Clint Hurdle Hired

The Pirates got their man today, hiring Clint Hurdle to be their new manager. The news will be officially announced at a press conference tomorrow. He had been offered a second interview for the Mets job but apparently preferred the bird in hand.

This is great news for Pirates fans. Hurdle is well known as a great teacher of young hitters, and he should be great for the Walker/McCutchen/Tabata/Alvarez group. Hurdle's approach stresses plate discipline, something all those hitters but McCutchen need to improve. For example, the 2009 Rangers finished 12th in the American League in walks and first in strikeouts. Hurdle took over as hitting coach in 2010 and the Rangers finished eighth in walks and 11th in strikeouts. The result was adding 18 more points of on base percentage and an improvement from seventh to fourth in runs scored.

The Pirates offense needs to get much better at walking as well. The Pirates drew only 453 walks in 2010, an unacceptably low number that ranked 15th in the National League. McCutchen was the only player who batted more than 40 times with an on base percentage above .350. But the regular players were all under 30, and all are capable of walking more. For example, Alvarez is always going to strike out a lot, but that would be fine if he's walking a lot too. Ronny Cedeno struck out 106 times and walked 23 times. Does his eight home run power justify hacking at every pitch? It is much easier for a hitter to improve his walk rate than to improve his power or contact. Clint Hurdle can help these hitters to do that. By all accounts he is a tremendously hard worker who will work with each hitter individually to get the most out of their talents.

Clint Hurdle also has experience in making the World Series with a team that isn't very good. That's going to be really key in Pittsburgh too. Check out the lineup the Rockies fielded in Game 1 of the 2007 World Series:

Wily Taveras cf
Kazuo Matsui 2b
Matt Holliday lf
Todd Helton 1b
Garrett Atkins 3b
Brad Hawpe rf
Troy Tulowitzki ss
Yorvit Torrealba c
Ryan Spilborghs dh
Jeff Francis p

Now obviously there are three stars in Holliday, Helton and Tulowitzki, but who are the rest of these guys? Atkins and Hawpe could only hit when Clint Hurdle was managing them, and the rest could never hit. Jeff Francis is your ace pitcher for a pennant winning team? Hurdle had to be doing something right to win 21 of 22 games and reach the World Series with this crew.

Obviously, John Russell was not the reason the Pirates have been a bad team recently. Nevertheless I am quite happy to have Clint Hurdle on board. It's a step forward for the entire Pirates organization.

Hurdle interviews with Mets

Rangers hitting coach Clint Hurdle will talk with the Mets today about their open managerial job. I expect that the Pirates job is Hurdle's if he wants it. However, if Hurdle gets offered the Mets job he almost certainly will decline the Pirates job. Considering there are two finalists, and using my powers of reasoning, that would leave Jeff Banister as the Pirates manager.

I'm on record as supporting Hurdle as the choice to be the new Pirates manager. He took the 2007 Rockies to the World Series with no starting pitching. That's a task not unlike what I would hope he could accomplish with the 2011 Pirates, although it's possible the '07 Rockies had more Heltons and Hollidays on their side.

Obviously the Mets job would be more attractive, given the difference between a $130 million payroll and a $40 million payroll. However, it's far from a foregone conclusion that Hurdle would get the Mets job. They've interviewed at least four internal and four external candidates. I'll keep you posted.

Ledezma Re-Signed; Manager Search Down To Two

Hurdle, Banister are the finalists for manager
Former Rockies manager Clint Hurdle, recently profiled on this very site, will be interviewed tomorrow but is already one of two finalists for the Pirates job. Expect the Pirates to sign him before Sunday, which is the first day negotiations with free agents can begin. It would be a big disadvantage to not have a leader in place for free agent negotiations.

The other finalist is Jeff Banister, who was most recently the Pirates bench coach. Jeff had an astounding 1.000 career batting average for the Pirates, going 1-for-1 for the 1991 squad. But he hasn't managed since 1998 and even then it was at the AA level. It's hard for me to believe he has a great chance at the job - if the Pirates wanted him to manage the team they could have given him the job two weeks ago after he interviewed for it.

What would it take to not be re-signed?
The Pirates got off to an inauspicious start to this offseason by re-signing reliever Wil Ledezma. No details were released, but let's hope this contract is of the minor league variety.

Ledezma went 0-3 with a 6.86 ERA in 27 games for the Pirates. He was brought up to replace Javier Lopez as the lefty specialist out of the bullpen, but got absolutely torched by opposing lefties who put up a batting line of .367/.424/.533. He's put up a 5.26 career ERA, and has a career WHIP identical to last year's 1.58.

Ledezma is a good minor league pitcher, but there's no reason to think at age 29 that he's talented enough to be on a big league staff. No details were released, but let's hope this one was a minor league contract.

Four Cuts Made
Outfielder Brandon Moss and pitchers Sean Gallagher, Steven Jackson and Justin Thomas were all outrighted to AAA. They can all become minor league free agents. Maybe the Pirates will resign one or two of these guys, but none have shown any indication of being major league ballplayers. The roster is down to 38 men after these moves, meaning the Pirates weren't unbelievably anxious to hang on to any of them. Brandon Moss, for one, proved once again in September that he can't hit major league pitching. All four will get AAA contracts somewhere.

Dotel Becomes A Free Agent
Former Pirate closer Octavio Dotel, still featured in the blog's title bar to provide a link to the glory days of last July, is a free agent. The Rockies declined his option as expected.

Dotel pitched well here, going 2-2 with a 4.28 ERA and 21 saves while racking up strikeouts. Overall on the season he appeared in 68 games, gave up only 52 hits in 64 innings, K'd 75 batters and walked 32. Those are basically the same numbers he's always put up, and I would be open to bringing him back in 2011.

Is Clint Hurdle The Pirates Guy?

The Pirates, conspicuously silent for two weeks, plan to interview Clint Hurdle for their open manager job.

Hurdle worked as the Texas Rangers hitting coach this year, but is more familiar from his eight years managing the Rockies. He had a losing record in seven of those years and compiled an overall record of 534-625. But in the one winning year, 2007, the Rockies advanced to the World Series by winning seven straight games in the postseason.

He must have been doing something right because the Rockies' four top starters that year were Jeff Francis, Aaron Cook, Josh Fogg, and Jason Hirsh. Reaching the playoffs, let alone the World Series, with that kind of rotation requires (a) some knowledge of how to manage a pitching staff, and (b) some knowledge of who Jason Hirsh even is.

Other than an irrational love of the intentional walk, Hurdle is a pretty sound tactician. He also is known for working well with young hitters - players including Troy Tulowitzki and Matt Holliday developed on his watch. There are also a few guys - Garrett Atkins is one - who all of a sudden couldn't hit once Hurdle was gone.

Obviously it seems like the Pirates are very interested in Hurdle, or they wouldn't have waited weeks for the Rangers to be eliminated in order to talk to him. I'll have an update if any other news comes out.