Fangraphs interview with Brenton Del Chairo

[homer]

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Recently promoted to assistant director of player development, the 45-year-old former catcher has been Milwaukee’s minor league hitting coordinator since December 2021. Prior to that, he served as an assistant hitting coordinator, and as a hitting coach in the Arizona Complex League.

In the latest installment of our Talks Hitting series, Del Chiaro discusses several of the system’s top prospects, as well as the philosophies that the hitting department adheres to.

 

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/brenton-del-chiaro-talks-brewers-hitting-prospects-and-philosophies/

I thought the development philosophy at the end was interesting.

[True Blue Brew Crew]

I couldn't help but get excited about the fact that he basically said Made is better in just about every way than Chourio was at the same age. That's fun to think about

[Joseph Zarr]

Many interesting nuggets in the interview. I also found this new development and new responsibility under his new title quite fascinating:

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Brenton Del Chiaro: “Actually, not very much. It’s just a little bit of additional responsibility. I will continue overseeing hitting while also interacting with our full-season managers. I’m also going to have some lower-level roster responsibilities. So, still day to day with the hitting, but now interacting and overseeing our managers at the full-season affiliates and having some input on lower-level roster construction and playing time grids.”

SO, it seems like he'll have direct input in 'lower-level roster construction and playing time grids.' 

I also found this particular nugget on the mental approach and just overal hitting acumen Mike Boeve possesses:

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...What impressed me the most this year about Mike was the approach to his in-game approach. What I mean by that is, he would go into the game having the information from our advance reports, with a certain approach of how he was going to attack this pitcher. Then, after the first at-bat, he would come back and write down in his notebook all the pitches he saw, where they were, and the sequence of those pitches. He would then either maintain his approach in the next AB, or he would alter it. He showed an extreme, advanced level of hitting approach.

Obviously, as someone who has been touting Pratt's game above and beyond perhaps any player in the organization other than Made, I absolutely loved reading this:

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Del Chiaro: “The steal of the draft. You can put my name on that. He’s a kid who [won the minor league Gold Glove at shortstop]. He played at three different levels and was co-Minor League Player of the Year for us [along with Made]. It’s really hard to find a hole in Cooper’s game. Coop is a baseball player through and through. For us to get him in the sixth round… again, he’s the steal the draft. We’re absolutely excited to have him the organization. As he gets stronger, he’s going to impact the baseball a lot more, but it’s really hard to find holes in Cooper’s game right now at such a young age [20 years old].”

I'll close with the one thing I was disappointed with in the interview is they didn't expressly discuss Eric Brown Jr.'s 2024 season and the multiple swing alterations we've seen since he was drafted. That's a pretty interesting topic from my vantage point and it would have been really nice to hear from Chiaro on that.