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Clint Hurdle
Entering his fourth full season as the Colorado Rockies manager (276-350 since taking over in 2002), Hurdle has watched a number of young players develop into major-league talent. Now he is eager to see those players win games for the Rockies.
Q: Do you like the young guys looking over their shoulder at young guys?
Hurdle: I like that. That's what good organizations have, is depth. And there's wave after wave coming. We've got a little bubble at Triple A this year. But after that, man, we're good to go for years. For a couple of three years we've got prospects that are high AA. It's a little bit of a testimony to our scouts, our players -- all those people who deserve a lot of credit but don't get credit. People who do their jobs very well. And these kids, they deserve the credit because they're accepting the challenges now. They're starting to figure it out, seeing where the organization is headed. We've been able to back up our words with action, so it's just not air. We tell them what we're going to do and we're doing it. We're challenging them. And I think the ones that were here last year and took the next steps -- like (Clint) Barmes and (Garrett) Atkins -- they know we need to play well for six months as a team.
Q: You've seen that those young guys can play. Now, using a football term, you're trying to 'coach 'em up' to win, right?
Hurdle: That's exactly right. We're not going to stick our heads in denial and not use the 'W' word, or the championship word. It gets thrown around -- sometimes it's appropriate, sometimes it's not. I do think in the past there was a lot more hope involved for us than the actual substance of having what you need to take the next step. I think now we believe we have the substance, we have the players, we have the personnel. More important, it's what they believe. And they do have a belief amongst themselves, where their strength is their numbers.
Q: So you're more confident about winning with the pieces you have to work with this season than before?
Hurdle: For the last two years it was the closer. That's the very volatile position to be hoping on. And we knew that, because we didn't have many other options. We weren't in position to purchase one, that's not our bag right now. Being able to build that bullpen up to being, I think, what we would have hoped it could have been. After the season, if we would have said, 'We can add A, B, C and D' . . . we got A, B and C. We might've missed out on one target. But we got the guys we wanted that fit for us. That being said, now they've got to go pitch. But they all have a history of doing it. Like I've said, the palms won't be sweating and the heart's not going to be fluttering when they get the ball in the late innings. No team's blown more games after the sixth inning the last three years than us. So that was priority No. 1. Priority No. 2 is to add some depth to our starting pitching. I believe we've done that. Depending on how the fifth starter rolls out, they're going to be 27 years and younger. And they all have some history to point to, that they can go out and pitch a lights-out game. They can shut somebody down. The competition there is real. And don't get me wrong -- we're setting our goals high, we're dreaming big. I'm a firm believer that if you set you goals and there's no faith involved, your goals are too low. We have a little of that. But like I've said there's more substance here than there's ever been before. And they know it. They played in the league last year.
Q: You've talked about your pitching. What about the hitting? In particular, does this team need big numbers in home runs to win games?
Hurdle: No. And not to be naive because you put a lot of runs on the board, it makes it interesting for the fans. But you know what really makes it interesting for the fans? When you win games. Fans really like teams that win ballgames. Through all those offensive years we had, obviously 1995 was the pinnacle. You had a very unique group of men come together at the same time. To re-create that now, in today's market, will cost you a whole lot of money. We're trying to re-create it through our farm system. When (Brad) Hawpe pops, when (Matt) Holliday pops, when Atkins pops, we've got (Todd) Helton . . . we've got four guys to put in play, and hey -- we're starting to sniff that thing again. But you don't have to hit home runs. We need to score runs and drive in runs. If you pitch better and your defense plays better, you don't have to score as many runs. There might not ever be that day of four 30-homer guys -- I don't know that. But I do know that we still haven't won a championship here. That, in and of itself, will bring a lot of people back to 'The Keg'. That is our ultimate goal, for me personally, to see (Coors Field) full again, consistently.
Q: Do you think it helped the younger players to see how Helton handled his own struggles last season?
Hurdle: There were some lessons learned last year -- not just for Todd, but for those guys watching him because it was the last thing they expected. You just look at the back of a bubble card and you know he's going to do something -- just watch. It'll all add up and all play out. But it didn't work that way. To his credit, Todd never took his bat out to the field one night. That definitely got their attention, the way he continued to work on his defense, the way he played defense during the game, the relentless attitude he'd have to show up the next day. Struggle was the right word -- and he'd be the first one to tell you. Through that, I think that gave the younger players strength to know the mighty can struggle, the icons of the game struggle. But through that time I think Todd saw a lot in those younger players while they struggled. The sails were ripping, we were taking on water . . . 20 games under at the end of May. My God, I'd never been involved with anything like that in my life. And they never panicked. Concerned? Yeah. Worried some days? I'm sure they were. And the way they worked themselves through it, Todd kept an eye on them, as far as who was going to quit, who's not going to show up, who's going to cash in their chips, who's going to get scared . . . nobody's eyes got big. They just kept going and worked their way through it. I think that gave Todd a big adrenaline boost about everything that's going on here.
Q: When you watched your team playing against the Chicago White Sox in spring training, did you think they were a team that would win the World Series?
Hurdle: I probably never said that. I did say over and over again that those guys could pitch, they're going to throw a staff at you and win a lot of ballgames. But I never say they have a shot to win the World Series. Better than us? No doubt. As a matter of fact, maybe an example to follow. And you know what? They retooled this year and might be stronger. Who would think breaking up a world champion would be the thing to do? But it's a moving market and it's a market you have to stay on top of. There was distance between us. It's the starting pitching. The game begins and ends with starting pitching. Everybody talks about what you can't do at (Coors Field) -- we just need to pitch better than those other guys. We're not going to have a guy that wins the (earned-run average) championship. But we can have a guy that wins 17, 18, 19, 20 games. We can have that. And we can have a closer that has 45, 50 saves. I think we're on the right track.
Q: Watching Holliday develop now is like watching Helton develop a few years back. Is it a reach to say Holliday can become an All-Star player?
Hurdle: I think that's legit. Again, I hate to put ceilings on guys. Matt Holliday always has caught our eyes -- and he might be playing his worst sport, which is the funny thing about it all. He's hitting clean-up for a major-league club and he's on the world team. That kind of ties it all up in a ribbon. He drove in more runs in baseball the second half of the season than any other player in the game. You can look at that statement any way you want, but he did that. And he gets better all the time. Playing with Helton keeps him going because he knows he's playing with a great player. And it's time to talk about Helton as being a great player. He's sees a great player play, show up and work every day, which is a positive. We caught glimpses of his strength and power -- he's got top-shelf power. I think it's going to continue to evolve.