Maddon: Hurdle's barbs at Baez, Contreras say more about him

Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon fired back Friday at Clint Hurdle, saying the recent remarks by the Pittsburgh Pirates skipper - who called out two of Maddon's players, Javier Baez and Willson Contreras, for their on-field behavior Wednesday - reveal more about him than either of those two.

"Whenever you want to be hyper-critical of somebody, just understand you're pretty much revealing yourself and what your beliefs are more than you are evaluating somebody (when) you have not spent one second in that person's skin," Maddon said, according to Patrick Mooney of The Athletic.

"The mistakes of youth are preferable to the wisdom of old age," he said.

On Thursday morning, Hurdle suggested neither Baez nor Contreras had sufficient "respect for the game" after the former flipped his bat on an infield pop-up and the latter quibbled with the home-plate umpire over balls and strikes in the Cubs' 13-5 victory the afternoon prior. Baez, at that point in the series, was 4-for-8 with four home runs and Contreras had reached base in five of his plate appearances (for a .556 average), notching a pair of doubles, as well.

Baez has since apologized for flipping his bat, admitting it wasn't "a good look," but the 25-year-old stressed after his club's 6-1 loss in Thursday's series finale against the Pirates that he was unfazed by Hurdle's comments.

"There's nothing to take personal," he said. "People that talk about me, they can save it. I don't control it. I don't really care about it."