Andrelton Simmons has become one of the most beloved players on the Angels roster and it’s not very hard to see why. He makes defensive plays that years of watching baseball have taught my brain just aren’t humanly possible and just last night cranked out his third home run of the year for a game winning grand slam. This means he’s tied for second in home runs this year on the Angels behind only Mike Trout. As we like to say around here, "it’s early", but what’s not to like?

The Andrelton Simmons love around HH made me think back to the trade. As Joshua Zarate said, "I still find it hard to believe we got him for only Aybar and 2 pitching prospects."

At the time of the trade, I think many around HH at first kind of panicked. What were we doing trading two of the few legitimate prospects in our barren farm system for a shortstop when we already had one that was very highly regarded?

However, generally speaking, I think most of our more established members came around quickly once we saw his defense and realized we probably have the best defensive shortstop in baseball now and his plays were a wonder to behold. But, there were still some calls of "he can’t hit" and even once his BA turned out to be OK in 2016 there were some calls of "but he doesn’t hit DINGERZ and/or DINGRZ".

I was in the fortunate position at the time of the trade to be in a situation where I talk to a lot of Brave’s fans and I knew their reaction was "What they heck are we doing trading the best defensive shortstop in baseball for a couple of prospects and an aging shortstop?" So, I knew this was a good trade for the Angels pretty quickly.

Regardless, the brave’s fans reaction was pretty much on point and our initial reaction was pretty much wrong and that’s an incredibly good thing.

All this made me want to make a "where are they now" of the players involved in the trade. Here’s a hint, I’d rather be the Angels than the Braves.

For those that don’t remember here were the players involved in the trade and what has happened to them since.

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Adrelton Simmons: The man this article is about. In my view, the best defensive shortstop in baseball. He makes plays I’ve never seen anyone else make. He had 18 BIS defensive runs saved above average in 2016 in only 124 games played. And, oh, btw, he has a .288/.356/.439 slash line so far in 2017 with a .796 OPS behind only Mike Trout on the Angels. At some point, can we stop calling him our "light hitting" shortstop if he keeps this up?

Jose Briceno: We received him in this trade along with Simmons. Anyone remember that? He’s currently in AA and I don’t think we will be seeing him on the major-league team real soon.

Sean Newcomb: This was the trade piece the Braves really wanted. He was viewed as an absolute stud of a prospect at the time. A power pitcher with significant upside, but with control issues. How’s he doing right now? Well, he recovered OK at the end of last year to end up with a 3.86 ERA and 1.3 WHIP in AA in 2016, but his 2017 is off to a less than spectacular start. He has a 5.65 ERA and 1.884 WHIP in AAA with, you guessed it, control issues. I still think he’ll turn it around at some point and be decent pitcher in the MLB, but he’s not looking all that awesome at the moment. At least, not to me.

Chris Ellis: The other young pitching prospect we trade to the Braves. Well, they traded him to St. Louis as kind of a throw in for the Garcia trade and he is sporting a 11.25 ERA and 1.917 WHIP in AAA. I don’t follow him closely, but from what I read, he’s really being thought of as someone not likely to make the majors.

Erick Aybar: We know him. We love him--and I mean that seriously. We love Aybar. After a rough go of it last year, he’s pitching for the Padres this year with reportedly a pretty good knuckle ball.

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So, that’s it. This trade is definitely one that is looking good for the Angels and not so much for the Braves as my Braves fans friends are quick to remind me. They want Simmons back and it’s not very hard to see why.