Bruce Bochy is upset about Clint Hurdle’s comments regarding Andrew McCutchen not being included in the 2011 MLB All-Star Game.
“What bothers me are some of the comments made by other managers,” Bochy said. “Now you’re getting personal, disparaging other players.”
Hurdle didn’t say anything remotely personal about other players. He didn’t mention other players, and he didn’t say at what point in MLB’s complicated All-Star Game roster construction process McCutchen should have been picked. Instead, he said “everybody whiffed.” But this didn’t stop Bochy from following an extremely convoluted logical path that somehow led right back to himself.
Though Hurdle did not mention other players by name, the only outfielders Bochy selected were Arizona’s Justin Upton and New York’s Carlos Beltran.
Upton was the only Diamondback taken, so in Bochy’s eyes, Hurdle was saying his player was better than Beltran. Bochy said he, his staff and a league official began finalizing the team in earnest as the Giants arrived in Detroit on Friday and suggested reporters check the two outfielders’ stats as of then.
Wow. It’s amazing that someone so sensitive can get through the day with the difficult job of running a baseball team. Hurdle didn’t mention Bochy, and I doubt he was thinking of anything so specific as McCutchen over Beltran (although if he was thinking about that, he was right). Instead, what he said was that everybody whiffed on one of his players, and when you’re talking about a guy who, between his offense and defense, has been as valuable as any position player in the National League this year, the only reasonable conclusion is that Hurdle has a point.
Oh, and then there’s this:
On Tuesday, Bochy fired back, saying many managers phoned him before the picks were made to lobby for certain players, but McKeon and Hurdle did not.
What does that have to do with anything? Does Bochy really need other managers to hold his hand while he makes what should be an incredibly obvious decision?