Torre, La Rusa & Cox get the call.....

[Beatles Guy]

Originally Posted by the 'stache

I agree with you, Jason. I had the good fortune of seeing Simba several times in person once he was traded to Milwaukee. He was, of course, in his early thirties by then, but he could still rake. People that look at his career numbers and see 248 home runs have no idea how hard this man hit the baseball. I grew up seeing some great hitters, including Cecil Cooper, Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, and some great power hitters in Gorman Thomas and Ben Oglivie. Simmons hit the ball as hard as any of them. There were times I wondered how County Stadium kept some his blasts from going out. And he was underrated defensively. More on that below.



When Ted Simmons was acquired by the Brewers, he immediately assumed his place behind home plate. Charlie Moore, who was our #1 catcher before Ted arrived in Milwaukee, moved to right field.

In 1981, Simmons caught 75 of the 100 games he played (strike season).
In 1982, Simmons caught 121 of the 137 games he played.
In 1983, Simmons caught 86 of the 153 games he played.

From 1984 going forward, yes, he was pretty much a full time DH, catching occasionally. But he didn't move to DH because of any defensive deficiencies. His knees were giving out. He was 34 then, and had played nearly 2,000 games.

You are being a bit unfair in suggesting that Simmons was a liability defensively. In 1982, when we went to the World Series, he had the highest fielding percentage of all AL catchers, and threw out 36% of all base stealers, which was league average. Earlier in his career, he was better. In 1971, he threw out 42%. In 1973, he threw out 44%. In 1976 he threw out 44%, second in the NL. In 1972 and 1978, he led all NL catchers in assists. In 1973, 1974, and 1976 he was second. in 1975 and 1979 he was third. So while he was not the top defensive catcher in the National League, and there are much better methods of evaluating his defensive prowess now in the Saebermetric age, using these old standards shows he was not exactly a slouch behind the plate.

Johnny Bench was clearly the best catcher of the 70s. Then there's Fisk, Carter and Simmons (I'd include Thurman Munson in this discussion, but I don't think he played long enough at a high level). Two are in, and Simmons should be as well.

Nice work sir. Do you think that being overshadowed by Bench in the 70's hurt his chances?