A brief excerpt from Olney's
pay-per-blog this morning:
"Berry isn't looking for Berkman to draw more walks, necessarily; it's not that kind of patience that he's looking for. He just wants Berkman -- who can hit anything -- to give himself better pitches to hit, which means "laying off pitches that might even be strikes," said Berry.
If a Broxton or a Carlos Zambrano or somebody else makes a vicious pitch early in the count for a strike, hey, no big deal, Berry figures; just wait for something else, something that can't be any tougher than what you just saw as a hitter. During Berkman's burst of offense, Berry said, "he's laying off some pitches that he would normally offer at."
Berry talks all the time to his hitters about the basic strategy that pitchers will employ: They're trying to get you to swing at a pitch that looks like it might be decent to hit, but it really isn't. And these are the pitches that Berkman has been ignoring. That's part of the reason he's thriving, with a .796 slugging percentage. "He's ready from Pitch One in his at-bats," said Berry, "and he's laying off some trick pitches.'"
