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Braves Add Chipper Jones To Coaching Staff In Part-Time Role

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The Braves announced Monday that Hall of Famer Chipper Jones will join their Major League coaching staff on a part-time basis as a hitting consultant.

Jones, 48, knows a thing or two about hitting — as evidenced both by his plaque in Cooperstown and his career .303/.401/.529 batting line. Jones spent each of his 19 Major League seasons with the Braves and made eight All-Star teams and won a batting title along the way. A beacon of consistency and excellence, Jones can lay claim to the incredible feat of batting over .300 from both the right side of the plate and the left side of the plate in his remarkable career. He also walked more often (1512 times) than he struck out (1409) over that span of nearly two decades.

Jones has been working as a special assistant to GM Alex Anthopoulos in recent years, but he’ll now take a more hands-on role with the players on the field. Carroll Rogers Walton of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes that Jones will work alongside assistant hitting coaches Jose Castro and Bobby Magallanes under hitting coach Kevin Seitzer. He will not be in the dugout or travel with the team, however. Rather, he’ll focus on video work with Braves’ hitters and work with them in the cages.

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Comments

  1. Fans of different teams: What ex player of your team do you think would be a good manager for your respective club?

    My Rangers? Mike Napoli.

    • This is kind of unfair since he’s a coach already and I believe has interviewed for a managerial role, but former catcher and current ATL bullpen coach Eddie Perez – Maddux’s catcher. A lot of charisma, can call with the best of them, player’s coach, etc.

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      • RunDMC chipper has never applied to a managerial vacancy. He’s stayed out of coach since he retired to spend more time with his family hence why he’s gone from special assistant to actually coaching.

        • You misread the comment above. The whole thing was referring to Eddie

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      • Perez isn’t the “current ATL bullpen coach.” Perez moved to the first base coaching job in May 2016 and was replaced by Marty Reed when Fredi Gonzalez was fired. At the end of 2017, both Perez and Terry Pendleton were relieved from their on field coaching positions and offered “advisory roles w/in the organization.” Marty Reed, former pitching coach at AAA Gwinnett, served as the bp coach from May 2016 until he was replaced this past December by Drew French. French was the Astro’s AAA pitching coach in 2019 and was scheduled to be the 2020 pitching coach of the Texas Ranger’s AAA affiliate Round Rock Express before the season was cancelled.

      • Drew Fench is their current bullpen coach..

        I think Eddie Perez left his role a couple years ago, unfortunately. I really thought he would be a candidate to manage his own squad by now, but he hasn’t had the opportunity just yet.

      • Cubs – Steve Stone. He just “never had the guts” to put on the uniform as Lou Piniella put it.

        • Stony angled for a GM job for many years but I think he wanted it to just drop into his lap.

    • Don’t do it. My Tigers hired now-HOFer Alan Trammell as manager a couple decades ago. It broke my heart when they had to fire one of the nicest guys in baseball, but that’s what happens to almost every manager at some point. Hired to be fired

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    • Good question @Rangers29. For my White Sox I’d probably say Frank Thomas or Jim Thome

    • FINALLLY, part time coach part time major league bow hunter. What a life out at the double dime!

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    • Rockies – definitely not Walt Weiss. Saying Girardi is sort of cheating, so I’ll go with Vinny Castilla.

    • Indians — Albert Belle. If the players slack off, he’d kick their ass.

  2. I can only hope this means he’s not in the broadcast booth anymore, because he is awful in the broadcast booth.

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    • I’d still take him in the booth over Frenchy. Francoeur is terrible.

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      • I prefer Glav. Chip makes a dumb dad joke or pop culture reference and Tom just ignores it.

  4. Not a Braves fan, but how cool! Whole career with one team. You rarely see that anymore.

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  5. Chipper high on the list of retired players I would give my left arm to hear preach about hitting. Wouldn’t really get to whiff in the cage anymore but that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make. -A Nats fan

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    • Actually contrary to popular belief… great hitters are usually awful coaches. Ken Harrelson said as much about Ted Williams. David Samson & Giancarlo Stanton said Barry Bonds were pretty bad with the Fish. I don’t think Ryne Sandberg got great marks either. Why? Because to a HOF-caliber player, playing the game excellent came so natural – they couldn’t explain how they did it. I can think of some examples… Javy Baez & Willson Contreas gave high marks to Manny Ramirez & Ryan Dempster & Kerry Wood gave high marks to Greg Maddux. There’s a reason most HOF managers weren’t great players.

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      • Curveball your logic only makes sense in an alternate reality.

        • I think the difference is that, despite all of the appearances, Chipper was actually a highly studied and learned ball player. He infamously kept decades old note books and relived notes taken from previous at bats crossing many seasons. His cerebral input would be of great value.

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        • Chipper understands the science of hitting, and apparently he’s good at breaking down a players swing and identifying flaws. From what I’ve read, a single session with him has helped multiple players.

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        • Plus, when he really struggled, he asked his dad for some advice. Shortly after, he would get back in his groove..

          With his own knowledge, plus all the lessons he learned from his dad along the way, Chipper has already been credited as being a “good” hitting coach.

          I figured this would only be a matter of time, and I think it is only a matter of time before he’s back in the dugout. Chipper just CANNOT stay away from the game. He already helps out during ST, and does some announcing..I think next is this role, and he will be a full-time, traveling coach soon..

          It might take him not being able to climb up a deer stand for him to make that transition, but it is definitely coming!! lol

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        • He also learned a couple of valuable lesson from pops, willie Stargell.

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      • Curve, that may be true but in this case, it’s definitely not. Chipper actually knows his stuff and conveys it well.

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      • Except Chipper Jones already has a track record as a guest hitting instructor during spring training and also he has legendarily helped several hitters become better or get out of slumps.

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  6. Mr. Jones and me
    Tell each other fairy tales
    And we stare at the beautiful women
    She’s looking at you
    Ah, no, no, she’s looking at me

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    • Don’t just stare, ’cause she’s not wearing underwear
      Err-err-err-err-err-err-err-err
      Oh how rude, at least she’s got you’re attention square
      Err-err-err-err-err-err-err-err
      Don’t you realize, It’s just her design
      Ai-ai-ai-ai-ai-ai-ai-ai
      Hey! mom look, no more panty line
      Ai-ai-ai-ai-ai-ai-ai-ai
      Shoewa shoewa shoewa shoewa shoewa shoewa shoewa

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  7. I wish Chipper would work part-time in the Front office and light a fire under AA’s butt!…

  8. Guarantee he could still probably bat .250 with around 15 homers if he got into shape and all that. We joke, but can he play left field again?

    Welcome back, Chip!!

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  9. Man! I don’t like the Braves, but I do like him, and I was really, really enjoying him as a color commentator – one of the few I actually look forward to calling a ballgame.

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    • How could anyone dislike the man! I’m a braves fan and I like Mike Piazza, Roy Halladay, and Max Scherzer! There are certain players that just command respect, even if they are rivals.

  11. Nice to see Chip back. Hopefully he’ll put on the uni in Spring.

  12. Chipper Jones was the best situational hitter that I’ve ever seen. I think this is something the entire Braves club could learn.

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    • If major league players don’t understand situational hitting then that’s a system wide failure that can’t be patch-worked by bringing on board a fan favorite.

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      • How many guys hit the other way ? How many guys avoid the shift ? How many times have you found yourself saying “why didn’t he ________”. There must be some value in bringing him in. Knowing the Braves I doubt it was just a token assignment.

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  13. Would like Jason Veritek or Dustin Pedroia to get a shot one day in Boston.

    • Lol at the idea of Pedroia coaching. Boastful, arrogant jackasses tend not to make great teachers or leaders of men.

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  14. If he just coaches them on how to hit the Mets, and it works like when he played, he’ll earn more than his salary!

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  15. Ted Williams was a magnificent hitting coach one on one. As a manager, he got the entire Senators team to hit better, but they stunk anyway. I think some people work better one on one and some work better in a room full of people.

    Boy, Chipper was a hell of a player!

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    • “Who cares about launch angle anyway. I mean, what does that mean, you hit a homerun further?!” – Chipper Jones.

      What an awesome quote

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  18. Chipper only became a Brave because Scott Boras over valued Todd Van Poppel. Nice move, Scott.

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  19. Hope he is a better coach than tv analyst. He is terrible on mlb TV games

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  21. Why all the hate towards Chipper as a broadcaster? He wasn’t the best, but he was a lot better than others like ARod. Then again, a moss covered rock would be better than ARod.

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  22. First to say the Blue jays should have signed him, but their FO and owners don’t care about winning.

  23. People just think it’s cool to say guys are bad in the booth.. Only person you ever hear people talk positive about is romo. Chipper is a “guest announcer” for gods sake, get over yourselves people!

  24. For braves broadcasts I love chip, glavine and Simpson when they are together. Frenchy is good but joe Simpson is excellent with chip caray.

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