The Nationals signed Sean Burnett to a two-year deal, avoiding arbitration with the relief pitcher. Burnett made huge strides in 2010, upping his strikeout rate for the second year in a row while finally getting control of the strike zone.
What changed for Sean was his approach with two strikes. In 2008 and 2009, he tried to get batters out in the strike zone:
In 2010, with two strikes, he made batters go after pitches that were tough to hit.
That’s a very nice adjustment by Sean, and it paid off.
Thanks to Baseball Analytics for the heat maps.