sometimes I can’t control it, and my slider is a late breaker if you will. I do have two different sliders that I will throw though, one being a loopy curveball almost and the other being a hard sharp late one usually for strike three. They are both thrown with the same grip one I just get more on top of.

My changeup has made some huge strides though. A ton of credit goes to Touki for showing me his grip. I changed it a tiny bit because my hands aren’t huge like his but it works for me. I have never had faith in a changeup as much as I do the one he taught me.

Chase: Were you prepared to move to the bullpen as a pro with the Braves, or did you hold out any hopes to start?

Clouse: I figured I was going to be a bullpen arm when I was drafted. I liked starting, but looking over the amount of arms the Braves had just drafted before me was eye-opening. I knew I wasn’t going to be a starting pitcher but I knew I had a chance to be one of the main bullpen arms.

Moving to the bullpen was an easy adjustment because of the way the Braves took care of me. I would go throw my one or two innings and I would have two to three days off in Danville. Then I got promoted to Rome and I would get one to two days off. They made the transition easy for me.