Clint Hurdle Last 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 need better from him. He's capable of better. He knows he should be better. I talked to him a little bit during the game and then again after the game. ... He's capable of better. We've all seen better. He needs to take the momentum from the last two innings and roll that into his next start.

One thing our guys do in spring training is get in shape. Jorge needs to play there, get his at-bats and reps, and show up with the groove he was in last year and that he needs to stay in.

He made nice strides this spring. He just needs to keep making the strides that he made. There was a point in time last season where we were having trouble throwing the ball around the infield. Now he threw the ball accurately, his release times were quick and efficient. I think he swung the bat efficiently. He's using his off-gap again from both sides. He had a good spring.

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?

His voice was stronger. He got a big kick out of the game last night. He sent text messages to the players after.

Jamey's a spot starter in Kim's spot, ... We've seen Jamey start 40 times in the last year and a half, I feel very solid about my feelings about Jamey.

Matt has had his ups and downs the last few games. He delivered the big hit for us so this couldn't have come at a better time for him.

That was the result of a lot of work the last three weeks, in which (Francis) analyzed what had been happening.

That was vintage Coors Field. Last bucket wins.

That's been a redeeming quality, that he has been able to slow things down and been able to get an inning over with before it completely got out of hand. He said he has not been comfortable out of the stretch the last couple of games. I told him I didn't think he was lying. I told him either we have to find a way to make him comfortable or for him to not let any guys get on.

We are a work in progress. These guys had a lot of baggage laid on them last year. We weren't that good last year. There were a lot of young players cutting their teeth, but they also are players who came up together (through the farm system) and had success together. And they want to have more success together.

We couldn't buy a hit when we needed one. We went three games where we got the hit when we needed it and we haven't been able to get one the last three games.

We're not going to continually put 20 rookies out there. That's why we took the inventory that we took the last two years to find out what we had, and find a wave that would land and stay on beach, not be sent back out to the sea.

You don't make the third out at third. You've been taught that since you're six years old. We talked about this the other day. We've done this twice now in the last three ball games.

We have been beaten and had agonizing losses and we've lost games every way imaginable for way too long to get overconfident. We knew we couldn't dig a hole like last year. You know where that's going to get you, in any sport. So to come out clean and efficient is obviously a step in the right direction.

This team has gone about their business as good as any team I've played on or been around. That's the way they've gone about it since they showed up. There was just a lot of anxiety and inexperience for the first three months of the season last year. We cut a lot of teeth.

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.

What's unfortunate is the baggage the new players are carrying around. Of course, we acquire our share of it last year, but we'd like to think we are growing from that.

Teams had issues to deal with over the winter. We had less than most anybody because we had so much more movement the last few years.

It was a situation where I think we'd try to make a statement inside, hard. I think the statement was made inside, hard. It's unfortunate he got hit. It's unfortunate Danny got splattered last night. Sometimes unfortunate things happen. We won't be intimidated by anybody.

It's unfortunate it's Matt. But those kinds of errors in judgment ... we're not last year's team. We're not going to be last year's team.

It's a matter of fundamentals and execution. We found a comfort zone last year and we didn't panic.

They were all just fired up and letting it fly last year, which is what you expect out of young kids. Now they're a little bit more focused and not in such a hurry.

The last couple of times in those spots he hasn't been able to get the job done.

Because there might not be a next time. You get tired of next time. You need to do it this time. We said a lot of 'get 'em next time' last year.

If he stays the course with it, obviously he'd be thrown into the mix. But again, time will tell. Let him play. Let him finish the season the way he's been the last two weeks. Then we'll have a topic of discussion.

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.

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.

All the players took to heart the conversations that were held at the end of last season.