Jackson Chourio Appreciation Thread

[homer]

Chourio's numbers since June 1:

316/363/523/886

Basically a top 30 - 35 offensive performer depending on what metric you look at.

[Brewcrew82]

Special and well worth the (slight) wait!

[Outlander]

I think service time not being an issue was a contributing factor in not being demoted. There was no real incentive to have him play in Nashville. The front office likely assumed he would struggle to start the year but it is now paying off for the Brewers and fans as he continue to get better during this final playoff push. He really can be a difference maker in getting the Brewers beyond the first round of the playoffs this year and in the future.

Don't really care who was right or wrong regarding Chourio except for the Brewers Personell that initially made the decision to sign him and then to further extend him prior to making his big league debut. Feeling fortunate, he is the type of player the Brewers need to get that elusive ring someday.

 

[young guns]

I will also throw a shout out to the Brewers brass.  I know there were some, myself included, who were wondering if some AAA time might be best for him and/or if continuing to take his lumps at the major league level would hurt his confidence too much, but ultimately they made what looks like the correct decision by letting him stay up and work through it.  He us a joy to watch and I'm glad we have him locked up for about the next decade.

[pitchleague]

You gotta wonder if weather also affected his slow start.  Some players just do not play well until it starts to warm up.  I'm not saying that this is what happened, but it's a possibility.

Regardless, the kid's good!

[crossface2311]

I was telling my buddies last week once Yeli went on the IL, that if it wasn't for Turang and Ortiz being on a cold spell, Chourio could replace him in the 3 hole with the way he's hitting no problem. Turang/Ortiz, Contreras, Chourio, Hoskins, Adames, 6, 7, 8, Ortiz/Turang. 

[treego14]

We are rooting for you, Action Jackson!

Thanks for the good vibes, young man!

[82brewcrew82]

His hands are brilliant.  Can't wait to see where it all goes.

[CheezWizHed]

Just from the point that he basically skipped AAA, wasn't hitting well early, and wasn't playing were the main reasons people wanted him to go down (like myself).  People simply wanted him in a position to succeed and he wasn't getting many ABs for a time. 

To their credit, the Brewers committed to Chourio more and it is amazing what he has done the last two months and so consistently:

June: 315/363/534/897

July: 317/365/512/876

Hope he can keep it up and steal away the ROY! 😁

 

[sveumrules]

Thought it might be fun to look for some historical comps for what Chourio has been doing of late.

The first year I really remember baseball is 1986 so I used that as a starting point and it turns out there have been 5,499 qualifying hitter seasons between then and last year. Here are the individual player seasons most similar to what Jackson has been up to...

Chourio (166 PA since 0602)
87 BB+ | 67 K+ | 130 AVG+ | 137 ISO+ | 149 wRC+
(still kinda blows my mind that Jackson has trimmed his K rate from 27.3% over his first 176 PA to 15.1% over his last 166 PA, talk about a quantum leap)

2016 Daniel Murphy
70 BB+ | 48 K+ | 133 AVG+ | 151 ISO+ | 154 wRC+ 

2019 Ketel Marte
95 BB+ | 63 K+ | 127 AVG+ | 141 ISO+ | 150 wRC+ 

2011 Jacoby Ellsbury
88 BB+ | 75 K+ | 124 AVG+ | 153 ISO+ | 150 wRC+

2007 Chase Utley
92 BB+ | 88 K+ | 122 AVG+ | 143 ISO+ | 150 wRC+

1989 Robin Yount
108 BB+ | 72 K+ | 122 AVG+ | 158 ISO+ | 149 wRC+

2009 Ryan Braun
87 BB+ | 98 K+ | 120 AVG+ | 148 ISO+ | 149 wRC+

2009 Pablo Sandoval
89 BB+ | 75 K+ | 124 AVG+ | 144 ISO+ | 146 wRC+

2017 Jose Ramirez
96 BB+ | 50 K+ | 124 AVG+ | 153 ISO+ | 146 wRC+

1991 Paul Molitor
116 BB+ | 56 K+ | 125 AVG+ | 122 ISO+ | 145 wRC+

That's seven guys that are pretty similar, plus I threw in the Yount and Molitor seasons as they were still pretty close even though they both walked considerably more.

There ended up being 230 individual player seasons in the sample between a 154 wRC+ and 145 wRC+, of those only 33 had a below average walk rate so that narrowed the pool of comps right off the bat.  

[homer]

[Playing Catch]

22 minutes ago, homer said:

It was like he said to himself, "Oh, I guess I can't hit MLB sliders away like I could in the minors, I guess I'll just stop swinging at them."

[SeaBass]

My favorite stat with Chourio is the kid is having a blast playing baseball. Constantly smiling.

So I guess the stat is Smile factor: 1.000.

[homer]

16 minutes ago, SeaBass said:

My favorite stat with Chourio is the kid is having a blast playing baseball. Constantly smiling.

So I guess the stat is Smile factor: 1.000.

80 grade happiness

[owbc]

Many things can happen over the course of a career, but the upside is that we could be watching the beginnings of the next player to wear a Brewers cap in the HOF. 

[nate82]

3 hours ago, SeaBass said:

My favorite stat with Chourio is the kid is having a blast playing baseball. Constantly smiling.

So I guess the stat is Smile factor: 1.000.

Great now we will have to deal with why is he smiling when he is slumping like with Adames, Gomez and I am probably forgetting someone else that some posters would complain about them smiling.

[Fear The Chorizo]

My favorite thing about Chourio right now is the fact that he's younger than 32 of the top 50 players taken in this year's MLB draft.

Sky remains the limit on what this kid could do.

[wiguy94]

Jarrett Seidler from Baseball Prospectus with a lot of positive things to say about Chourio.

 

[Playing Catch]

This is not to say that the discussion in May about whether he should be demoted or not wasn't legitimate, but I disagree with the Tweeter's comment that his performance at that time proves that he shouldn't have been in MLB. Obviously, it's hindsight, but I think that his recent performance demonstrates that the Brewers sticking with him ended up being the correct decision. Oodles of players NEED a few months, or longer, to adjust to the level of play regardless of how much seasoning they've had in the minors.

[nate82]

I think skipping AAA probably helped Chourio out more than it hurt him.  There are very few MLB type pitchers in AAA.  The off speed pitches you see in MLB starters is just not there in AAA.  A prospect may face one MLB caliber pitcher a week in AAA and may only face one MLB caliber starting pitcher a month in AAA if they are lucky. 

Development wise AAA is just not a great place for a prospect.  The breaking pitches are not anywhere close to MLB quality and at most you are facing #4 or #5 type starting pitchers and maybe a MLB teams 5th or 6th option out of the bullpen.  AAA to me is just a holding spot for prospects teams don't have a place for or for AAAA type players.  Then you also have the occasional MLB vet past their prime still playing in AAA. 

[BrewerFan]

On 8/2/2024 at 10:36 AM, SeaBass said:

My favorite stat with Chourio is the kid is having a blast playing baseball. Constantly smiling.

So I guess the stat is Smile factor: 1.000.

Yup. This is really cool to see. It's an aspect of the game that I've so vastly underrated years ago. I think those players really help keep the team looser and just having more fun. Aguilar, Arcia, Adames now. The Brewers teams with Hardy, Weeks, Hart, Braun, Prince, they were so talented offensively, but they'd tighten up and could really struggle at times. 

Whoever was right/wrong about sending him down, I don't recall many people on this board upset about that 10-year contract they handed out while I saw many Brewers fans or fans elsewhere upset about that type of money for an "unproven" player. Don't think anyone's signing that song anymore! 

[BrewerFan]

59 minutes ago, nate82 said:

I think skipping AAA probably helped Chourio out more than it hurt him.  There are very few MLB type pitchers in AAA.  The off speed pitches you see in MLB starters is just not there in AAA.  A prospect may face one MLB caliber pitcher a week in AAA and may only face one MLB caliber starting pitcher a month in AAA if they are lucky. 

Development wise AAA is just not a great place for a prospect.  The breaking pitches are not anywhere close to MLB quality and at most you are facing #4 or #5 type starting pitchers and maybe a MLB teams 5th or 6th option out of the bullpen.  AAA to me is just a holding spot for prospects teams don't have a place for or for AAAA type players.  Then you also have the occasional MLB vet past their prime still playing in AAA. 

I'd suspect if you went and looked at the elite players in Baseball, they spend the least amount of time in AAA. Often times it's just a couple of months, get that extra year of control while they put up ridiculous numbers down there, and then call them up. 

[Brewcrew82]

 

[wibadgers23]

 

[True Blue Brew Crew]

It's no exaggeration to say that not only is Chourio the Brewers best player, he's playing like one of the best players in all of baseball since mid June. Take a look at his batting numbers then add in the defensive runs saved and stolen bases and tell me how many other players are even in the conversation over that span.  And doing it at the age of 20 is outrageous.

I don't even want to post his numbers since the All-Star break because I don't think anyone would believe them