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
behind guy hitting last legitimate options ran role settled stuck
We stuck him in there when we ran out of other options last year. He settled into that role real well. He's not just a guy hitting behind (Todd) Helton anymore. He's a legitimate fourth-place hitter.
athletes bases mistakes ran reason rock whatever work
It's been a little rock in our shoe. We'll work it out. We ran the bases outstanding all spring. For whatever reason we've made some mistakes on the bases. We'll get it tightened up. We've got the athletes to do it.
challenge guys nice ran respond situation teams
It was a nice challenge for him to be able to respond to that. We aren't in the same situation that some other teams are in. We can challenge some guys and see how they respond. That's why we ran him back out (in the fifth).
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.
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.