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
almost anywhere ask bit field innings low player position ready spring
We had almost every position player play anywhere from the low 60s to 100 innings in the field (in spring training). We're not probably going to ask him to do that much, but it's going to need to be a little bit more than him just getting 25 at-bats and being ready to go.
physically position saying
He's healthy, which is saying a lot. Physically and mentally, he's in a better position than he has been in for a long time.
hate move position raw skills turn
You hate to keep tweaking things with him. You want to get in a position where he can just move forward. We know the raw skills he has. We have to turn those into game-day skills.
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.
believe momentum patience position providing showing team
I do believe we are in this position by showing patience and providing opportunities during the season. I don't want to take away from any momentum the team has gained.
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.
ballpark build confidence effort games gave good gotten high leave line mind momentum people position six together turn
After the line of games he put together going into this start, I had my mind made up when I got to the ballpark that if he gave us good effort through six innings, that's going to be plenty. Leave his confidence at a high and turn it over to the people who have gotten us in position to build some of the momentum we've been building.
ball built came confidence good happen helped himself hit last later might pitches position strikes threw together
He came in and helped Band-Aid things together and put himself in a good position for what might happen later on down the road. He built his confidence up. He pitched a lot better than he did last spring. He hit his spots, threw all his pitches for strikes and got the ball down.
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,