Just asking... why was the pitching better under Bertman?

He was the best at calling a game, nobody better. He always knew what pitch to call.

He had a very good memory allowing him to be great at calling pitches

R I P Beetle Bailey

Gorilla Ball leads for LSU Aces was downright comical in NCAA tourney play. You're talking about collegians 4 to 5 rungs down the ladder from MLBers in talent and discipline at the plate.

Once LSU jumped on Wichita, Texas, Stan, USC, UCLA, Stan,etc..fastball aces for huge leads..

Skip would have LSU pitchers get ahead in the counts, then make frustrated opposing teams go fishing for garbage sh!t down in the zone or off the plate..can't remember how many times I saw dust kick up on swings from balls and batters whiffing in the dirt..you also had LSU Nation getting in their ears and heads.

Two things that stand out about Skip's style in coaching pitchers:

#1. He focused a lot on trying to put the ball on the black of the plate (or even beyond it) on every pitch, either on the inside or the outside. He did not suffer pitchers who threw down the middle of the plate for very long.

#2. His impatience with mental errors was legendary. When you hear funny stories about Skip from people who played for them, often they are stories about things he told pitchers on the mound about how bad they sucked. He could be mean, but it's still sort of funny to hear about.

#3. He was famous for wasting a lot of 2-strike pitches, especially on 0-2 counts. I would even argue that he might have gotten a little carried away and went too far with the extent to which he instructed pitchers to throw curveballs in the dirt, but it did impart a valuable point for new guys to learn.

Not bashing PM but during his tenure, it seems that after the starter is done, LSU often has trouble.

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He developed pitchers better than anybody, which was why he was once the pitching coach for the USA Olympic team.

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Also was pitching coach @ Miami before he took
the job @ LSU.

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Thats a flaw every coach in the history of baseball has if you listen to the fans

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Yep, we fans who watched Skip from his first season at LSU really don’t notice which coaches pull a pitcher too soon, at the right time, or too late. Guess we are just too dumb to understand the game – but we really love it when we are ahead in the fourth quarter.

Coach Bertman's ability to see the game and pick out A batters weakness and apply his pitchers strength to fit was legendary. Ask any fellow player how many times we heard him say " going to throw this kid a batting practice fastball, watch him jump on it early and hit a weak flyball". It would happen over and over again.

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#3. He was famous for wasting a lot of 2-strike pitches, especially on 0-2 counts. I would even argue that he might have gotten a little carried away and went too far with the extent to which he instructed pitchers to throw curveballs in the dirt, but it did impart a valuable point for new guys to learn.

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Thats interesting.. As we currently seem to throw the 0-2 count right down the middle far too often.