zitothebrave
Connoisseur of Minors
Some weird stuff I was looking at today.
From 2012-2014 there were 7 batters in baseball who've struck out under 10% of the time and qualified as hitters. 4 of the 7 hit over .300, 6 of the 7 hit over .280. Then there's Simmons who was at .252. He has more power than some of the guys there, only V-Mart, Brantley, and Reyes hit more total homers than Simmons, Reyes mind you hit 3 more homers in 300 more PA so less power per PA.
Simmons seems to be in a weird quandary. He has shown some pop, but he doesn't seem to make consistent enough hard contact. For a non-power hitter, he pops out too much, he hits a lot of grounders, but they don't seem to go very far. He possesses seemingly a weak dead pull. When I look at his spray chart, from where the SS usually plays to the line is just peppered with ground balls, there's also an obscene amount infront of and around the pitching mound.
Given Simmons's ability to make contact, I cannot help but wonder if he wouldn't be better served playing less like Jimmy Rollins and more like Placido Polanco. I don't mind Simmons taking cuts at pitches he can take out, but he seems to be swinging for the fences all of the time. You see the other people populating the under 10% K rate list, Simmons winds up being the worst offensive player there. Yes even worse than Ben "5 year old power" Revere. To me it indicates that something has to change. Simmons will always be a fine player because of his defense. But if he can get his offense to stick at that 100 wRC+ value, he could be a fantastic player. At the 90 level he's a good player. But overall his numbers have slipped to basically being identical to 2013, though he had more power then but a higher BABIP now.
From 2012-2014 there were 7 batters in baseball who've struck out under 10% of the time and qualified as hitters. 4 of the 7 hit over .300, 6 of the 7 hit over .280. Then there's Simmons who was at .252. He has more power than some of the guys there, only V-Mart, Brantley, and Reyes hit more total homers than Simmons, Reyes mind you hit 3 more homers in 300 more PA so less power per PA.
Simmons seems to be in a weird quandary. He has shown some pop, but he doesn't seem to make consistent enough hard contact. For a non-power hitter, he pops out too much, he hits a lot of grounders, but they don't seem to go very far. He possesses seemingly a weak dead pull. When I look at his spray chart, from where the SS usually plays to the line is just peppered with ground balls, there's also an obscene amount infront of and around the pitching mound.
Given Simmons's ability to make contact, I cannot help but wonder if he wouldn't be better served playing less like Jimmy Rollins and more like Placido Polanco. I don't mind Simmons taking cuts at pitches he can take out, but he seems to be swinging for the fences all of the time. You see the other people populating the under 10% K rate list, Simmons winds up being the worst offensive player there. Yes even worse than Ben "5 year old power" Revere. To me it indicates that something has to change. Simmons will always be a fine player because of his defense. But if he can get his offense to stick at that 100 wRC+ value, he could be a fantastic player. At the 90 level he's a good player. But overall his numbers have slipped to basically being identical to 2013, though he had more power then but a higher BABIP now.
