Battle of the shortstops - choose your side

Seems like a free swinging power guy without a ton of minor league experience would be more likely to get exploited at the plate, thus hurting his development. I wouldn’t worry as much about a high contact/speed guy like Simmons. His numbers are not that dissimilar than Furcal’s, when he made the jump from A+ ball to the majors, except for the steals of course. Furcal had about 900 steals one year if I remember correctly…

i love me some workaholics

Not a bad idea. I’m on the Brendan Ryan wagon myself.

Or see how much of Ramirez’s contract Kenny Williams would eat.

I like the out-of-the-box thinking, but that puts a couple of guys out of position… of course, when the organization has 3 second basemen, that’s what you’re stuck with.

“he has proven he can hit at the AAA level”

Everybody realize this was only for about 5 weeks, right? He had Twenty-Seven Games in one hot month of AAA ball. Before that, TP had never hit about .300 at any level played at. He had a great 2011 - yes - batting .299 at Pearl, and then the inexplicable .365 (.398 BABIP) at Gwinnett.

NO I don’t think Simmons is ready either, but he at least hit .311 is his first full season of pro ball (high-A league).

If for some ridiculous reason they both break camp with the team, we will be subjected to a full year of “hot-hand” discussions surrounding who should play SS at a given time…something I think Fredi showed last year he is a firm believer in.

I’m not pro-Rev as much as I’m anti-promoting Simmons now and hurting his development.

At least 1 for Neither.

I’d rather have Seabass at last year’s salary, but not at what the Brewers are paying him.

Personally, I’d say see how Simmons does the rest of the Spring and if he continues to hit, give him a shot. I’m guessing that he wouldn’t be much worse that the Rev offensively and would be a HUGE improvement defensively. From what I’ve seen and heard, Tyler just doesn’t have the arm to cut it at SS.

Who are we talking about here?

Simmons is arguably the faster of the two, he just hasn’t learned how to utilize his speed in stealing bases, but if you watch him run out hits, there’s no question he’s the better baserunner of the two in the limited exposure I’ve had to the two of them (of course, it’d help if Pastornicky hit a little so I could see him circle the bases). Remember being a fast baserunner does not equate to a good base stealer. The on-base is even questionable as they both profile as low-walk, low-strikeout guys.

He’s only had 100 ABs in AAA. I know he played well in Gwinnett, but it’s not like he did it for an entire year. Also, someone mentioned above that his BABIP was around .400 at AAA I don’t know if I’d say 1 really good (and apparently slightly lucky) month at AA is “proving yourself”.

Frankly, I don’t know how much more advanced a hitter Rev is when compared to Simmons. I hope I’m wrong and the guy has a great year… But so far, he doesn’t look any more “ready” than Simmons to me.

Years from now, I’ll mention this play – talking about when I realized how good Simmons was on D.

If players could learn so much more in the big leagues, maybe we should just start all our top prospects on the big league roster instead of wasting time in the minors?

Did Freddy have to scoop the ball out of the dirt, or was the throw on a line? I know Simmons has a higher ceiling. The question is whether that ceiling will be lowered if he skips the upper levels of the minor leagues. I would love to see us trade for Caezar Izturis and give Simmons and Pastornicky at least another 1/2 a season in the minors, because I believe both could develop into valuable MLB talent.

Pastornicky’s biggest concern defensively is his arm, and you want to put him FARTHER from 1st base? That is not a good idea.

However, if both of their bats pan out, Pastornicky at 2B next to Simmons has the possibility to be an elite middle infield defensively.

Chipper started his career at SS in the minor leagues and his first major league call-up, but he was expected to move to LF for his first gig in the majors before his knee surgery in 1994. He played 20 games in the outfield in 1995 along with 38 games at SS in 1996, so he ended up at 3B more as a need position for the team to get his bat in the lineup, and that’s where he’s stayed since (and he worked very hard to become excellent at that position). If he isn’t injured in 1994, there is a possibility that Chipper is an outfielder his entire career, so he is best used as an example of “have bat, will play anywhere without hurting” defensive player who had arguably his best defensive season of his career at 36 years old simply because he rarely was noted for his defense.

Where to start…

“developing to be the prototypical stud SS”
Simmons is developing into a solid average, low K, solid speed shortstop with elite defense, basically Omar Vizquel without the steroid/expansion era pitching to inflate power numbers. I wouldn’t consider that a stud. Defensively, a stud, offensively, simply enough to not hurt the team.

“pastornicky who has developed into a poor mans utley or a pedroia”
Where do you get that development at all? He is not expected to develop anywhere near the power of Utley or Pedroia. He has more speed than either of them. What would be ideal development for Pastornicky would be Chuck Knoblauch pre-NY, minus about 20 steals. That is where his bat and skills lead much more than 45 doubles with 25 homers.