Pablo

Simmons came to the Angels with the 'best defender in a generation' tag, with positive comps to Ozzie. Defense is the single most difficult metric to gauge. As someone mentioned, he will get an error on a ball that Correa could only dream of reaching. Because of that, Who's the Best is an argument that will never be proved. To me, you start with who you feel is the best defender; how much separation between number 2 is subjective. But if the guy you pegged as best is outperforming everyone else offensively as well, then for right now, the question is answered.

Yes.

Are you saying the 56 at-bats out of 60 that he makes an out aren't wasted?

When he goes on the 10-day DL for a, I dunno, let's say Biceps Strain, send him to extended Spring training to rehabilitate (read: learn how to freakin' bunt). And yeah, if he can get a half dozen additional hits, it makes a huge difference. If you're not on base, you can't score. Will it ultimately affect the shift? If he consistantly succeeds, then yes, over time it will. But if it doesn't, it STILL doesn't matter because he's producing. And while I agree his problem isn't ENTIRELY the shift, I would argue that it started with that (I think the numbers back that up) and has wound up messing up his swing. Get back to basics, and succeed at something. Success breeds success.

Exactly! If we're talking about building a great fantasy team, sure; look at Correa, Lindor, et al. But as far as real baseball, value to the team, overall player at the shortstop position? Simmons runs away with it, imho.

Is this opinion, or can you cite a study?

I never heard about this side of Troy. Sounds like he and Bobby Jenks coulda had fun together.

Word is they're looking hard at Matt Harvey. Good luck with that.

With a touch of 'split personality disorder'?

FIFY

....still wrong.....

Nobody does, GC - nobody does....smh

I could see Calhoun coming down with a 10-day DL ailment. Gives him 'plausible deniability' as to the extent of his actual suckage, work on some stuff, come back in a week and a half and try to turn things around.

Took Ohtani. The one thing the team needed today was a strong pitching performance and he gave it to them.

Bogaerts seems to be back to his 2016 form as well. But yeah, golden age of shortstops.

We are absolutely not the Lone Rangers in this regard

Sent down Paredes

Whaaaat? Spontaneous combustion??!!?? He wrote "Parsival Mosaic", right? One of my favorites.

THAT'S how it's done, CY.

Neither was Valbuena.

Would love to pry Herrera from KC. What would that take?

Buh-Bye Strange Kyle

How does he do turning the page? Does he take them one game at a time?

Exaactly - I know 'every game counts', but sometimes it's better to lose a battle early in order to be in a position to win the war later. Player management - it's something I happen to think Scioscia is good at. Sometimes however, in the micro-moment, it may look like a bad decision.