Clint Hurdle Ball Quotations

has hit the ball harder with more consistency than anyone on this ballclub. Anytime you have Todd Helton on your ballclub, that's something.

When he plants his front foot and really stays behind his swing, he's got a little gap power. How it plays out, time will tell, but he has the ability to hit a ball out of the ballpark.

He made them hit the ball on the ground with regularity. He made some good pitches.

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.

He got the ball up early but settled in and gave us six strong innings. He was very effective.

We got enough mileage out of our long ball tonight before the marine layer hit. That's the latest I've seen the ball travel here in a long time.

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.

With production comes entitlement. If you play better you get more playing time, which means more opportunity. Cory has been on a successful run of late. He is stroking the ball well and playing great defense.

You talk about being challenged and answering the challenge. He has hit the ball (recently) as well as I have ever seen him hit the ball.

I never like to lose a ball game, but the degree of care in spring training isn't the same. You never want to be at the bottom at any point in time.

I want him to know that I have the confidence in him by giving him the ball opening day. I can't make a bigger statement.

It's Jason's time to take the next step, and sometimes when players can't get to certain places, it's up to a coach to take them there. I want him to know going in that I've got the confidence in him to do that. By giving him the ball Opening Day, I can't make a bigger statement than that.

His breaking ball was on the plate today. The game against San Diego, he kept missing with it. His command was much better today.

He's exhibited major-league power in the minor leagues and we've seen some flashes of it at this level. He's working hard in (batting practice) and he's working hard in the cage and hitting the ball hard where it's pitched.

You've got a double-play ball if he catches it or lets it go. Then Tucker's ball hit his foot. If it was a double play, we wouldn't have run into all that other trouble. We had one bad inning in three days. We played good baseball here.

He's got skills, but I told him they weren't playing out. And if the skills he has don't play out here, he would have to play Triple-A next year. It's very black and white. And maybe the idea of winter ball spurred him to have a good September.

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.

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.