let’s play: Immaculate Grid!

😎
My Giants knowledge getting it done today.

https://i.postimg.cc/6qRdYSCM/IMG-4548.jpg

ok this is great

i biffed the houston/tb one today.

Literally only got that one cos it was mentioned in the commentary of some game I was watching

I finally figured this out a few days ago (duh)...Same as Thermo for today's: 8/9. Stared at the screen for 10 minutes, couldn't think of anyone for Houston/TB. I don't know how to copy/hide my grid, but my most obscure correct answer was Dickie Thon for Houston/Philadelphia.

having infinite time to stare at the thing is not going to be good for my productivity

Having checked the Houston/TB answers (five, I think), I'm just glad I gave up--I would have still been sitting there in 2029.

got 9/9 this time, all higher profile and/or al east teams made it easy for me

8/9 the only Phil/LA player I could think of was Dick Allen

i went with Utley

Looking at the NFL/NBA versions, man I don't know a damn thing about those aside from the 49ers (sort of) and Mavericks.

I had Utley too, although I like Dick Allen better as an answer. I expect I'll ace all the stat/award stuff and struggle with the upper-left part of the grid; I just don't pay enough attention to player movement that doesn't involve Jays and/or stars.

8/9 again--missed Tigers/Rockies. Rockies are extra-hard because who can name any Rockies pitchers? Tried to hide/display my grid on a testing thread, all I got were 8 green squares and one white one.

That’s the one I missed too

got lucky with Todd Zeile for CO/NY - I was thinking of his time with the Mets

8/9, struggled even with the Tigers/Braves

Yeah 8/9 for me too but a different one I think
https://i.postimg.cc/Z5VjSyh2/IMG-4668.jpg

I watched a LOT of bad baseball this year for this one.

for the Barves answers i really knocked the rarity numbers out of the park: Darrel Evans, 1%; Ron Gant, 2%; Gary Sheffield 3%

Yeah, you should include your rarest answers along with your score; mine were Eddie Matthews for the Braves/Tigers and Joe Torre for the Braves/Cardinals, both 2%.

8/9, I got tripped up by the Tigers/Rockies square (as did most people).

killed the braves column: mike hessman (det), ken oberkfell (stl), claudell washington (nyy) all 0.2%

but i had no col/det and i tried to get too fancy with the 40+ homers

Yeah if it helped I put Goldie for the middle right one and in retrospect, why

So is the rarity score actually one of the objectives? I haven't been playing that way, but I will if it is.

i would guess that most people playing the game can probably answer most of the questions (rockies/tigers aside), so yeah rarity is a thing. which is nice for you, as i bet you'll totally kick ass at it

Just a function of being older. When I answered Joe Torre for the Braves/Cardinals, that for me is an obvious answer: perennial All-Star with the Braves, an MVP with the Cardinals. But he was 2% of the correct answers. I'll still struggle with the intersecting teams--and will usually be happy if I can come up with even one answer--but I will go for more offbeat stat/award answers.

9/9, really concentrated on less obvious answers: all but one under 10%, six 5% or under, three under 1%. The one name that escaped me was J.A. Happ for the Jays 20-game winner, so I settled for Morris--who surprisingly was only 3% anyway.

Rarity Score: 62.

If they added a time component to this, I'd be dead.

8/9.
Could not FOR THE LIFE OF ME name a single A/Pirate, the only reason I got the reliever is cos I read about him being picked up by the Pirates off waivers.
https://i.postimg.cc/63hPG7Ct/IMG-4734.jpg
Sorry for letting you down with my lack of Pirates knowledge, Mookieproof.

What’s funny is your top right answer could have been used for the one you didn’t get!

That's who I used for my top left (I was pretty sure but not 100%). Could have used Jeff Kent twice too, if you were allowed to. I actually found Cy Young/MVP a little tricky since double-winners have been somewhat arbitrary. Best example: Rice beat out Guidry in '78, but Clemens beat out Mattingly in '86. I thought that's what happened, but again, wasn't 100% sure, so I went with a safe 36% choice there.

xp I didn’t know that until you said so, I had two answers for that top right square and Cutch was a more obvious choice

Let me know what your Jays answers were, Thermo. I had (working down) Al Oliver, Candy Maldonado--both under 1%--and Morris at 36%.

Those are all solid 80s answers!

I had Liriano, Pillar & Clemens (6%, 10% & 21%)

Unfortunately I chose the most obvious answers Jose Bautista, Brandon Belt, Roy Haaladay. I have plenty of room for improvement in this game.

I came up with what might be the only Immaculate Grid with the same answer for all nine squares (if you include a major award and a major statistical benchmark--there are guys who've played for nine teams, so that would be the other way to go). This is extremely easy.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ib_kzXqxUdy4qWeNf2c_Q72Ka0UHxIZXq1d9ufTfll8/edit?usp=sharing

8/9, couldn't start to think of a Pirates/Jays crossover. Rarity score:304

Jason Kendall - Ray Knight - Barry Bonds
Barry Zito - Brandon Belt - Willie
Bob Welch - Roy Halladay - Sandy Koufax

Ray Knight was supposed to be Gary Carter - 'long career, played in Canada, might have made a pit stop in Pittsburgh?' - and still wrong

I had Bob Welch for his 27 win season my first year playing rotisserie baseball, age 9 - also Bobby Thigpen & Cecil Fielder... my roto talent scout career was all downhill from there

We don't need to get into specifics, but not good at all today. (I did figure out that you can think in terms of franchises, so I was able to use the Expos in place of the Nationals.)

4/9 - Chris Young for Rangers X Padres and Johnny Damon/Julio Franco/Paul Molitor for SB

The highlight for me was using two Seattle Pilots for Brewers answers.

5/9, nothing doing down the left side at all.
https://i.postimg.cc/v8Lr1JgG/IMG-4800.jpg

I can’t believe I fucked up the KC sb one. A solid decade of speedy players and I pick one who never broke 30 with them.
Also lol at me forgetting the obvious answers to SD & Tex/Mil and landing guys with 2% rarity

Here's your cheat sheet if you ever want to check yourself after the fact:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/friv/multifranchise.cgi

Another single-answer grid, marginally tougher than the first one I posted (had to cut some slack on the statistical benchmark):

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kOwakO07O_liYBPBCYHoDJuvEFKz-Zrs0lQnbjjhM98/edit?usp=sharing

8/9, Bert Blyleven never won a Cy

8/9...Flubbed my first Cubs/Red Sox guess (Josh Beckett), tried a second correct one, so never got to Cubs/Guardians. Rarity score 197: seven correct answers 1-10%, settled for the easy Twins/Red Sox answer. I almost boxed myself in with Rick Sutcliffe as the Cubs Cy Young winner--I should have used him for the Cubs/Guardians box. So there is some strategy involved.

No idea how, but the only Cleveland/Cubs guy I could think of was Jody Gerut.
And today I learned that Cy Young, the man they named THE pitching award after, never got to 3,000 Ks!

8/9 not my best effort due to

Guardians.
https://i.postimg.cc/VvQzPjsx/IMG-4882.jpg

I tried to get clever with my first guess by guessing Lefty Grove for the Boston pitcher with 3000 K's. Oh well.
Craig Kimbrel - x - Rick Sutcliffe
David Ortiz - x - Frank Viola
Roger Clemens - Bert Blyleven - Pedro Martinez

When I'm stumped I guess Edwin Jackson or Octavio Dotel or one of those other handful of guys who played for 12+ teams. I haven't been right once!

Ya. That number.

It was higher than the actual amount should have been in the summary.

I think I figured out what was happening. The grid summary includes everyone ever involved with a no hitter - but when you click through to the BBref page, it only lists the guys who threw full games.

That'd be it, yeah. I'm not good on no-hitters. The ones I remember tend to be the famous ones--when I re-tried today's on a different browser, I typed in Dock Ellis for the Pirates--56%!.

9/9, 15.

https://i.postimg.cc/J4J9hYzC/grid.jpg

That's about the best I can do with Silver Slugger on there--don't think I could have got it under 10.

I mean, I'm surprised Dave Stapleton isn't under 0.1%--he'll definitely be my pick next time one-team-only turns up for the Red Sox.

Did this this morning but had to head out for the day--9/9, 9. Twice I got some auto-fill help: 1) couldn't remember Shin-Soo Choo's name, just the bizarre play in 2015 right before the bat flip. Tried three or four different things till I was fairly confident I had the right guy; 2) I knew who I wanted there, but when I started to type in Rick Helling for the Rangers' 10-game winner, Rick Honeycutt popped up at the top of the list. Figured he was an even better bet for a low rarity, so I went with him--a little cheap, I'll concede. (More likely, they're both about the same for rarity.)

https://i.postimg.cc/tgPY7npj/grid.jpg

Science fiction: in '83, Honeycutt's 2.42 led the A.L. in ERA; he struck out 56 batters in 175 IP. (His FIP was 3.52.)

9/9, 59. Easy day for a 9, but a low rarity requires threading the needle on those first two columns--probably Zito for A's Cy Young, and Jon Lester for their 2000 K.

https://i.postimg.cc/VvjtCT94/grid.jpg

I would like to register my vehement disagreement with R.A. Dickey not being 6.0 WAR the year he won the Cy Young (5.7).

As well as I can do with GG involved--9/9, 30. I thought Brett would do better, reasoning that people would use him for the middle column; we read left to right, so maybe if the columns had been reversed. Ray Burris immediately popped into my head this morning--no idea why.

https://i.postimg.cc/rpB0HfTQ/grid.jpg

8/9, 105. Second or third Saturday in a row I've flubbed an easy one (today's was pretty much all my strongest categories)--forgot how often Yastrzemski walked; never more than 191 hits, not even in '67 or '70. Just barely over 2% for seven of these.

https://i.postimg.cc/Kj9200dQ/grid.jpg

Ah! I managed to best you today! 8/9 104.
Came to post this one because, assuming I got under 5% with that last answer, it would have been my personal best score without that wrong guess.

https://postimg.cc/fkGjcrMF
I thought for sure Steve Garvey had over 300 HRs (to go with 200 hit season), but he fell short by like 28, the fucking bum!

I get caught on that kind of stuff all the time. Garvey's solid on 200 hits and 100 RBIs at the seasonal level.

Harry Heilmann fan club in session.

THE MAN WAS A GOLDEN GOD!

8/9, 104--yesterday once more. I'm not great on ROYs, so I set out with the intention of just getting a 9 and not fussing over rarity. But I started off with four under 1%, so that changed. Thought about Al Bumbry for ROY/RF, but wasn't 100% sure of the award or the position so initially passed; then I couldn't remember which Cub it was who won in '89, Jerome Walton or Dwight Smith (it was Walton--and he played center so wouldn't have worked anyway). I ended up going with Jackie Jensen, remembering that he won an award and assuming he was forgotten enough that it must have been ROY. No--MVP in '58.

https://i.postimg.cc/N05NzWvD/grid.jpg

ha! we're Arky Vaughn and Alfredo Griffin twins!

i managed to tie my best score of 9. Regret going with a more obvious choice for HOF/ROY at the onset.

https://postimg.cc/Cdn9J793

Nice! I've never heard of your middle square...which tells you how weak I am on ROYs. (Nixon's in his grave applauding our Arky Vaughn fandom--which I won't bother hiding now.)

Arrrgh--sorry prospective players, you hid that and I was looking at the unhidden post. As Pavement once said, NO ARKY VAUGHN!

I only remember him because his time on the jays when he jumped OVER a catcher to score a run

Arky had a great couple of years with the Jays. (Yeah, except for Bench, you had a real shot at 3 or 4%).

Was of course referring to my middle square

9/9, 36. All I could think of for Phillies/Guardians was Cliff Lee and Carlton; don't know why I thought Lee would be lower.

https://i.postimg.cc/QN9DwrQN/grid.jpg

9/9, 23. Not overly difficult, but got me thinking about stuff: 1) one of the rare times I was happy about a higher rarity--didn't expect Jim Abbott to be at 7%, but glad people still remember him; 2) if your default is the '70s like me, thinking of a lifetime Oakland player is hard thanks to Charlie Finley--if I hadn't remembered Washington, not sure if I would have come up with somebody there; 3) thought of a few possibilities for the Angels' 100-run guy before settling on Erstad. Most would have been right--Bobby Bonds, Tim Salmon, Carny Lansford, Troy Glaus--and a couple wouldn't have been: Grich and Fregosi. Will try to remember Brian Downing for next time. I figured Erstad's 240 hits were a sure thing. No one will have 240 hits and score fewer than 100 runs until Luis Arraez does it.

https://i.postimg.cc/1XDKX0Sc/grid.jpg

9/9, 87. Otis Nixon was my first guess, which immediately had me enter two other SB boxes I knew would be high. At that point my rarity was so high, I took some chances on the last few boxes I might not have otherwise.

https://i.postimg.cc/pdSxsPGh/grid.jpg

9/9, 18. New rule today, the David Wells Rule: if you want a low rarity score, avoid oversized personalities.

https://i.postimg.cc/4djqWSxR/grid.jpg

8/9, 115. Ken Phelps, Ken Phelps--my baseball people love Ken Phelps. But turns out he never hit 30 HR, not for Seattle and not for anybody.

https://i.postimg.cc/0yctVzs8/grid.jpg

9/9, 26. Garry Templeton, my last guess, is up to 17%--he's been rediscovered 100% because of this game. I had an 'S'-guy shortcut (Cardinals, Padres, Giants, Mariners) but of course couldn't remember him: Brett Tomko. Will try to remember Rich Wilkins instead, who had a classic outlier season in '93 for the Cubs.

https://i.postimg.cc/8cM8GPjR/grid.jpg

how the fuck did dave kingman never get 100 RBIs for the Mets?! 7 fucking seasons with over 30 home runs and he's only gotten 100+ RBIs twice! also why was he on 4 different teams in 1977? what happened there bro?!

Kingman's stats were freakish so many different ways. Don't ever use him for WAR (career high, 4.1, under 20 for his career); he did knock in 100 for the Cubs and A's (once each), never scored 100. Buzza alerted me to his bizarre '77 season, but I tend to forget the two non-NY teams.

9/9, 48. 31% of that is for the D-backs row, but that might actually be the lowest I've ever had for Arizona/Colorado/Miami/Tampa Bay.

https://i.postimg.cc/RVnxmYqk/grid.jpg

9/9, 25. 1970 AL batting crown: Alex Johnson, .32899; Yaz, .32862.

https://i.postimg.cc/D0CPdQkh/grid.jpg

9/9, 25. Stayed under 10% for the first seven, then gave in on Kingman and Palmeiro. Burt Hooton: when I was 12, I was able to throw a variation on the knuckle-curve (which probably still exists under some other name).

https://i.postimg.cc/0jbk7LVg/grid.jpg

Found this:

https://i.postimg.cc/FHmKBnRS/burt.jpg

9/9, 6

https://imgur.com/a/hJkdYjZ

jim gilliam is probably the most versatile <1 reliables in my arsenal, checks a lot of boxes

It takes the Mets and/or a lower score than mine to get you back here.

9/9, 16 today. Was glad that on Canadian HOF Induction Day, I was able to use Blue Jay legend--for one game--Doug Ault. He hit two HR in the snow on Opening Day, 1977. I was in Mr. Lightfoot's grade 12 history class listening on a transistor radio.

https://i.postimg.cc/tJRpJKq8/grid.jpg

Only 15 correct answers for 200 wins/one team, of which only five look good from a rarity standpoint: Ted Lyons, Red Faber, Hooks Dauss, Mel Harder, and (maybe) Bob Lemon.

Duh--Posnanski writes about Duane Kuiper all the time, you'd think I'd know he played second, not short.