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
anybody becoming career exciting hard leagues minor nod player starting time work
This will be a very exciting day for him. He's put in as much hard work into becoming a starting opening-day player as anybody that we've ever had. He's had 11 years in the minor leagues and to get this nod at this time in his career has to be very gratifying.
catch leagues minor pitchers polished tougher
More often than not you're going to catch pitchers that end up in the big leagues if you're in the minor leagues, so you're going to see the stuff. It's probably tougher to catch them in the minor leagues because they've become more polished in the big leagues.
club depth easier goes guys impressed leagues played push saying staying
I'm more impressed with the way some of the guys that didn't make our club played than the way some of the guys that did played. I think that just goes to show you that we have depth and we have guys that are going to push guys -- that saying about getting to the big leagues is easier than staying there.
ball cage flashes hard hitting leagues minor power seen
He's exhibited major-league power in the minor leagues and we've seen some flashes of it at this level. He's working hard in (batting practice) and he's working hard in the cage and hitting the ball hard where it's pitched.
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.
conscious gets major pull time trying work
We're going to give him a little more time to work his way out of it. He's an important part of the lineup without Todd. . . . He's not trying to pull everything. He's conscious of going to the right side. When he gets hot, he can do major damage.
baseball definitely good kim playing trials
We can definitely get used to (having Kim around), because while he's had his trials and tribulations in other areas, he's playing good baseball for us.
bit handle proved
We bit off a little more than we could chew. But they proved they could handle it.
arm bit continues healthy liked might seeing strength
We're just seeing how healthy he is. He is still working his way back arm-strength wise. There might be a little bit more arm there as he continues to pitch. We've always liked him.
disabled list pitcher sometime starting
We have a starting pitcher on the disabled list right now and he will come off sometime this season. So competition, there's always competition.
questions
We have as many questions as we do answers. We have in-house candidates.
behind brings gets groove pop
When he gets in a groove there's some pop behind it. He brings some noise.
behind changes entire strategy
We were behind the entire game, so that changes our strategy some.
fastball utilize
We want to see his command, we want him to utilize his pitches, ... We also want to see him use his two-seam fastball and sinkerball.