Former Scott City, SEMO pitcher promoted to Atlanta Braves

Shae Simmons was understandably caught off guard when he got the news he was headed to the major leagues.

Simmons, a Scott City High School graduate and former Southeast Missouri State pitcher, was listening to his Double-A manager address him and his Mississippi Braves teammates Friday night.

"[Aaron] Holbert, our Double-A manager, came in and talked to the team after a doubleheader, and we just swept the other team," said Simmons, talking with a small group of reporters Saturday afternoon in a video posted to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution website. "And at the end of his speech about the series he was like: 'And Simmons is going to the big leagues.' I didn't know what to say after that."

Simmons' call-up to the Atlanta Braves' MLB club signified the end of his rapid ascension through the minor leagues. The official start of the his MLB career came less than 24 hours later when Simmons needed just three pitches to strike out the only batter he faced to end the eighth inning and protect a one-run lead with two runners on base in the Braves' eventual 9-5 victory over the Miami Marlins.

He was drafted in 2012 and is on a big league roster almost exactly two years later. That's rare, even for the most highly touted prospects. For a 22nd-round draft pick such as Simmons, it's almost unheard of.

"It's something that it's just really unbelievable that he progressed through the minor league system so quickly," said Southeast baseball coach Steve Bieser, who served as Simmons' pitching coach with the Redhawks. "Following him, I could see that it was coming sooner rather than later because of really what he's doing and a guy that's able to run a fastball up there in the upper 90s and touch 100. Those guys are going to move through rather quickly, especially if they're having success. And with him having a good breaking ball to go with it and just following his season and seeing how dominating he is at the Double-A -- typically big league GMs, they want to get that guy to the big leagues as quick as possible because his stuff works at the big-league level."

Bieser said he talked with Terry Tripp, the Braves scout who pushed the Atlanta organization to draft Simmons after his junior year at Southeast, on Saturday morning. Tripp told Bieser that 98 percent of right-handed pitchers drafted as late as Simmons are out of professional baseball in two years. Simmons, of course, has followed a different trajectory.

The key to his rise has been two things, according to Bieser. His preparation has improved, and he's been placed in the role he's well-suited.

"No. 1, we had him in a role that he wasn't extremely comfortable with as a starting pitcher," Bieser said. "That wasn't his role, but for us, you've got to take your best arm and give him the most amount of innings that you can possibly give him. If we set him back in the back end of the bullpen and only used him in close and save situations, the guy throws 20, 25 innings that whole year, especially that year that we were looking at that.

"We had him in the starting rotation. He had some great games, he had some average games, he had some poor games, so he was kind of inconsistent in that role, but everything that he showed, the flashes that he showed, that he had some great pitch ability. Once he got into pro ball, he got into a role that he was extremely comfortable with. He got into a role where he could just basically turn it loose, not have to pace himself, and that's where we saw his velocity spike. Even in the summers when he pitched out of the bullpen, we saw a velocity spike over the summers where he was mid-90s in the summer, and that was extremely important."

Now Simmons, who is considered undersized for MLB pitchers at 5-foot-11, is armed with a fastball that touches triple digits and an slider that sometimes looks as if it's crossing the plate from side-to-side instead of front-to-back.

He has been dominant throughout his professional career. He was a perfect 14-for-14 on save opportunities for the Mississippi Braves this year with a minuscule 0.78 ERA. He struck out 30 and walked six in 23 innings before his call-up.

It's impossible to predict the length of Simmons' first stint with the Braves, who have a need for steady setup men for all-star closer Craig Kimbrel. He may never leave the big leagues, or may be sent up and down as season progresses, depending on his performance or the Braves' needs.

Bieser didn't know when Simmons' debut would come as he talked about his former player Saturday morning, but he was confident that Simmons would handle the moment well.

"That'll be something that it'll be interesting to see how he handles the excitement and the pressure of playing in front of that many people and I really," Bieser said. "Seeing what he's done so far -- I don't think it's going to affect him."