Posts tagged Clint Hurdle at FanHouse

You think that there couldn't be any more absurdity to Tuesday night's All-Star extravaganza? Imagine if the game had gone to the 17th inning or so, with Brad Lidge as the final N.L. pitcher already having pitched a couple of innings. The next pitcher that Clint Hurdle might have brought in was the designated hitter for the NL: David Wright.

"I told David, 'You were the last pick. I went and got you. Have you ever pitched in an All‑Star Game?'" Hurdle said. "I said, 'You wanted to be in this thing. That's all I've read, all I've heard for the last three days. You won't believe how much you might be in it here real quick.'

"He said, 'Let's go.'" (...)

Wright said Hurdle was "kind of joking around that he might need me to go out there and pitch." But the Mets third baseman said, "If he would have asked me to, I would have went out there." Did Wright think Mets chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon or general manager Omar Minaya would mind?

"Don't worry," Wright remembered saying. "They're probably sleeping by now. Nobody will know."

I don't know about that. Sometimes, Minaya is awake at 3AM. Just ask Willie Randolph.

With a quarter of the season in the books, it's now clear which teams stumbled out of the gate and which teams never left the blocks. As such, jobs are officially on the line. In today's FanHouse Roundtable, we took a guess at which manager will get the ax first, and which one deserves to be on a hot seat.

The overwhelming consensus? Where there's smoke, there's fire: we think it's nigh time for Ned Yost to find a good real estate agent in Milwaukee. He shouldn't feel too bad, though; no fewer than eight other skippers were mentioned in our lengthy email conversation.

Mullet: I'll say Ned Yost will get fired first, only because I think Willie Randolph bought himself some time with the team meeting, and sweeping the Yankees which ... even though it's only two games ... counts for a little more here [in New York].

Andrew Johnson: Why do I think it's likely? Because the Brewers are floundering and entering a perilous stretch of seven games on the road against the Pirates and Nationals (perilous for Yost). There's no shame in getting swept at Fenway Park, but if Milwaukee can't go at least 4-3 or 5-2, the door will be wide open for Yost to get fired. No one's as close as Yost, especially after the Mets got the two-game sweep at Yankee Stadium this weekend.

The All-Star coaches were announced yesterday, and Joe Torre wasn't on the list. Willie Randolph -- soon-to-be-fired Willie Randolph -- was, and some might see that as a slight to Dodgers manager and True Yankee for life Joe Torre. Torre? He doesn't seem to care:

"I have no problem with that," Torre said. "I mean, anything that happens at Yankee Stadium is a spectacle, and I'm sure that it's going to be a very special time there. But I have no emotional feelings about it at all. I mean, I spent so many days and games in that ballpark and so many special nights -- postseason," Torre said. "I mean, I've got a bucket full of memories. The All-Star Game certainly is going to be a spectacle, but I'm certainly satisfied with the time I put in there."

Well, that's one controversy that failed to get on its feet. I can actually understand if Torre feels slighted by Rockies manager Clint Hurdle, but, you know, it's just the All-Star game. Besides the whole World Series home field thing, the All-Star Game is not a big deal. Neither is the fact that Joe Torre won't be there.

Major League Baseball announced the All-Star coaching staffs as selected Terry Francona and Clint Hurdle today. Assisting Francona with the AL squad will be Tigers manager Jim Leyland and Yankees manager Joe Girardi, in addition to the rest of his Red Sox staff, while Hurdle picked Padres manager Bud Black and Mets manager Willie Randolph, in addition to his Rockies staff, to help with the NL.

The selections seem completely arbitrary: as my collegue Pat Lackey pointed out over email, it seems odd that Black is getting the honor given that San Diego currently has the worst record in baseball and completely collapsed down the stretch last year. The selection of Leyland is equally confusing given Detroit's slow start.

The recent news that Rockies young superstar Troy Tulowitzki will hit the disabled list just got a lot worse. Doctors realized today that the tear in Tulowitzki's right quadriceps is going to keep him out much longer than the originally prognosticated two weeks, according to a statement from his agent.

'Best case scenario is six weeks. The realistic one is a few months,' agent Paul Cohen told The Associated Press on Thursday. 'We're hoping it's a couple months, but we won't know until they do further medical tests.'

Cohen said team doctors will have a better feel for a timeline next week after 'massive swelling and bleeding' subside. 'It's a non-surgical tear, which could be a good thing.'

The combination of "massive swelling" and "bleeding" is about as pleasant and hopeful as "barely broken" and "light hemorrhaging". This a massive blow to the Rockies, of course, who also recently lost Jeff Baker for an unknown amount of time.

The injuries forced Clint Hurdle to put catcher Chris Iannetta at third and Garrett Atkins at second for the remainder of the game on Tuesday. It's a shame too, because Tulowitzki, even if he is slightly overrated on offense because of his monster season last year, is one of the best defensive players in the game. He's like reverse Derek Jeter, really.

Well, that didn't take very long, did it? Manny Corpas is out as closer, according to MLB.com, and Brian Fuentes will replace him. Fuentes, as you likely remember (from a few hours ago), was the closer last year who lost his job immediately after being named to the All Star team. Corpas took over and never let go of the gig, helping to shut down opposing teams in the midst of a ROX-tacular ROX-tober. But, clearly, he has faltered this year, going just four for eight in save opps.

'I think what you need to do is what's best for the club and that's to give the ball to Brian right now, get the heat off Manny and give him an opportunity to work his way out,' Hurdle said.

While Fuentes had accepted his role as a setup man and not complained, it was no secret that he wanted to close. He has made the All-Star team each of the past three seasons as a closer and was off to a good start last year before his bad run in June eventually led to a stint on the disabled list.

I like this move. A lot actually. As much guff as I gave Hurdle for benching Troy Tulowitzki in what I thought was a premature manner, it's refreshing to see someone with a quick hook on his closer, and an unwillingness to recognize when someone just isn't working out. (Pointing fingers all up in your face, Ned Yost.

Bonus Fantasy Spin: Fuentes is an immediate add, obviously, given that he will have the opportunity to save games for the Rockies (for the rest of the season, presumably, if he doesn't screw it up.) I would not drop Corpas in larger leagues just quite yet though -- he can be a dominant setup guy who provides nice middle relief K's and while Hurdle made the switch now, there's no guarantee it stays like that all season. Smaller leagues can dump Corpas immediately though.

Well, actually, this was more like a hefty dose of lack of confidence, really. Manny Corpas snatched the Colorado Rockies closer gig from the jaws of Brian Fuentes' defeat last season, taking over around the halfway mark and never giving it back. But this year has been a totally different story.

In 2008, Corpas has already blown three saves in seven opportunities, and after giving up three runs Tuesday, his ERA ballooned to 6.55. With Fuentes off to a solid start, Corpas' role has come into question.

'That's not a percentage we're going to continue to deal with,' Clint Hurdle said. 'That's the reality of it. But do I expect him to convert every other one? No, I don't. If he gets to the point where he's not closing off games with the success we think he should and we need him to, then we'll probably make a change.'

Wow. I hope that's a typo or a misquote, because if I was Hurdle I damn sure would be expecting at least every other game to get saved. Every one, no? But every other one absolutely. Regardless of what exactly Hurdle meant though, last year proves that he has zero qualms about yanking a closer who appears cemented out of the role and putting someone else in who will get the job done.

Remember, Fuentes had just been named to the All Star team and has a pretty hefty contract rolling. Add in the fact that Hurdle was more than willing to bench Troy Tulowitzki in freaking April, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a bullpen shakeup following Corpas' next blown save. Fuentes is sitting on six holds (Corpas has four saves and four blown) so a switch by the beginning of next week wouldn't be surprising.

The Colorado Rockies are currently second in their division, so one would think that they're reasonably pleased, considering some members of the team are starting slow. Of course, the caveat to being second in the NL West is that, at 9-10, they're staring six games up at an Arizona Diamondbacks team that does not appear to be slowing down anytime soon.

Still, it was a bit surprising to see Clint Hurdle make the decision to bench Troy Tulowitzki this early in the season. Tulowitzki is hitting a pretty abysmal .165 on the season, without any home runs and a 2+ K/BB ratio. So, the benching isn't entirely unwarranted. Still, Tulo did sign a monster contract in the off season and even though he is a very good hitter, his is primarily beneficial to the Rockies because of his elite defense. But there he was, Tuesday night, on the bench, and apparently he was cool with it.

'It's not a work day, I am being benched,' Tulowitzki told The Denver Post. 'It's up to me to get better.'

Clint Barmes, the team's hottest hitter this season, is starting at shortstop with Jeff Baker getting the nod at second base.

[...]'This is not the worst thing that's going to happen to him,' said Hurdle, explaining that it's fine line between trying to ignite a player and serving the best interests of a 25-man roster. 'It's not a slap in the face. Players know when they aren't playing well.'

Certainly, Clint. One could even argue that his torrid second half last year actually created nearly impossible to meet expectations for this season. Like, to the point where everyone forgot that his 2007 first half was offensively respectable at best, in comparison with what people are looking for now. And, you'll never believe this either, but his BABIP is right at .200. Yup, there's some bad luck at play here as well. Which makes benching him reek even more of desperation. And desperation is a stinky cologne, Clint.

Bonus Fantasy Spin: Tulo is a great buy low at this point, as long as you're not expecting 30 homers on the year. Barmes on the other hand, well, if he's got SS and 2B eligibility, he's going to have some value and is worth a pickup while he's playing in deeper mixed leagues.

Neifi Perez is the bane of Cubs fans everywhere. For years in Chicago, because he was a Dusty Baker favorite, Perez was beyond reproach, even if his production didn't back up Dusty's faith. Then Dusty got fired, Neifi moved out, and before you know it, Neifi was serving an 80-game suspension -- 18 of which he still has left to serve -- for testing positive for stimulants. It's been a hard fall.

Earlier today, though, it looked like Neifi had latched on with Colorado for the 2008 season. Redemption! Not so fast: The Rockies have pulled the plug on a $750,000 deal to bring Neifi back into the fold.

Perez and the Rockies had agreed to a $750,000 minor league contract on Tuesday, a goodwill gesture that manager Clint Hurdle called a lifeline for one of the more popular players in club history who has hit hard times of late. But the team later had second thoughts and decided against bringing him back. "We just didn't feel like it was a good fit,'' assistant general manager Bill Geivett said.

Reading between the lines, this sounds like Hurdle wanted to help a friend, while the front office didn't want to waste baseball resources on someone without, you know, baseball talent. The scarier part of this is: Just what kind of trouble has Neifi fallen into? Is Mike Tyson his personal accountant?

Your move, Neifi. Dusty's waiting on the other line.

While Clint Hurdle was steadfast in assuming all responsibility and not assigning blame for his team's poor performance in the World Series, I will go ahead and say that the layoff did hurt his team. I would not go as far as to say that the Rockies would have beaten the Red Sox in the series without a layoff, but there's no doubt that they were not the same team that reeled off 21 wins in 22 games.

In Game 1, Colorado did not fare much better than any other team against Josh Beckett. On the flip side, Jeff Francis and Franklin Morales both got bombed despite pitching well in the NLDS and NLCS. Sure, the Rox got some runs on the board in Game 3 and Game 4, thanks to home runs from Matt Holliday and Garrett Atkins that brought them within one run, but Brian Fuentes only followed by allowing the Red Sox to increase their lead. The big hits from Kazuo Matsui and Yorvit Torrealba that were there earlier in the playoffs were nowhere to be seen in the World Series. Fuentes failed on the biggest stage, as did Francis, Josh Fogg, and mostly everyone in the Rockies lineup. Clint Hurdle began to panic, playing musical center fielders, and pretty much every move he made looked bad because his players didn't perform.

I don't know if the Rockies became rusty, or if they let the attention and reality sink in, but I do know that the layoff did not help them. Whatever momentum they had from sweeping to the National League pennant was lost in the layoff, while the Red Sox carried the momentum of returning from a 3-1 ALCS deficit against Cleveland. I don't think the Rockies would have beaten the Red Sox otherwise, but being off for eight days certainly did not help their case.