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
catcher good played skills
He is as good as any catcher I played with or had on my team. He has top-shelf skills defensively.
breaking catcher command except hitting spots stayed tilt
His command was excellent. He was hitting his spots where the catcher set up and stayed down for the most part, except when he wanted to go up. When he went up, there was tilt on his breaking ball.
behind catcher changed confidence dynamic good national plate skills
His confidence behind the plate is as good as any catcher in the National League. And he has the skills to match. He's changed the dynamic for us back there.
best catcher defensive watch
If you watch the game, you know why. He's the best defensive catcher we have had here. Defensively, he is a playmaker . . .
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.
catcher depth fragile good group groups position starts
The (improvement) starts with the bullpen. That is a pretty good group for us, one of the better groups we have had. And at catcher we have depth there where before it was a fragile position for us.
ability dealt recreate since slow
It is something we have dealt with since Day 1. You can't recreate that environment. It's just the ability to go out there and slow the inning down as much as you can.
ceiling
I think we'd like to see his ceiling or find his niche,
groups humility leads passion talked unique work
I think we've talked about it all -- his humility, his work ethic. He has a unique passion for the game. He leads by example. In the groups that he's been in, that's been talked about.
found
I think we've found out about his toughness,
ahead break dissect distance elevate everybody far good months numbers opportunity pack scheme spell themselves three time
I think by far and away he was way ahead of the pack at the time he went down. But the numbers he has now, they still spell out pretty good in the big scheme of things if you want to dissect numbers and break them down. Everybody else had an opportunity of three months to really put some distance between themselves and him and elevate themselves, but it didn't happen.
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,
It got us going in the right direction.
improvement maybe optimism today
I think there is improvement. More optimism maybe today than there was yesterday.