Clint Hurdle:

"I've only seen him once live. That was last year. We went into Pittsburgh in August for a three-game series. I got to see him from a dugout. I've watched multiple games on TV. I saw him come through college.

"It's a generational arm. It truly is.

"There's a lot of recency bias in sport and life, and you know everybody says, 'This is the best pitcher you've ever seen, right?' I go, 'Well, time will tell on that.' Well, it's the best young pitcher you've ever seen? I said, 'He's one of them.'

"Who else can even be close? I go, 'Dwight Gooden could be very close, and Fernando Valenzuela was very close. Look at what they were able to accomplish off the bow at the beginning of their careers.'

"All of baseball is pulling for the kid except if you play him that night. The values are where they're supposed to be. He's identified with Pittsburgh. He's bought in.

"That's a city that's based on hard work, on no BS, on a blue-collar mentality. He's got all that. He wants to be a part of the group that turns it around, kind of like we did in '13, '14, and '15. Re-bond the city with the ball team, because there's been a lot of lean years since I left. Their last winning season was '18.

"The arsenal is real. The guy is real. The competitor is real. Now just stay healthy Paul, and go get 'em."

Hurdle:

"I don't know. That's above my pay grade.

"I mean, they found money for Mitch Keller. They found money for Bryan Reynolds. They found money for Konnor Griffin. If you're ever going to find money for somebody, this is the guy you find money for."

Clint Hurdle:

"Well, you know, the one thing I do want to say before you talk about somebody coming in – somebody had to leave. I've been the manager that walked in the door in the middle of season. I've been the manager that's been asked to leave out the door in the middle of season.

"Nobody goes into these jobs waking up in the morning thinking, how can I make things worse? How can I bottom this thing out, whether it be through scouting, player development, or the major league product? There are a lot of fingerprints on success. There's a lot of fingerprints on failure. And we all are responsible for the path the Rockies have taken over the years.

"I do think there's times when a new voice needs to be heard, a rebooting of the system. We basically replaced our front office and added more manpower to the front office. We re-created and redeveloped our pitching program. We've reidentified our offensive vision. So Paul's very creative, very intelligent.

"We've reidentified ourselves, kind of rebranded ourselves. Walker Monfort is also in a new position – Dick's son – which a lot of people initially would throw their hands up, like more nepotism. Walker's very creative, he's very sharp, he's very innovative.

"He's done a stand-up job, bringing in the front office people on both sides. The baseball that he's already brought in, and on the revenue-operating part.

"We are in a better place. We are all optimistic about the future. There is a vision, there's a game plan and a map on how to get there, and we're all being held accountable.

"So it's been good to have Paul on board as our leader, and he has been very good with his communication skills to the entire organization. Not just player ops, not just baseball scouting. The entire organization, the employees. So we're all pulling for him and we're pulling for each other."

Hurdle:

"A championship trophy has been brought back in all places but baseball. There's really good hockey played in Colorado. There's really good football played in Colorado. There's really good basketball played in Colorado. Our last trips to the playoffs, I believe, were '17 and '18. Early exits. In '07 we made an iconic run, 21 out of 22 to get to the World Series, but we didn't win a world championship.

"It would mean a lot. I'm still working here for a lot of those reasons. To know what it looks like when we play winning baseball in Colorado – it's special. We're all pulling on that end of the rope to make it happen.

"As our owner Dick Monfort said, 'I hope I've got enough life left for me to see it.' That's where I'm at. I'm 68 and I'm giving it everything I've got. How many more years will I be in this? I don't know.

"But I'll always pull for the people of Colorado. I'll always pull for the fanbase and whoever is wearing the uniform. It was a special place for me. It's where I cut my managerial teeth, where our kids were born. Lot of love. Lot of friends.

"What I call myself down in the minor leagues is the Chief Rock Polisher. I'm polishing rocks in player development. I want to help get them up there to help the team to win."

Hurdle:

"We got to such a hard place last year, they asked me back in uniform, so I watched Mickey for five-and-a-half months. He has used every experience that he's accumulated in his professional career to his benefit.

"I do believe we're prepared for our future through our past, if we've paid attention. I believe Mickey is somebody who has paid attention. He went from being a 1-1, a lot of hype, unlimited potential. Things I walked through. An SI cover like I was on in '78. He had some failure and he had to find a way to reboot himself.

"He's very humble. He's strategic. His work ethic is solid. He's got a baseball IQ, and we couldn't be happier for him because of the kind of person he is, but also that he's playing good baseball.

"He's a baseball player. He's hitting the ball, and it's not just a right-left match up. He's hitting some left handers. He's in a good place in life as well, which is just as important for a lot of these young players to find that.

"I don't know if you ever find work-life balance once the season's in, but there is rhythm to what you do during the season. I think Mickey's found a very good rhythm off the field and on the field."

Hurdle:

"Chase had a good start. It's been six weeks, and now he's on the IL, and yes, we're all hopeful he comes back. Time's going to tell when he comes back, or how well he comes back.

"We all did a lot of honest self-evaluation after a very challenging season at the major league level last year on re-identifying his strengths. And I think having a growth mindset – you get to the big leagues based on past experiences and performances, but you don't know what you don't know. In the big leagues, you learn something every day.

"Chase went through a lot last year, I think a lot of self-doubt, a lot of anxiety, a lot of wonder, and was able to cleanse at the end of the year. He had a very good exit interview at the end of the year. Spent some very critical time in the offseason identifying (issues).

"I think our new pitching program and leadership people that have been put in place have helped him to use his entire arsenal in pitching. There's a lot of growth still going on, but we've now gotten to see what we all thought we could see down the road when we drafted Chase (ninth overall) a few years back. So we're proud of him. We're proud of his resilience and his perseverance."

Hurdle:

"I put together about 50 things I had said over the years that had caught traction. We whittled it down to 25, we formatted it into a baseball season, and I share a personal and professional experience with each Hurdle-ism.

"I'm very authentic and transparent in the book. I'm a recovering alcoholic. I've been divorced twice. I've been traded, released, sent down. And I've also been on the mountaintop. I can appreciate the mountaintop because I've been in the Valley.

"Three trips to a World Series as a manager, coach and player. Incredible relationships built. Seventeen years as a Major League manager. That in of itself blows my mind.

"It's an easy read. I don't mean for that to take away from the book, but it's not overwhelming. It's authentic, transparent. It's 144 pages and we're closing in on 10,000 copies pushed out the door.

"And the most redeeming factor is that all types of people are responding. Men, women. Young and old. Moms, dads, grandparents, kids. Amateur players, professional players, coaches. It's been a blast. It was very therapeutic. And it's gone well enough that (book publisher) Wiley is asking me to write another book, which I'll be writing this year."

Hurdle:

"Well, you'd like to think so, but there's just so many good players on that level. The fact that he hasn't won the MVP with the years he's had, it tells you how good the talent level is.

"I had (Todd) Helton and (Larry) Walker in Colorado, Vladimir Guerrero, Josh Hamilton, Michael Young in Texas when I was hitting coach, Andrew McCutchen in Pittsburgh. Most of those guys found MVP seasons. You like to think Bobby will.

"He's everything you want in a ballplayer. He's everything you want in a teammate, from my understanding. Everybody's a fan of this guy. Just the work ethic. I know his dad.

"So the game of baseball needs men like that involved. He is a postcard for the game of baseball, for the younger generation to pull for and identify with. He's another guy we just hope can stay on the field and be healthy, because I think a lot of good things will happen."

Hurdle:

"My best connection with the Royals is still George Brett. Talked with him on his birthday last week. We chat on occasion. Dayton Moore I'm still friends with, who used to be with Kansas City, no longer there. He's with Texas. So I don't have any ties back to the Royals now.

"I always pull for them. I always love going to KC. It's kind of like your first girlfriend. It was a team that I broke into the big leagues with. We had good teams. We played on the turf.

"We were a good team nobody knew about out in the Midwest until we knocked off the Yankees and went to the World Series in 1980. A lot of wonderful memories. I do like to follow the Royals and keep up with them. Tremendous fanbase, and you hope for good things for them this year and moving on."

Hurdle:

"I've got a bunch I can't share, and a bunch he can't share about me. We lived together my rookie year.

"I think the one thing that people don't realize about George is how hard he worked to become good. He was a second-round pick, but he wasn't that guy that everybody talked about. I was a first round pick. I was a phenom on SI. Jamie Quirk was talked about more. Willie Wilson was talked about more than George Brett.

"George Brett's in the Hall of Fame. George Brett's work ethic was off the charts. Discipline and focus. He was an okay fielder when he came up. He became a gold glover. He was a tremendous base-runner. He was the definition of a ballplayer.

"He could lead with words, but he led more by example every day, the way he played the game. His brand, once he walked on the field, was to beat your a–. That's it.

"There's two guys I've had like that. Todd Helton was the other one. When they walked on the field, they had one goal. To go on the field and beat your a–."

Hurdle:

"I agree with that 100 percent. The numbers he put up early were iconic, and then to be hurt as often as frequently as he was for that period of time: How's anybody going to play up to that level after you set the bar so high?

"Now he's healthy. He's been loyal, he's got good roots. Another kid with good roots. His faith plays huge in everything he does. The game of baseball needs to applaud him and pull for him, and I think they are. And I hope it continues. No doubt."

Hurdle:

"I haven't followed that story close enough to ever know that he's actually said, 'I don't want to leave.' I don't know that. Maybe he has and I missed it. They had (Shohei) Ohtani and they didn't keep him.

"I've got to think there are certain times when you have to move people to get younger people and more people to fill the holes. I don't know what his desires are.

"He's given it everything he's got (in Anaheim) and that's all you can ask out of an athlete. I'm sure there will be a few teams that will be looking for a right-handed bat that can still play the outfield or DH, that can be helpful in a pennant race."