On Tuesday, former Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes took the hill for the second time during spring training for the Brewers. During his first outing he experimented with calling a few of his own pitches in order to minimize the chance of a pitch clock violation. His second time out, he again was getting comfortable with the pitch clock but was also pursing advantages within the timing system.
In the video, Corbin Burnes says that the key to pitching is making hitters feel uncomfortable while in the batters box. The new pitch clock and timeout rules are something he wants to explore to look for more ways to add discomfort for hitters in the box.
“You can find ways to get the hitter even more uncomfortable in the box. Whether it’s long holds, really it becomes our (pitchers) advantage once the hitter takes that time out because now you control the rate of pitch and they feel even more uncomfortable even after taking the time out. Ways to get them to burn that time out, get them uncomfortable in the box, it’s all just another layer to the game.”
Burnes, who is a big advocate on the mental side of sports performance, is clearly ready to find all the ways possible to use the pitch clock to his advantage. Tempo is important for both pitchers and batters, but Burnes is making the case that once a hitter uses his time out that the advantage clearly shifts to the pitcher. It appears that this will be a big focus of his going forward.
If you combine having to worry about Corbin Burnes dictating the pace of an at-bat with the fact that he already throws a nearly untouchable cutter, opposing batters are in for a tough time.
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