Way Too Many People Own Andrelton Simmons?

Andrelton Simmons may be one of my favorite players in the league, but I do not find any reason for him to be owned in nearly half of Yahoo! leagues at this point in time. I was down on Simmons from a fantasy perspective entering the year, he just does not have the base stealing acumen or power to be as useful as other options in fantasy formats.

He has actually hit for more power than I expected. Five home runs is not very impressive but I thought he would have two or three right now and end the year just under 10. That is still very possible as he is looking continually worse at the plate, but the Braves will keep him in the lineup due to his defense. While it is nice to have the leadoff man on one of the league’s better offenses, Simmons’ time atop the lineup could (and should) be coming to an end. Even at the top of the lineup for the majority of the season, Simmons has attempted just four steals and been caught half the time. He is simply not a good base stealer, despite having success last season across double-A and the majors. The season before he stole 26 bags but was caught 18 times. ZiPS has Simmons at seven steals and five caught stealings the rest of the season with another four home runs.

If you are going to get five steals and four home runs over the remainder of the season, what is the reason for keeping him on your team? There simply is not enough that Simmons has done offensively to deserve the fantasy support he has at this moment, and I don’t believe he had done enough at the beginning of the year either.

There are some guys that it is worthwhile to wait on, say a Ben Revere. We know how great his one tool is and we can suffer his slumps because of how useful that one tool is in fantasy. Unfortunately for Simmons, he possess no tool on the offensive spectrum that would make him incredibly valuable in fantasy even if things go better than expected. At most he will be slightly above average in homers and steals for shortstops, which does not make you a 12 team worthy starter in my book.

Simmons should hit better going forward and could push a few more over the fence than ZiPS projects, but even then there are likely better options to be had in free agency or trade. Let go of him and don’t look back if you have not already.