Atlanta Braves Scouting Report on Reliever Corbin Clouse

Scouting Report

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Size/Delivery

Clouse is listed at 6′ and 230 pounds. He pitches exclusively out of the stretch. Clouse throws from a pretty standard stretch delivery, releasing the ball from a low 3/4 slot.

He showed some struggle in keeping his hand over the ball, especially on his slider, and when he would get more on the side or behind the pitch, he would see the ball drift up in the zone, and it became much more hittable up in the zone.

Clouse gets good extension toward the plate with a big step from his lead leg. This does get him off balance, however, and he is not able to resolve this balance until he falls off to his glove side after each pitch. A number of hitters mentioned his falling off as distracting to their swings, but that isn’t a deception that he can count on going forward for sure. The falling off, however, can lead to some control struggles, so working on finding a consistent follow through could be a big help in shoring up his control, which had moments of wavering last season.

Pitches

Clouse in college worked with a four-seam fastball that ranged into the 93 area, a two-seam sinker that topped out in the low-90s, a wipeout slider, and a curve. He has thrown a curve, but he scrapped that in college before ever getting to pro ball.

The two pitches he focuses on in his work out of the bullpen are his two-seam sinker and his slider. The sinker is a pitch that sits in the 88-91 range most frequently, and he gets tremendous life on the pitch. He seems to be able to get run on both sides of the plate, but works best when he can get it thigh-high or below and let the natural movement of the pitch take it lower, inducing swing and misses and also inducing plenty of weak contact.

The slider ranged in the 81-85 range in the games I could find with a gun reading as part of the broadcast. The action he gets on the pitch, however is incredible. It almost looks like a curve, he gets so much depth on it, but he’s got no “hump” on the way to the plate like a curve. He tends to get run most frequently toward the toes of a right-handed hitter, but he can get more 12-6 movement as well.

Video

Next: Future outlook