Clint Hurdle Quotations | Page 5

It reminded me of the days when Maddox used to play center field in Philadelphia, ... They'd say, 'Three-quarters of the world is covered by water, and the other third is covered by Garry Maddox.'

It's not free. He is going to invest in his future. It's a good plan.

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.

It's something we have thought about and if it falls into place, it falls into place, ... But I don't want to do it just as a novelty; I want to do it for some meaning. It think it would emphasize the job player development has done for us, and the job the scouts have done.

It's still a long season. We'll see how it plays out.

That's a big hit in this ballpark. He's capable of a lot of things and he's finding his own way to contribute. We have one big hit tonight. He had it and it's a four-run swing. He picked us up big time with the bat.

That is a tradition I hold in high esteem. Taking a lap around to shake a hand or flash a smile is just a little bit extra to show we appreciate what (the fans) do for us.

That is never going to happen again. (Sullivan) got outside himself. He was thinking about breaking up a double play. That's priority 'z' in that situation.

There was some improvement, but we need some more improvement.

You can't ignore the fact that you are missing your No. 3 hitter. We just asked the guys to tighten their belt a little, but just carrying their load, not try to do anything more than they are capable of doing. It's an added pressure, but you can't be consumed with it.

You can't make the third out at third. You've heard it since you were 6 years old.

You don't want to say it, ... but you're thinking, 'What if it's not healthy?' You're still going to love it, and you're going to deal with it.

They know Fuentes is closing. They have their reasons for what they do.

They do walk around a little lighter. They have experience under their belt and a degree of confidence. But they have to build on the success. You can talk about a lot of things, but the bottom line is we won 67 games, and that is not very many.

They drew a tough bull today, as they say in the rodeo.

They have a lot to prove. I look forward to the opportunity to go play games. They believe they can beat anybody.

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

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.

It's a big pick-me-up. Some guys showed up big time tonight.

It's a situation we can live with because we worked to create the depth we have. We have people in place to step up. We have the depth to be able to deal with things like this now.

It's a special spring for him. He's gaining the respect of his teammates. He's gaining the respect of players he's playing against. But the bottom line it's still spring training. So, there's the dose of reality ... that there's going to be an opening day for him and he's going to be hitting .000 and he's going to have no homers. But we do like what we're seeing.

You have to like what you see. His humility. His work ethic. His passion for the game. . . . The beauty of a young player is when they force your hand.

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.

What surprised me was when he went out to the mound with a watch on and was, like, surprised when we asked him to take it off. I thought maybe he got a World Series ring and a World Series watch, so that's why he seemed to be angry about that. There was a little glare coming off of it. We don't complain about much here, but at times when he turned his wrist, you could see a glare warming up. Obviously, it wasn't very expensive, the way he flung it into the dugout. Then I realized it might not have been a World Series watch.

We tweaked the lineup a little and everybody who got a chance jumped in and took advantage. We finally got out of that hitters' graveyard, Coors Field. That's the beauty of this game. You don't know what to expect.

We might not have any rookies next year, or maybe one or two,

We might not have any rookies next year, or maybe one or two. We've had the young players we wanted to look at this year show us they can handle the challenge.

We don't want them going out and working uphill. We'll save the purple hearts for the regular season.

We hung around, we had the tying run at the plate a couple of times, we just couldn't get it done. We do hang around. It's something these guys have found a way to do this year.

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.

I told Matt it's unfortunate it's him. This won't be acceptable, no matter who it is.

I told him the beauty to this game is when you do well you don't go up. You stay around until you do lousy and then figure out how to do well again.

It's a fine line between being intimidated and trying to play smart baseball and win a game.

It's added credibility to our evaluation that we had the right people.

It's a chance for us to see him, watch his bullpen session, say hello.

It will be a good challenge for us.

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 was a mixed bag. It was good enough. We saw what we wanted to see in terms of length, velocity, rhythm and tempo -- so it was another step forward.

We've got a long way to go. We had a great trip.

This will be a very exciting day for him. He's put in as much hard work into becoming a starting opening-day player as anybody that we've ever had. He's had 11 years in the minor leagues and to get this nod at this time in his career has to be very gratifying.

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.

Those three guys give us the most flexibility and the most talent we've ever had at the end of a game. We're going to be good.

We tried to create some game situations, and he moved around pretty well.

A big game for Sullivan, and a big game for us. Everybody contributed. We played really hard and got a lot of things done.

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.

It makes sense to go ahead and get (Kim and Day) into the mix.

It's going to take a week to get Barmes and Hawpe their 30 at-bats, ... And Neal just needs to pitch.

There is 'The Book' that has certain things you do and don't do (as a manager). I missed parts of it. We're going to take chances. We're playing to win.

There were games early in the season where we crumbled like a house of cards in situations like that. These guys are willing to pick one another up and that is a big improvement with this team.

They're in a tough position. After the warning, they have to make judgment calls.

I don't need to point him out, they come in looking at him. He has earned their respect.

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 showed us what we needed to see to have confidence in his ability to put him in the game at any time, at any place in the outfield or as part of the lineup.

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.

He's got a history of having done it, so we can't say we're surprised.

He's not going to be invited back to be a part of the starting rotation. We have interest in bringing him back, but it's only in the bullpen.

He's not happy about it. He'll learn from it. It won't happen again; I'm confident of that.

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

I don't think there was any big talk or meeting. It was the culmination of holding on to a perception. When you get to a point where you pitch, play defense and play smart baseball regularly, when the game gets clean, you win on the road.

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

I'd say he's been pretty good for us. And he's off to a pretty good September.

I'd say there is a quiet confidence building in the locker room.

I don't think there's any doubt that he believes now that he has arrived, that he can make pitches, that he can win, that he can compete and he can become a force in this league.

He's never going to hurt the lineup when he gets back in.

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.

He only had five balls on the ground. He wasn't sharp.

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.

He painted himself into a corner and pitched himself out.

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 played short catch yesterday and long toss today. We'll try to get him up on a slope and throw tomorrow, and see where we go from there. He's making good progress, though.

He really struggled to throw any strikes (on the third-base side) of the plate,

He pitched without the fastball we've seen previous to this,

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.

His command was excellent. He was hitting his spots where the catcher set up and stayed down for the most part, except when he wanted to go up. When he went up, there was tilt on his breaking ball.

If he's made a better play in his life in a baseball uniform, I'd like him to tell us about it.

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.

If he's tired, we'll ask him, ... But if he's not, this is something he's just got to grind through and get better at. He's got to find a way to repeat his delivery with more consistency.

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

If he wants to be back with this team it won't be as part of the starting rotation. He has to see the bullpen as his opportunity.

If it is a one-time thing, it falls into one category. If it happens again, then it is another (incident to explore).

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