Does Jackson Chourio Have an Attack Angle Problem?

[Matthew Trueblood]

It's hard to pick nits with the Brewers phenom's first ride of the senior circuit. As he tries to build on his superb rookie year in 2025, though, there's one clear way he could better tap into his power.

Image courtesy of © Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

At the extremely tender age of 20, Jackson Chourio hit an impressive .275/.327/.464, with 54 extra-base hits. After Jun. 1, he was essentially a superstar in full bloom, hitting .303/.358/.525. He has awesome raw power, and it's not hard to imagine him doubling the 21 homers he hit last year in his best future campaigns. That's the good news.

Here's the bad news: Chourio isn't yet tapping into all that power on a consistent basis, and it's relatively easy to see why. Right now, the young slugger seems to be attacking the ball at an angle that generates ample backspin, but (often) scatters his hardest-hit balls at suboptimal launch angles. You can see that by examining his distribution of launch angles, with each bucket colored by the average swing speed of the balls in that range.

Chourio is plenty capable of generating exit velocity, but his fastest swings are often leading to balls he either chops into the ground or pops up. That means that his best-hit balls are rarely hit at the trajectories where they can do the most damage. Of the 192 hitters who had at least 50 hard-hit balls in 2024, Chourio ranked 155th in the percentage of them that clustered between 10° and 35°, at 43.5%. The top of that leaderboard reads: José Siri, Mookie Betts, Kyle Tucker, and Taylor Ward, which illustrates the value of squaring up your hard-hit balls on an upward swing plane. On the other hand, Siri's leadership does illustrate a problem with it: unless you're supremely talented and have a well-organized approach, hitting those hard-hit balls on a valuable upward trajectory risks big strikeout totals.

We can't yet directly measure attack angle, in public spaces, though Baseball Savant is expected to add that data later this year. When they do, we might well find that Chourio is only beginning to tap fully into his power, because his swing—though lethally fast and highly adaptable, which is all one can reasonably ask of such a young player—is still focused on creating backspin and being direct to the ball, rather than maximizing home runs. That probably won't change in 2025, in a major way, but it could begin to adjust. Chourio's talent gives him a chance to excel at both contact and power, and he's going to get there. To do so, though, he might have to concentrate on creating a bat path that blasts upward through the zone more than the one he brought to the majors with him.

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[Brian]

I wouldn't mess with anything right out of the gate with hitting this spring unless something unusual appears or he is struggling.  His biggest weakness to me was his defense last season.  Finishing 3rd for "rookie of the year" is not a reason to start changing up things and messing with his brain unless something highly obvious is identified. 

Don't forget he rolled his ankle twice last season, once in the out field and once on 1st base which did not help matters with his baseball abilities. 

Off Topic, with Yelich coming back, who go's where or DH-ing next season?  Because LF is Christians I believe. 

[eddiemathews]

For a lesson in how this works, ck out Henry Aaron's swing development over time. In the first half of his career he was a line-drive hitter, and it gradually developed into the King of Launch Angle. 

[KeithStone53151]

I was sitting here trying to figure out how a -75 launch angle qualified as a hard hit ball, eventually realizing the chart indicates bat speed...not hard hit. bat speed to launch angle doesn't really tell us much, except that maybe he should swing less at 100% and more at 95%...which is probably attributable to all hitters(I see you Carlos Gomez).

[Brian]

Giancarlo Stanton average swing speed is 80.6 miles per hour (mph), which is almost 9 mph faster than the MLB average of 72 mph. If you believe AI results. 

[jesusoftheapes]

Simply put . NO! Jackson Chourio has no problem.     I urge all Brewers fans to not do this with Chourio or anyone on this roster.    From Blake Perkins to Jackson Chourio the one thing we do not need to do here is micro manage these young Stars.       Jackson Chourio is the best young player in Brewers history.  No one has had more talented than Chourio in Milwaukee since Hank Aaron was a young pup.  

The time to question the players we have is not now!  This roster is special and there is little need to question why it works .   The reasons it works is because the Brewers have put together a large complimentary group of players who help each other be better and they as a whole make for a team we can sit back and simply enjoy now.     We for the first time ever have a Phillies,Padres type of roster.  A roster that is just so good it is not in fear of coming apart like others of our past.  Without extreme injury influence this team should be able to maintain winning no matter what is thrown its way during a season. .   This team seems build to win and now we the fan get to enjoy baseball for the first time in our lives instead of constantly trying to figure out what it will take to win with whatever group is pieced together one year to another.    We will win with the guys we have and the Stars that shine here are bright enough not to deep dive into the things we wish they would do better! 

I think after decades of micromanagement and questioning the process we have EARNED a right to sit back and watch OUR guys win baseball games.     We are set up for a Pennit and I think ideas like this article need to die!       Jackson Chourio is lacking at nothing and wee need on sit back, take a sip or take a toak and flat out enjoy this ride!     Very few of the current Roster are lacking in fact.  Enjoy this and leave the skepticism to the rest of the MLB.   WE have all paid our dues and FINALLY we have an honest to God contender on our hands ! Best not to question it!