June 4, 2013
Simmons pitched seven shutout innings and allowed just six hits with no walks and four strikeouts against High-A Lancaster on Monday.
ANALYSIS
Simmons missed all of 2010 with a shoulder injury and has been slowly working his way back since. He was making progress and advancing through the system, but ran into trouble earlier this year in Triple-A. The A's wanted to work him in as a starter so they pushed him down to High-A Stockton to stretch him out. So far, it has worked well as he is 2-1 over four starts with a 1.64 ERA and a 14:1 K:BB over 22 innings. He'll likely make a few more starts for the Ports before he is brought back to Triple-A Sacramento.