By John Franco
I haven’t been overly critical of Clint Hurdle here at PittPlank. I know that he leaves some things to be desired when it comes to in-game management, but his ability to maintain a positive clubhouse, and his positive influence on some of the Pirates’ hitters, have usually outweighed his deficiencies. Not last night.
I’m not in the Pirates’ clubhouse, so I don’t know if they’ve given up. I don’t know if Hurdle’s positive attitude has gotten stale, or he hasn’t been able to keep the team focused on the positive during this awful stretch (9-21 in their last 30 games). But after last night, even if you could find a Clint Hurdle apologist, even they would say that his loyalty to “veteran” players and his inability to manage his in-game roster is costing the Pirates wins. For example:
Total innings pitched by Kyle McPherson, Justin Wilson, and Bryan Morris in last night’s 14-inning loss to the Reds: 0
Total innings pitched by Rick VandenHurk: 0.2 (and then he lost the game)
I don’t know if you can blame Neal Huntington for anything that happened last night, unless you simply want to blame him for Hurdle’s continued presence in the dugout. He’s given Hurdle fresh, talented arms in the bullpen – the aforementioned McPherson, Wilson and Morris – and Hurdle didn’t use them when it mattered most. I’ve got nothing against VandenHurk personally, but I don’t think an objective observer would have picked him as the best choice to pitch the 14th inning.
Another example? Dejan Kovacevic covers the Chase d’Arnaud incident pretty well: Hurdle pinch ran for Garrett Jones (the Pirates’ best hitter) in the 10th inning, when Jones wasn’t even the lead runner. I guess Hurdle was worried that Pedro Alvarez might ground into a double play, and hoped that d’Arnaud would help avoid that? Alvarez grounds into a double play 1.81 times every 100 plate appearances. What percentage of DP’s would d’Arnaud avoid that Jones wouldn’t? Maybe 10 percent? I can’t understand losing your best hitter to prevent something that might happen 2 times out of 1000.
One more example? Wandy Rodriguez was pulled after just 89 pitches and a pair of soft 2-out singles. Jared Hughes promptly gave up a game-tying double to Dioner Navarro. That doesn’t fit with Hurdle’s “I love veterans” approach, but it also didn’t make any sense. Hurdle said after the game that he would have hated to see Rodriguez give up a 3-run homer. Well, so would everyone else, but Navarro has a career .357 slugging percentage. Isn’t Hurdle supposed to be a players’ manager? Judging by Rodriguez’ reaction, he clearly wanted to stay in the game.
One final example? Rod Barajas batting averages by month: .143, .302, .190, .149, and .185 in August. Yet Hurdle continues to play him. I know that Michael McKenry hit just .237 in August and is clearly struggling, but he has to be a better option than Barajas right now.
I know Hurdle isn’t likely to be fired during the season. I know he’ll probably take the blame (and the fall) if the Pirates finish below .500 for the season. I have no idea who the Pirates could bring in that might do a better job (now or later). All I know is that the final hurdle to a .500 season might be a Hurdle they can’t overcome.
I can’t see firing Hurdle even if they lose every remaining game. He’s done something with the team that past managers couldn’t do, and this year is almost certain to better than last year even though it was prognosticated to be worse. There are just too many mediocre players on the roster.
This is a fair point. C Trent Rosencrans had an article today at Baseball Prospectus with quotes from Cutch and Hanrahan, talking about Hurdle. They both mentioned his abilities in the clubhouse and not the dugout. Here’s the article: https://baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=18302
I don’t doubt that he is a great motivator and I don’t deny that the Pirates clearly played over their head for at least part of the season. Maybe they should just keep him around until they have some real talent.
At some point, though, things stop balancing out. If Hurdle is +5 wins in the clubhouse and -5 wins in the dugout, that’s just breaking even.
I agree. Hurdle manages by his heart and not his brain. He should have left Rodriguez is to pitch. He’s a seasoned veteran. Barajas is horrible. His defense is as equally horrible as his pitching. Just chalk him up to another off season aquisition that hasn’t worked, ie: Bedard, McGehee, etc. That sits squarely on Huntington’s shoulders. The right players are in the clubhouse, use them correctly and we might actually win.
His defense is as equally horrible as his pitching. I meant hitting.
I’m not convinced the right players ARE in the clubhouse. Aside from Cutch, GFJ is having a career year and Pedro is no longer a lost cause. Walker is a plus at 2B. That’s it – they have black holes at C, SS and LF/RF. Some of that falls on Neal.
You’ll notice that a few posts ago I bashed Neal for keeping Qualls on the roster instead of one of the kids. Well, now he has the kids available and Hurdle isn’t using them.
This is really where Coonelly or (heaven forbid) the Nuttings need to get involved, and either get rid of Neal or at least offer some clarification on how they want things to be run. If they say that Neal is safe and they want to see the kids played, then Huntington has the power to bring in someone new. If they do nothing, Neal and Hurdle will both keep doing their own things, and the team will suffer for their disagreements.
I don’t agree that all of those are black holes, I will go with SS and Catcher.
Let’s see Marte in LF and Jones at 1st. I also think Snider will do well offensively in RF, and will cause alot of gray hairs defensively!
Not much available this off-season in free agents as far as SS and Catcher go. Napoli is best catcher and Stephen Drew at short. But he is no improvement over Barmes.
I was advocating for Barmes during the off-season so I know how bad the free agent shortstops usually are. Catcher too, which is why it’s so important to be able to draft and develop these guys.
This season, LF and RF have mostly been a black hole. I hope you’re right that Marte will fill one of those holes next year.
You forgot to mention the decision not to have Pedro sacrifice in the tenth with 2 guys on and no outs….so frustrating. This team needs to learn how to manufacture runs via small ball….they aren’t the Yankees!
Man, I dunno. Tabata and Mercer were the next 2 hitters. Sure, Jose is usually a good contact hitter, but Pedro is not a good bunter and Aroldis was melting down. I wouldn’t want to take the bat out of Pedro’s hands there.
Yeah…but he isn’t any worse than Wandy, AJ and all the others who would have been bunting in that situation and frankly Pedro seemed out of sorts in his at bats this game.
After watching the 2012 season conclude the way that it did, I think Hurdle has one more year to put it together. I agree with Rob that short stop and catcher are the two major positions that need to be addressed. (If the Pirates would have kept Ciriaco or Cedeno or d’Arnaud for the season, they would have had a better chance of winning more games than with Barmes out there.) There’s a lot of upside on the Pirates’ roster if hitters continue to develop (Marte, Alvarez, Snider). There may be a pitching Renaissance on the horizon in the next year or two. I think there’s a lot of things to look forward to in Pittsburgh, but if Hurdle doesn’t improve this team to where the fans think they should be next season (over .500), I don’t think he’s going to be long for that managerial gig.