As he returns to he Milwaukee Brewers as a hitting coach, Daniel Vogelbach understands what it will take to have a successful coaching approach.
Nearly five years after playing for the Milwaukee Brewers, Daniel Vogelbach is returning to the organization as hitting coach.
Vogelbach wore a Brewers Jersey in 2020 and 2021 and notched a .242 batting average with 66 hits, 13 homers, 36 RBIs and 43 runs scored in 112 games for the club. Now, he will join Eric Theisen and Guillermo Martinez to form a trio of voices to lead the hitters.
Recently, Vogelbach spoke with Adam McCalvy of MLB.com to talk about what their coaching process may look like.
“I think there's two parts to that,” Vogelbach said. “Obviously, you have your overall message that initially comes from Murph, right? How you want to be as a group, what you want to do as a group. And that message is presented as one from the whole hitting department.”
“And then, obviously, every player and every hitter is different, right? You can get the same message across to different players, but you're voicing it in a different way. Some guys may want the message to be delivered to them in a mechanical way. Some guys may want it to be delivered in a non-mechanical way.”
No matter the delivery method, Vogelbach knows that it all boils down to improving players.
“But in the grand scheme of things, you could still deliver the same message to a player. So, you could have one hitting coach, you could have 10 hitting coaches, it's just [about], “How do we get those guys better?” Because I think if you ask anybody in that clubhouse, from top to bottom, the ultimate goal is to be the last team standing.”
Vogelbach also touched on the candidness of manager Pat Murphy, who at the helm of the Brewers has become a back-to-back National League Manager of the Year winner.
“The thing about Murph that I think people know; you never question what's on Murph's mind,” Vogelbach said. “Because he's going to tell you. I think that's a very underrated thing, not only in this game, but in this world.”
Vogelbach expounded his respect for Murphy’s philosophy.
“I think too many people are scared to tell the truth or scared to tell you how it is because of a response or how they're going to react to it, but you never question what's on Murph's mind or what's he's feeling. If you can take it as a person and a player, it makes you better.”
“It'll make me a better coach. At the end of the day, he does it because he wants the best out of you as an individual, a player, a friend, whatever it may be. It's something I think that this world needs more of.”
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