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
believe grow half last learning ourselves players position process saw season second surprise
We've put ourselves in position to surprise people. We went through a learning process last year, and I think you saw in the second half of the season that our young players started to believe they could compete. We started to grow as a franchise.
ball changed good guy pirates seen strikes threw uniform
He pitched a good ball game. He was very efficient, threw strikes and changed speeds. We've seen him in a Pirates uniform and he's a no-nonsense guy who comes right after people.
It got us going in the right direction.
best catcher defensive national number people
I've had a number of people come up to me this spring, unsolicited, and tell me that he's the best defensive catcher in the National League.
believe heart pitching win
I believe in my heart that if we are to going to win here (long-term), ... it's going to be with pitching and defense.
chance guy head heart kid older pushing script unless work
I had a script but didn't need it. There's no chance for this to work unless his head and heart are in the right place, and they are. He's not a 23-year-old kid pushing the older guy out of the rotation, and he realizes that.
believe starting surprise
Nothing he is going to do is going to surprise me. Like a lot of our players, he is starting to believe in himself.
both game innings opportunity split
There's nothing to read into that. It's the first opportunity to get him in a game and try to split the innings up and give them both opportunity to pitch.
buy games hit last needed three
We couldn't buy a hit when we needed one. We went three games where we got the hit when we needed it and we haven't been able to get one the last three games.
guy interest move
He's out there -- we have some interest in him. We'll see how much interest he has in us. That being said, I'm not a hypothetical guy and I don't like to speculate. We'll try and get him signed. If we can't get him signed, we'll move on.
defense happened kept needed pitching played victory
Not a lot happened offensively, but we just kept grinding, kept pitching well, played defense when we needed to. But we pitched our way to that victory today.
change drops good pickup pleasant tilt velocity
He has been a very pleasant pickup for us. He has velocity (92-95 mph) on his fastball, tilt on his slider, a pretty good change for left-handers and every once in a while he drops that hook. He's made an impression.
again game guys hot nice road running seen start victory
We had a lot of guys just running hot, and we were running hot to start the game again tonight. That's a nice come-from-behind victory on the road for us. I've seen a lot of road games.
bit effort forth four road speaks win
For us to win four consecutive road series, especially with this group, speaks a little bit about the effort being put forth and the results.