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 change direction front land layout marks starting
We're starting to make some marks in the right direction on the road. The layout of the land behind us is what it is. We can't change that. We can change what's in front of us.
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.
answer ask barry bonds care good himself questions sure talk
Are we going to talk about Barry Bonds just because he is here? He's very special. It's good that we have him back involved. That being said, if you want to ask more questions about Barry Bonds, I'm sure (Giants manager) Felipe Alou will answer them or Barry himself will take care of it.
barometer believe breaking chair good happened kept nobody perform pitcher point possible simple taken tight time tried wound
Nobody here has taken him and put him in a chair and tried to get him wound up so tight that he can't perform by breaking down his mechanics, ... We've kept things as simple as possible for a young left-handed pitcher to go out there and perform. I really believe that, at this point and time in the season, this is one of the more challenging things that's happened to him in his career. This'll be a good barometer of who and what he is.
bar difficult high hit home
Obviously, we set the bar very high on the road, and we need to play better at home. We know that. When you don't pitch, hit or play defense, it's very difficult to win.
initially
Initially we just wanted him to be able to get healthy. And now for him to come back and be able to pitch, that's a plus.
further physically seems stretch
I don't know that we want to stretch him out further than that. . . . He doesn't have an old body. He seems to be pretty physically fit.
alarming number
His strikeouts are a little alarming for his number of at-bats,
group todd win
I think it was as important for the group to win without Todd in the lineup as it was for Todd to see the group win without him,
aware gate gotten happy roll slow
He is well aware he has come out of the gate slow and then gotten on a roll by the end of May. He is not happy with it, and we think there is better there. We know there is better there. It is up to him.
answering ball challenged hit seen talk
You talk about being challenged and answering the challenge. He has hit the ball (recently) as well as I have ever seen him hit the ball.
avoiding expect factors finishing games home last motivating record winning
Having a winning record at home or avoiding finishing last weren't motivating factors for us. When you are 27 games under .500, can we really expect to be better at home?
opportunity pitches presented wasting
He's been working on an assortment of pitches to use if that opportunity is ever presented to him. I think he's wasting his time.
steps
This is just another step, and we have a lot of steps to take to get where we want to be.