Official 2024 Off-Season Thread!

Little-known perspective, but a lot of teams saw Simmons as a relief pitcher when he played JC ball.

He was a big shortstop (6-2) who had the quickness of a small shortstop and could maintain his footwork at that size. He remarkable player. I thought he had taken a big step forward with his bat with the Angels, but he hit a wall. Over 2/3 of his bWAR was credited to his defense, but he was no slouch with the bat.

He was the converse to Gary Sheffield, who is facing his last year on the writers' HoF ballot. 60.5 bWAR overall, with 80.7 attributed to his offense and -27.7 to his defense. At least Simmons was positive with both the bat and the glove.
 
I think I remember reading somewhere that the Braves have some sort of silly drill to measure hand eye coordination where the guy bounces and catches a ball as quickly as possible, and Simmons scored the highest they ever measured. Or something to that effect.
 
Enscheff said:
I think I remember reading somewhere that the Braves have some sort of silly drill to measure hand eye coordination where the guy bounces and catches a ball as quickly as possible, and Simmons scored the highest they ever measured. Or something to that effect.
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Makes total sense. One hand/eye test is to use a knobby reflex ball and see how the player handles it. I had one once and it is difficult to judge the carom. I wouldn't be surprised if Simmons performed well. I didn't see a lot of games, but I can't recall him ever misjudging a bad bounce.
 
This is one of those takes where you just make a sweeping psychological judgement based on basically nothing, so I apologize in advance, but...I always got the sense during Andrelton's time in Atlanta that the Braves and Simmons never really knew what they wanted him to be as a hitter. He was an impeccable contact hitter, so there was always the temptation to have him cut down his swing and focus on trying to turn him into a classic no-power, spray-the-ball-to-all-fields middle infielder...but he was incredibly slow, so all that contact just resulted in him grounding into a staggering number of double plays. He had legitimate pop, slugging over .400 in his first two years in the bigs, and if you could unlock that you'd have a Gold Glove shortstop who was hitting 25 homers a year, which was incredibly tantalizing...except his swing would get big and loopy, and he'd hit infield pop-up after infield pop-up for weeks at a time.

They never really settled on an approach, and so he ended up being caught between worlds. Though that's probably less a Simmons issue and more of a diagnosis that applies to a bunch of sub-par hitters -- they have one or two discrete skills, but not enough all-around talent or the one great attribute you need to excel.
 
MadduxFanII said:
This is one of those takes where you just make a sweeping psychological judgement based on basically nothing, so I apologize in advance, but...I always got the sense during Andrelton's time in Atlanta that the Braves and Simmons never really knew what they wanted him to be as a hitter. He was an impeccable contact hitter, so there was always the temptation to have him cut down his swing and focus on trying to turn him into a classic no-power, spray-the-ball-to-all-fields middle infielder...but he was incredibly slow, so all that contact just resulted in him grounding into a staggering number of double plays. He had legitimate pop, slugging over .400 in his first two years in the bigs, and if you could unlock that you'd have a Gold Glove shortstop who was hitting 25 homers a year, which was incredibly tantalizing...except his swing would get big and loopy, and he'd hit infield pop-up after infield pop-up for weeks at a time.

They never really settled on an approach, and so he ended up being caught between worlds. Though that's probably less a Simmons issue and more of a diagnosis that applies to a bunch of sub-par hitters -- they have one or two discrete skills, but not enough all-around talent or the one great attribute you need to excel.
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Unfortunately Simba was traded before he had a lot of time to work with Seitzer. I think they only had one season together in 2015.
 
He was the only player who made me excited to watch defense. I've never seen anyone who was as good at he is. I hope he has a great retirement and makes lots of babies.
 
MadduxFanII said:
This is one of those takes where you just make a sweeping psychological judgement based on basically nothing, so I apologize in advance, but...I always got the sense during Andrelton's time in Atlanta that the Braves and Simmons never really knew what they wanted him to be as a hitter. He was an impeccable contact hitter, so there was always the temptation to have him cut down his swing and focus on trying to turn him into a classic no-power, spray-the-ball-to-all-fields middle infielder...but he was incredibly slow, so all that contact just resulted in him grounding into a staggering number of double plays. He had legitimate pop, slugging over .400 in his first two years in the bigs, and if you could unlock that you'd have a Gold Glove shortstop who was hitting 25 homers a year, which was incredibly tantalizing...except his swing would get big and loopy, and he'd hit infield pop-up after infield pop-up for weeks at a time.

They never really settled on an approach, and so he ended up being caught between worlds. Though that's probably less a Simmons issue and more of a diagnosis that applies to a bunch of sub-par hitters -- they have one or two discrete skills, but not enough all-around talent or the one great attribute you need to excel.
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Great take. I watched a few Twins' games when Simmons was with the Angels and it appeared that the Angels did have a better plan for him than the Braves' did. Might have been launch angle, but he smoked a couple of outer half pitches the other way rather than trying to pull them. I suppose I could look at the spray charts to see if my impression is correct, but clearly the Angels cleaned up something because his first two years there were his best full seasons with OPS around .750. 7.9 bWAR in 2017.
 
Our most important move hasn’t been made yet- and no, I’m not talking about another quality SP although I agree that’s necessary (whether it’s done this winter or during the season before the playoffs).

AA is entering the last year of his 3 year contract. We need to lock him up for a long time because he will undoubtedly receive a great deal of interest from other organizations if he tests the market.
 
Andrelton was one of my favorite players to watch in my 30+ years of watching baseball. I consider the play where he held the tag on a player at 2B knowing he would come off the bag ever so slightly one of the best defensive plays I have ever seen. It didnt require any special athleticism or anything but because he had to scout that out ahead of time. Its one thing to have incredible athleticism and ability but he combined it with top notch defensive IQ and preparation. It was a play that really wasnt even possible without instant replay because it was too fast for the umps to see in real time. Simmons has the top 2,3,4, and 5 best defensive plays I have ever seen. #1 is THE catch and I dont mean Willie Mayes.
 
ramadon101 said:
Our most important move hasn’t been made yet- and no, I’m not talking about another quality SP although I agree that’s necessary (whether it’s done this winter or during the season before the playoffs).

AA is entering the last year of his 3 year contract. We need to lock him up for a long time because he will undoubtedly receive a great deal of interest from other organizations if he tests the market.
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10 year / $10m deal get it done AA....or ownership?
 
$1m per year is laughable for top level, quality (proven) POBOs at the MLB level. David Stearns just got $50m over 5 years guaranteed (so $10m per) from the Mets, and USA Today says the average salary for a POBO is $2.5m last year. Andrew Friedman got 5 years/$35m from LA (so $7m per year). I’d say we’d have to at least go to $5m per over 5 years to be respectable. And he’s worth that.
 
ramadon101 said:
$1m per year is laughable for top level, quality (proven) POBOs at the MLB level. David Stearns just got $50m over 5 years guaranteed (so $10m per) from the Mets, and USA Today says the average salary for a POBO is $2.5m last year. Andrew Friedman got 5 years/$35m from LA (so $7m per year). I’d say we’d have to at least go to $5m per over 5 years to be respectable. And he’s worth that.
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That was sarcasm. He gave a bunch of under value deals to all the players, he should take one as well. That was the joke
 
Per Heyman:

Reds signing Frankie Montas a 1 year deal in the $15M-$16M range

Like I’ve said a few times unfortunately AA isn’t signing a pitcher for the rotation
 
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These bounceback SP FAs are signing nearly full-freight AAV deals, with only the length discounted. That’s a good indicator of how expensive FA pitching is right now.
 
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