Jose de Jesus Ortiz profiles Lance Berkman as the anti-Killer B.
Personality wise, Lance Berkman is the anti-Killer B. He doesn’t show up early or leave late, traits Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio have displayed while setting a high standard for generations of Astros.
He’s witty and outspoken, entertaining teammates and media with impersonations and cutting jabs. He’s a hitter above all else, though, which often leaves fans and teammates in awe of his majestic home runs or flabbergasted after his gaffes on the bases or in the field because his mind was on hitting.
So next time Berkman is making a mistake in the field, remember it’s due to his concentration on hitting:
“There have been times when I’ve made baserunning mistakes and done different things, maybe defensively forgot how many outs there were because I was thinking about either what I did in my last at-bat or what I’m going to do in my next at-bat,” said Berkman, the best hitter the Astros will throw at the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Championship Series, which begins tonight at Busch Stadium. “I know my job is to drive in runs, score runs and get on base. I’m constantly thinking about that, sometimes to the detriment of the team.”
It reminds me of that great quote from Revenge of the Nerds. “Jocks only think about sports…” 🙂
The armchair psychology stuff doesn’t impress me. I don’t think Berkmans’s main problem with the glove is that he thinks about hitting too much.
His real problem is that he’s slow and gotten slower with the knee injury. At first base this year, where Berkman almost qualified with 738.2 innings, his fielding percentage was an okay .994 and his range factor was actually a very good 10.02.
In other words, he can scoop the ball well and doesn’t futz up too many plays. Maybe he’s thinking about hitting, but it doesn’t show up in fpct or range factor.
But his zone rating is a bad .828. He just has trouble running down a ground ball or a popup.
This might improve as the knee recovers completely. But thinking or not thinking about hitting probably doesn’t have much to do with it.
casey is right about the slow. he gets BAD jumps in the OF – looks like he’s almost not bothering to try to get to the ball. in fact, he looks like biggio did last year and that is NOT good. except for throwing – he still has a very strong and very accurate arm – unlike biggio.
but all i can say is that if he spends all his time thinkin bout hitting, he sure wasn’t doin too much thinking last night with all those first pitch swing/GB outs!!!!!!!!!