Chad Chop

Chad Spencer Chop

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 6' 4", Weight 210 lb.
• School Vanguard University of Southern California, Vanderbilt University
• High School Tustin High School

• Born March 21, 1980 in Orange, CA USA

BR Minors page

Biographical Information

Outfielder Chad Chop was a 6th-round selection by the Montréal Expos in the 2002 amateur draft out of Vanderbilt University. He played in the minor leagues from 2002 to 2006, starting off with the Vermont Expos the year he was drafted. He put up a batting line of .254/.308/.375 in 70 games as the team's regular left fielder, then followed that in 2003 with an excellent season with the Savannah Sand Gnats of the South Atlantic League, where he hit .322/.368/.464 with 11 homers and 77 RBIs in 131 games. He was 4th in the SAL in average (between Delwyn Young and Aarom Baldiris) and led in hits (156). He was named the All-Star DH. He could never duplicate that level in production in future years, however. In 2004, he fell to a .218 average in 122 games with the Brevard County Manatees of the Florida State League. He did better with the Potomac Nationals of the Carolina League in 2005, after the Expos had relocated and become the Washington Nationals, hitting .260/.303/.355. By that time, though, he was a 25-year-old still playing in Class A and any signs that he was a serious prospect had vanished. He played one final season in the independent leagues, lining up with the Fullerton Flyers of the Golden Baseball League in 2006, where he hit .291 in 40 games.

Following his retirement as a player, he served as a firefighter with the Tucson, AZ fire department from 2007 to 2013. He also started a baseball academy on the side and served as a volunteer high school hitting coach. The academy became very successful, earning him more revenue than his day job as a firefighter. He decided to quit his job and move back to southern California where he opened a new academy. Early in 2014, he caught a big break when he met major league OF Hunter Pence while working out in a gym, who hired him as a batting practice coach. Pence took him along to spring training in 2014, which led to his being hired by the San Francisco Giants as a special assistant, serving as a left-handed batting practice pitcher and video replay analyst, i.e. the person who calls manager Bruce Bochy in the dugout to tell him when he should ask the umpires for a video review on a close play. Video replay was introduced that season, and he shared the duties with former major leaguer Shawon Dunston. After the Giants' win in the 2014 World Series (in which he got to tell Bochy to challenge a close play in the 4th inning of Game 7, a challenge which was successful), he was officially added to the team's coaching staff.

Related Sites

• Article from the Giants' blog