In Jon Heyman's feel-good article on Dontrelle Willis, he mentions the decision to (not) pick up Berkman's option:
Lance Berkman's knee surgery is Exhibit A why teams should not pick up options ahead of time. Berkman tried to put public pressure on the Astros to pick his up. They made the right call to wait.
I never interpreted Berkman's discussion about his option as a way of pressuring the Astros to pick it up. But after the Astros got burned by picking up Coop's option last April, there's no way they'll make that mistake again. Because, don't forget, Coop will get paid $850,000 this year to not manage the Astros.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
