 Clark Schmidt Clark 2020 was a big year for you in terms of baseball. What do you take away from that season? Yeah, I mean it was I definitely learned a lot. It was definitely obviously it was an unprecedented season with all the extenuating circumstances with the COVID and all that stuff. But to be able to make it up the other end have a healthy year front to back get all my outings in whether it was at the alternate site or up in the big leagues. It was it was a really good year. I took a lot away from it. I learned a ton whether that was being around the guys or just working on my craft. I felt like I made a lot of a lot of really good strides and I'm really happy with where things are at. What were some of those strides and what areas did you feel like you grew this season? Well you know working down in the alternate site it was it was really a lot of development. You know I mean working with Sam Breen and Desi our pitching guide directors being with them day in and day out having them watch all my throwing sessions all my you know bullpens and games or whatever it may be it was way more hands-on. So you I got a lot of development that you typically wouldn't get in a year. You could work on things whether that was pitch development. For me I was working on my foreseam profile. I wanted to add a little bit more rides my foreseam to complement my two seam and just continue to refine the command of my fastball and and being able to work down that on the alternate site was it was a lot of fun and I felt like I made a lot of strides in those areas and there's obviously some things I continue to work on and those are things that I'm working on right now. Just continue to clean the arm path up and continue to be able to repeat my mechanics late in the games or are the big things that I'm working on right now and just continue into to be a strike thrower and also just attack the zone and not kind of not be afraid to nibble around the corners. You talked about trying to get some more ride on that foreseamer. How do you go about doing so what are they identified to help you get to that next step. Yeah. So there's a lot that goes into it. I think that with the way analytics are in baseball now the way edge electronics wrap so does slow motion cameras all the stuff that we use track man's. I think that the pitch development is at a place where it's never been before. I think that if you really spend some time and really put focus on a certain pitch or whatever you whatever area you're trying to work on you can really make a lot of improvement and a lot of gain a lot of ground. For me it was kind of a lot of finger position and a lot of like finger pressure on certain points of the baseball. So being able to work on the edge electronic as multiple times a week being able to be on the wrap soda with these guys. They're so good at what they do. And I made a lot of really really good strides with it. And I think by the end of the year it was it was almost like a completely different foreseeing than what it was in the beginning of the year. So I was really really happy with where I'm out with that right now. Is all the information ever too much where you're constantly diving in and you're starting to think too much when you're on the mound. Yeah I definitely can be too much. That's that's where I kind of fall back on what I said earlier. I think that in a typical season when you're out this year being at the alternate site you don't really have to worry about you know results as much as you would in a normal season. So I could really really focus and hone in on what I want my profile of my pitches to look like and what I want my mechanics to do and what I'm trying to do with the baseball rather than just being like OK I really need to strike this guy out or get it out here. So that's where I think I gained a lot of ground in the alternate site. And I think but in a normal season it can definitely be a rabbit hole where you kind of pay a little bit too much attention to it and you kind of nitpick and then you kind of get that ball rolling down the hill and it's kind of hard to bounce back from. So you kind of got to stay yourself from from getting in those two deeper holes. But it's good to work on things especially now during this time during the off season. I think I'm I put more work in than I've ever put in during this off season. I feel better than I've ever felt. So it's one of those things where I'm trying to keep this work and continue to feel good and kind of keep these weeks going consistently where I'm feeling the way I'm feeling. How do you manage how much you train and how much you throw in this off season considering everything that went on in 2020 and not really necessarily having clarity as far as what's going to happen in 2021. Yeah I think that's that's probably the biggest question and the hardest thing to gauge. I think that a lot of the big saying last year was I'd rather be overprepared and underprepared. And I think that that's still kind of range true today. But in the same sense you're trying to you don't want to overdo it a little bit too much and there's times where you kind of back off and kind of have a feel for things. But it's tough. I think nobody nobody really knows when season is going to get started. I think nobody knows if the spring train is going to get pushed back or not. We all hope that it's all going to start on time and kind of the world goes back to normal. So I'm I'm preparing as if it is. So I'm preparing as if we're going to have spring training normal time in February. And and hopefully that works out. So for me I'm just going to continue to put the work that I'm putting in and then let it let those chips fall where they fall and and just know that I'm going to be extremely overprepared and ready to go when spring training to start or spring training starts. Has your confidence reached a new level considering the fact that you did get some reps in the majors last year. You talked about some of the progress with some of your pitches as well. Yeah I think it's if you look at my results last year I I didn't do what I wanted to do. I didn't have a very good year results wise. And I think typically maybe you would talk to somebody and they would say that would kind of hurt their confidence for me. I think it it put my confidence. I know that I can get these guys out. So it's not like nothing took a knock on it at all. I think that I learned so much from last year whether it was a short amount of time and innings and small sample size. But I learned a lot. And I probably would say it motivated me even more. So I'm at a place right now where I'm kind of hungrier than ever to get back out there next spring and and kind of show that these guys that I can compete and help this team win a World Series. And I'm excited to come into spring training fighting for a rotation spot. That's something that that means a lot to me. I think last year there was kind of some extruding circumstances with the roster size and limitations and stuff like that. I mean not being on the roster. And this year that's not the case. So I'm hungry and I'm ready to go. And like you said I mean my confidence is higher than ever just because of work that I'm putting in the preparation. I think for me the confidence lies in the preparation that I'm putting in and I've never put this much in before. So yes I'm very confident.