Clint Hurdle
Clint Hurdle
Clinton Merrick Hurdleis an American former professional baseball outfielder and current manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball. Hurdle played in MLB for the Kansas City Royals, Cincinnati Reds, New York Mets, and St. Louis Cardinals, and has also managed for the Colorado Rockies...
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth30 July 1957
CityBig Rapids, MI
battle dealing fix quite
I think he's dealing with it quite professionally. I know he's had enough hearing, 'Keep battling.' I told him how to fix that is to go out and battle and do well.
battle carried emotions learned pitches survive
He experienced every emotion. He pitches well at times. He learned to battle and survive at times. He didn't back down from anything. He carried his load.
again ball bat both good last needs nice point quick release season strides swung threw throwing time trouble using
He made nice strides this spring. He just needs to keep making the strides that he made. There was a point in time last season where we were having trouble throwing the ball around the infield. Now he threw the ball accurately, his release times were quick and efficient. I think he swung the bat efficiently. He's using his off-gap again from both sides. He had a good spring.
battling bulk easy game improve lead pieces quality seeing spend until year
We've always wanted to improve our bullpen, but until this year we weren't able to get the pieces we wanted. It's been frustrating. . . . It's not easy to spend the bulk of the game battling for a lead and then seeing it get away. . . . Now we have some depth. We have some quality arms.
barrel bat drive focus forward help looking productive role swinging talked watching
He's swinging the bat very well. He's got some barrel down there to drive in some runs. There are some things we've talked to him about we want him to focus on and take into the season, but I'm just looking forward to watching him play in that role and getting more opportunities to help us be productive offensively as well as defensively.
bat behind fourth guy hitting initially kid legitimate maybe obviously opportunity pick pitch power ran run stuck support took
Initially we stuck him in there because we had run out of options. He is a big kid who has some power and we thought maybe we can find a guy to pick up some run support when they didn't want to pitch to Helton. Obviously he took that opportunity and ran with it. He is a legitimate fourth bat in the lineup. He is not just hitting behind Helton any more.
bat believe guys handle left meeting run somebody swinging tells three
I told my guys in the meeting today, man, it's like a snake. If somebody tells me it's dead, I'm going to run over it three times before I believe it. You tell me he's not swinging the bat good, I'll believe it when he's left here and we've been able to handle him.
bat credit field onto taken
(Defensively), he's been outstanding. To his credit he hasn't taken his bat onto the field for one inning. That's why he's a pro.
anyone days pitch roles three
There are going to be opportunities in different roles because we don't want to pitch anyone more than three days in a row.
number roles
There are a number of roles he could fill. We need to see how he handles them.
gotten guy innings people power strike wild
When you have a reliever that's a power guy that can strike people out (80 in 67 innings pitched), he's never out of the inning. As wild as some of these innings have gotten with him, he's been able to put them away.
add love
We love what Ojeda does defensively. We'll see if we can get him tightened up to add a little more offense.
certain earlier manager might miss missed opportunity situations statement sullivan
There comes certain situations where I think a manager has an opportunity to make a statement to his team. You don't want to miss them. I might have missed one with (Cory) Sullivan earlier in the season.
fifth starter
There has really not been any separation. We don't have a fifth starter right now.