Clint Hurdle Itch Quotations

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.

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.

That's probably a pitch you'd like to have back. But we made a lot of mistakes in the game that put us in that situation.

He's staying on pitches so well. He's got power. When he catches the ball, he can click it.

We have a starting pitcher on the disabled list right now and he will come off sometime this season. So competition, there's always competition.

We know Tom is experienced and he is not going to rattle. We want to see them maintain velocity once we have them pitching back-to-back days. Guys are going to be given every opportunity to show they can't do it.

As we've talked about in the past, when he pitches (instead of throws), he can be very good.

His fastball was short (Friday), and his command was mediocre. That being said, you're normally not able to make that statement and have a pitcher only give up one run in five-plus innings at Coors Field. So he deserves a pat on the back for that.

After he gave up that homer in the sixth, I think he had a little talk with himself. He just put the hammer down after that. He wanted to pitch a complete game.

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.

He's not making his best pitches in traffic in his three starts so far. That's the next step for him.

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.

I thought he took a very positive first step. He didn't get outside of himself. In the first inning he was mid-20s in pitches, but he battled. He didn't give up a big inning after that. Any time there was traffic, he held runners well. He made pitches when he had to. He mixed his pitches. He held the left-handers very effectively. A big outing for him and a big win for us.

I thought he handled a couple of challenges very well. I thought his first 10 pitches were up a bit, and then I thought he got pretty good command of the strike zone down.

The bigger issue is the first-pitch fastballs they are squaring up. He might have to start pitching backwards (by starting batters with breaking pitches) and doing some things different off the mound.

He hasn't been tested with any kind of competition on the line in two weeks. He's going to have to go through a two inning stint one time, pitch back-to-back days. So there's some distance in front of him.

We've got different plans for Bonds. We're only going to pitch to him in innings that end in vowels.

We've got Day in place. We've got Fogg in place. We've got pitchers to step up if they need to step up.

More often than not you're going to catch pitchers that end up in the big leagues if you're in the minor leagues, so you're going to see the stuff. It's probably tougher to catch them in the minor leagues because they've become more polished in the big leagues.

It shows that if you don't make quality pitches you are going to be hurt at this level. After that one-out error, he never really recovered.

Until we have somebody ready to replace him, we'll be patient. We're not looking for a replacement, we're looking for him to pitch better.

For me, where I'm really going with it right now is he's just not pitching well right now.

We think he will be a bona fide power guy. He has played against left-handed pitchers everywhere he has been until this point. There's no reason he shouldn't be able to do it here.

The pitch to Bonds wasn't quite over the plate. But with him if it's up, he can get it. And he crushed it.

We haven't faced much left-handed pitching (since Sept. 20), and I want to try and keep everybody sharp.

There are going to be opportunities in different roles because we don't want to pitch anyone more than three days in a row.

They got their work in and built up their pitch count, which is all we wanted.

Because they're capable of doing it. And obviously I think the other team would be the first one to tell you, they're not pitching like they can or like they need to. They're probably leaving balls up over the plate. We're getting some balls to hit, and we're hitting them.

Those were two grown men out there pitching today. They put a dent in the hardware of Coors Field.

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.

We will pitch to him only when we feel it's practical.

The confidence that comes from getting on any type of run gives you that confidence once you initiate that run again. We've got to pitch well, we've got to play solid defense and we've got to get timely hitting and execute, which is what we did for the last three months last season - with a lot of guys people didn't know against a lot of teams with some pretty big names.

I don't want them to feel they have to pitch their way into the spot and that is what spring training is about. We need to get it out of the way, clear out any distractions and keep focused on the job at hand, getting ready for the season.

He's kind of playing behind, catching up, as far as seeing pitches. He saw a number of pitches today.

He understands the mentality of why we use him in the ninth in close ballgames because he's the best pitcher we have available out there,

It wasn't just a case of Todd not getting pitches to hit, that is way too simplistic. That was part of it. Sometimes, of course, they're going to choose not to pitch to him. He had pitches to hit. He just didn't hit them. He'll be the first one to tell you that.

Leaving a game in the fifth inning I wouldn't think would make any pitcher happy, ... Sometimes different things will motivate people different ways.

I'm not sure what happened the day he left my office, but something clicked. He looked at me, and said, 'I will be back and I will be ready to pitch in the majors.' He was right on the mark. When he came back that season, he was definitely ready.

He had a chance to put the pitcher away and keep all those runs off the board but he wasn't able to do it and the inning unraveled on him. But he's got a few more starts. I don't have any major concerns about him.

He got off to a good run, but his command has become a little more inconsistent of late. He's got a history of issues with command. If his command doesn't get to be above average, he will fall in the line of a lot of pitchers who will show you a good game once in a while, and then you wonder why they don't have more success.

He experienced every emotion. He pitches well at times. He learned to battle and survive at times. He didn't back down from anything. He carried his load.

We haven't been sharp. Off the mound, defensively, there are things we should have done better. We didn't make good pitches out of the bullpen when we got close. The offense rallied late, and hopefully that'll give us some momentum going into (today).

Nobody's under a magnifying glass. You put somebody under a magnifying glass long enough, you burn them. The guys that didn't pitch well, they know who they are. Through honest self-evaluation, they'll see their location and the adjustments they need to make the next time out. That'll be the critical area to watch.

We saw a different pitcher than what we heard about.

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.

He very well could, if he pitches well enough, ... That's been mapped out for him, told him he could have that opportunity.

He didn't crack. It was a good outing for him, not having his best stuff and the conditions as they were with the wind, and to keep making pitches through the four innings and put zeros on the board, it was a good outing.

He didn't pitch down enough. He didn't throw his sinker enough. He has to remember he is a sinkerball pitcher.

We aren't happy with our defense. Sometimes you can clean it up with pitching or hitting. We didn't do exceptionally well in any area.

If he throws 100 pitches, he's got to pitch five innings.

He painted himself in a corner and fought his way out. That showed some pitch ability. One, some fortitude, two, and some more gray hairs on the manager, three.

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.