Andrelton Simmons standing on a baseball field with a glove on his hand is a web gem waiting to happen, and this winter Braves Journal is going to determine which of his gems is the best of his best—his Jadeite. To see the previous posts in the series, click here.
Your votes have chosen the top two plays, but we have all had to mourn favorite plays falling by the wayside in the process. Several plays received such adulation from Braves Journal voters that it seemed a pity to not give them their proper due before we anoint the grand champion. Some of your most beloved plays (as indicated in past votes) are back to help us determine the ranking of Simmons’s top ten plays.
Consolation Bracket: Run At Your Own Risk vs. The Video Game
Run At Your Own Risk
Editor’s Pitch: When a ball splits the gap and bounces away from even the most accomplished of outfielders, you pretty much concede the runner on first will score and focus on keeping the hitter held to a double. Not Simmons. Michael Cuddyer was over halfway home, but Simmons, well onto the outfield grass, threw a perfect strike to the plate to nail him. The ball could not have landed in a better place for Brian McCann had Simmons walked it in and handed it to him. Just wow.
Previous Appearance: Run At Your Own Risk lost to You Shall Not Pass in the first round of the consolation bracket.
The Video Game
Editor’s pitch: The video is worth a thousand words of commentary, so just watch it again. Okay, now watch it one more time. Can a mere mortal even bend like that? He’s covering the bag, bends against his momentum to catch the ball, and then flips back to tag the base. The baserunner was already running and was nearly on top of him…and he got the out. This play defies the laws of physics and it made his pitcher laugh in disbelief. The cherry on top is he tried to turn the double play and was disgusted with himself that he couldn’t. Unbelievable.
Previous appearance: The Video Game just barely lost to The Jeter in the second round of the consolation bracket.
Eury Perez, Manny Banuelos, and Williams Perez were all optioned to AAA this morning.
It looks like Cunningham will get a spot, but the Braves are playing Gosselin in CF today.
So am I correct to say that there are 4 people competing for the final 2 bench spots with Almonte and Callaspo locks? These are: KJ, Goose, Terdo, and Cunningham?
My money is on KJ and Cunningham.
Betting against Joey Terdoslavich is about as safe a use of your money as you’ll find.
Is this what we know so far?
starters:
Gomes Young Markakis
Johnson Simmons Peterson Freeman
Bethancourt
The bench so far:
Almonte – just because he is out of options?
Callaspo – 3 million dollars
AJP – backup catcher
Pitchers –
Teheran Wood Miller Wandy ?
Grilli Johnson Kimbrell Avilan
I don’t think Almonte is a guarantee.
@4
Ah, my eyes!
Yep. Gotta beer goggle to think that roster looks good.
@6, 7
@7
If that’s what it’s going to take, expect some good game-threading from me this season.
Time to watch ESPN bash on the Braves…
I don’t see the sense in demoting Eury. Eric the Younger is probably roughly the same player with worse CF defense. Either way, Mudge is going to take the CF spot in 2 months. The difference is, this way, we won’t know what we have in Eury Perez bc we didn’t give him a chance to start in center while Mudge was down. We will know exactly what we have in the 30 yo EYJ, which is a speedy, switch-hitting 4th outfielder.
I guess I’m thinking about this season as one in which we try to win as much as we can while accruing assets for the future. EYJ is not an asset. Eury might be. One thing Eury doesn’t need is “more seasoning” at AAA. That won’t tell us whether he can be a Cain/Span/Revere type 2+ WAR CF.
Ciriaco with a 2-out, bases clearing knock! What a spring for him. Too bad he has zero chance to make the team bc of Alberto “I can haz cheezburgerz” Callaspo.
Apparently EYJ is going to play everyday until Mudge is back. Not sure about that idea.
4 — I don’t think Avilan makes the team.
@8, nice.
@14 – I thought Outman was a lock given his impressive season last year against lefties. His performance in the Spring is either another reason to hate spring training statistics given that Avilan has been much better, or an indicator that he’s hurt. I prefer Outman over Avilan, so I’m hopeful it’s the former.
@10
I din’t see today’s game, but I watched the Phillies game on ESPN this week, I felt like they were pretty fair to the braves. Keith Law had especially nice things to say about the rebuild process. Also, Aaron Boone may be one of the brightest baseball commentators working today.
@8, hopefully more like this
So my College Hockey season ended yesterday, as Braves Journal’s Official College Hockey team lost to mighty Boston University in OT in the round of 16. So I’m ready for baseball season. Anybody want to fill me on on what’s happened since October? Braves look more or less the same? Can’t wait to see if Heyward can break out this year.
@19, Heyward has been rolling over the ball all spring, but a few have squirted between the 1Bman and 2Bman. I’m hoping he can do that about 150 times this year to go with 50 XBH. Having a good feeling about his BABIP this season.
Justin Upton has reportedly tried to sacrifice contact for a skosh more power, so that he can set a record for avg HR distance. He seems to think they count more if you hit them farther.
Gattis has been taking batting practice with a coarse grit rasp during the offseason, so as to build up a quarter inch of resilient callus.
Oh, and Chris Johnson and BJ Upton got traded for somebody good.
@20
You forgot to mention Mike Minor’s urethra is in “the best shape of it’s life” according to Peanut.
@21, how could I forget? What’s his secret, cranberry juice?
Nice rally for the Barves today! Ciriaco keeps coming up with big hits. He sure has gotten a lot of looks, and that has me wondering why. Under what circumstances would he possibly make the team? He’s not on the 40-man and Goose is.
Looks like our squad is:
C: Bethancourt
1B: Freeman
2B: Jace
SS: Simmons
3B: CJ
LF: Gomes
CF: EYJ
RF: ‘cakes
Bench: AJP, Callaspo (shudder)
That’s 10 guys, leaving 3 spots to be decided between Zoilo, Cunningham, KJ, Goose, and Ciriaco. Don’t we have to keep one of Goose and Ciriaco since nobody else can play SS? Isn’t zoilo likely to make the team bc he’s out of options? Aren’t we going to keep KJ to platoon with CJ? Wouldn’t we have to cut someone off the 40 man to make room for Ciriaco? This leads me to believe the final spots are Goose, Zoilo, and KJ. Hardly optimal, but it’s likely to be the case.
Wait, can Goose even play SS? Is Jace the backup SS when Andrelton is out?
Greetings from Miami…
#19
Jon,
We’re gonna suck this year. Take your pleasures where you find them. Hopefully, we’ll ruin a few nights of the Flushing Faithful.
I still kind of can’t believe we live in a world of Eric Young Jr, Starting Center Fielder. It’s a good thing I didn’t have any expectations for 2015 anyway.
Why do we care what Heyward does this year? Personally I hope he hits about .200 and struggles all season.
I think it’s inevitable that people care what Heyward does.
1) They traded him away because they felt he would never reach his potential.
2) He’s a year from free agency and would not sign an extension because he either felt he was a better player than the Braves did or felt he would become a better player than the Braves felt he would.
3) He blamed the Braves for his lack of power, causing every Braves fan to see if he was right. He’s almost the poster child for the Braves fans wondering if the Braves front office and coaching staff kills player offense. At least in 2014, this is where players’ offensive games came to die.
4) He was a very popular player while he was here.
5) He has a skillset that causes people on differing sides of the scouting/saber debate to evaluate him differently.
I think that creates enough interest.
@25 asks “Why do we care what Heyward does this year” and then says what he *hopes* Heyward does. I guess one can hope without caring? Or maybe words mean nothing except what we want them to mean, no more, no less.
I read @25 as: “Why do we care [if] Heyward [succeeds] this year? Personally I hope he hits about .200 and struggles all season.”
I think it’s inevitable that his season will generate interest.
Bad Braves baseball is better than no Braves baseball.
Jace Peterson sure looks like a baseball player. Maybe our wunderkind is learning to play centerfield for good reason.
Atlanta Braves Rumors
Atlanta Braves trade and free agent rumors from MLBTradeRumors.com.
Braves Release James Russell