Not enough people talk about Andrelton Simmons
• .263/.312/.366 (.678 OPS), 87 OPS+
• Your modern glove-first shortstop
• 4x Gold Glover, 3x dWAR leader
• 1169 hits, 294 XBH, 197 Rfield
• 36.5 WAR, 4.8 WAR per 162
• Likely a top 3-5 defensive SS
• Never struck out more than 67x
• Variously led in PO, A, DP, Field%
• But also DP, TZR, RF/9, and dWAR
• (Great by both analytics & eye test)
• Top B-R Similarity Score: Dickie Thon
• Career offensive year in 2017 with LAA
• Topped 400 assists 4x, got MVP votes 3x
• Simmons is third all time in career Rfield among players that made at least 75% of their career appearances at shortstop, trailing only the defensive GOATs Mark Belanger and Ozzie Smith, and he got there despite playing in fewer games than anyone else in the top 20 except Adam Everett
For the life of me I will never understand the "Braves don't need a starting pitcher" crowd. They show up every winter. And they're wrong every winter. And they'll be back again next winter, and they'll be wrong again next winter
Braves fans are in a never ending hell. Allow me to recap
It started when the 2023 historic offense laid an egg in October.
Continued in 2024 when the rotation was historic but the offense underperformed all year and multiple offensive stars faced season ending injuries.
AA made one signing in the offseason.
They started 0-7 in 2025 with Ronnie and Murphy and Strider sidelined to start the season followed by an 80 day suspension to the only player that added.
Only to claw their way back to .500 as those guys returned and they approached the easiest stretch of the season to begin July. Where they naturally lost multiple series against terrible teams to officially end the season a few weeks before the trade deadline.
They moved on from no one at the deadline for some reason.
The entire starting rotation soon went down one after the next ending any pipe dream of a come back into the wild card only to be followed by another Ronnie injury and season ending injuries for- Riley/Ozzie/Murphy after another year of underperforming for all 3.
Now it’s 2026 and before the first Spring Training practice they have lost the following players for roughly the first half-Murphy, Schwellenbach, Jimenez and their biggest offseason addition HSK.
Oh and to top it off they need to find a way to afford a rapidly approaching 40 #5 SP that would somehow be an upgrade to the rotation if he only posted a 4.50 ERA over 175IP in 2026.
Welcome to Atlanta
Oh let’s not forget they haven’t won a single playoff series since 2021.
Invented NIL so we could legally pay the players. Then realized it wasn’t fair to schools with little budgets, so they instituted a salary cap. Now they’re circumventing the rules to pay players illegally again.
Congrats we got what we always had, except now there’s taxes!
Imagine you getting your ass whipped 45-0, and the opponent decides to get the promising your freshman some carries. You’re relieved, only to see DERRICK HENRY walk out on the field