Clint Hurdle Guy Quotations

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.

We've seen this guy before in a Pirate uniform. He's no-nonsense. He comes after people. He's not afraid of contact.

Luis is having some difficulties getting anything going at the plate. He's not where he needs to be or where he can be offensively, yet. He's 0-for-7 off this guy lifetime. It's a manager's decision.

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.

Here's a guy that has been through so much over the past year. He's put all that behind him to become a very confident pitcher. Tonight his confidence in his sinker helped him get 13 groundball outs.

He's hit some balls up here at this level that he didn't sniff in the past. Anything down, hard and away, anything down spinning away, he's really worked hard to make some adjustments, and it's really nice to see a guy that's worked that hard.

I saw a guy throwing hard but without a lot of command. It was hard to watch. We got to get him tightened up. He threw a lot of pitches.

When you have a reliever that's a power guy that can strike people out (80 in 67 innings pitched), he's never out of the inning. As wild as some of these innings have gotten with him, he's been able to put them away.

Very rarely do I like to soapbox for one of my players, but if this guy is not in serious consideration, all the people involved in the process are missing the boat. This guy had his side cut open. The way he's pitched, it needs to be recognized.

Sometimes I play a guy just because I want to play him.

This guy has a very workable package and a passion to play the game. I was open-ended with him today because of his competitiveness and he made a statement to finish it off and throw a complete game with 118 pitches.

It's an uncomfortable spot for the manager. Basically, you don't want anyone to get hurt, whether it be the guy doing the pitching or the guys doing the hitting.

Their guy was really good. It wasn't anything else. Everybody that took the mound today was really good. They pitched well, hit their spots. We took our swings and didn't come up with anything.

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.

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.

I do want to roll with it. I think there's validation for either guy to hit in that spot.

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.