bando1234

We have established that he leads all catchers in hits & doubles(at last look). He has driven in more runs than any catcher except Bench & Berra. He his in the top ten in catchers in runs scored,walks & extra base hits. We have also established that his fielding % was close to Fisks & that Simmons could call a good game Now this could just be another meaningless stat but reading a study by Bill Deane(ok, I raelly dont konw who Bill Deane is but here we go) he suggests that Simmons defense was not as bad suggested.This is in know way saying he is better than Fisk defensively(by the way I dont have Fisks numbers). Just some numbers to throw out their. This study focuses on stolen bases & caught stealing in each game. What he did was: 1. Focus on complete games caught by Simmons(1577 games) 2.Figure out season by season the number of stolen bases in those games. 3Count the number of opponents caught stealing in those games. 4.Compare that to the "expected" number of stolen bases & opponents caught stealing against Simmons, based on the performance of the opposition team for the season as a whole. His conclusion : the opposition did attempt to steal more bases against him but the were not particulary successful. Stolen Bases Caught Stealing Simmons 1098 590 Opposition 1006 530 The difference favors Simmons teams since Simmons throut out % was slighty above average 35% (compares to 34.5% of his opponents)The opponents an extra 92 bases but were thrown out an extra 60 times. My concluson: while offense was above average especially for a catcher, his defense by no means was so bad to keep him out of the Hall. I am kind of surprised no one comparred Simmons to Gary Carter whom played in mainly the same era.