Alot of the pros seem to like that, I've noticed, just push the balls out of the corner and keep them in play towards the middle. They're playing a higher level than the rest of us, I think. I notice with my own playing that the big ball in the corner yields a few points and then you go off, and sometimes you get left with a bad position. If you go into the corner unlucky, your cueball is locked up.
If the other ball gets in a bad position, same thing, you have no shot because the ball's in the corner. It's ok for me, though, if I can pull three points off a run, great. For the top players, it seems like they can hit almost anything so balls in the middle of the table just gives them more options, they don't need a rail to bounce them into scoring.
Robert Raiford knows this kind of thing - any commentary?