let’s play: Immaculate Grid!

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!

gyac, your baseball knowledge is pretty impressive for someone who only recently got into the game. It's miles better than mine (I would never call myself a massive fan).

I got 7/9, my best showing yet. I'm much better at the stat categories than the team x team categories. Bill Buckner, Phil Niekro, and Tom Seaver were my best answers.

I whiffed on Bob Feller having 3000 Ks.

i fuckin did it. i will never do this again. boston in there was the only way i had a chance. rarity score 238

yeah i guessed warren spahn for cy young/3000 ks, turns out world war ii put a dent in a lot of counting stats from that era

My problem with this game--the game is great; I literally mean my problem--is my fading memory for names. The other day, I couldn't remember A.J. Happ, who goes back all of six or seven years with the Jays. I couldn't remember Ian Kinsler's name one day. ("Tampa Bay, the super-utility player, impressive WARs...") And this had to do with something else, not the grid, but I couldn't remember Jose Reyes's name. This is a guy with over 2000 hits, Hall of the Good, came to the Jays with a lot of fanfare, had a polarizing three seasons here (unfairly--when a team's going nowhere, your best players get them blame), hard player to forget. I remember him well. Just couldn't come up with a name.

Best thing on today's was having both Gaylord and Jim Perry on the same grid.

I'm mixing up Ian Kinsler with Ben Zobrist--it was Zobrist I couldn't remember. I can't even remember who I can't remember.

9/9, 25, almost all of it Thomas and Perry. For the first time, I thought to check if there was anybody who played for the Pilots (Brewers) and Mariners. One guy, Diego Segui, so I'm guessing others have clued into that too, and he's worth 5% at best.

https://i.postimg.cc/L8LM2P6f/grid.jpg

You would think Gary Roenicke would be under %0.1, but I think the Roenicke/Lowenstein platoon is pretty well known as such things go.

9/9, 15

https://imgur.com/a/skrGlT0

Middle and right columns: 6/6, 5.75%. (Could have been better if I'd remembered Frank Duffy, the guy the Reds traded for Foster--had that committed to memory at one point.) Rays column: 3/3, 105%. Why would you ruin a good grid with Tampa Bay? So 9/9, 112--thermo and gyac, easy target.

https://i.postimg.cc/FRdmp7LD/grid.jpg

(Highlight today was turning the outfield column into a backdoor Jays column.)

9/9, 10--may drop into single digits. Started off 3/3, under 1%, but Jason Thompson killed that. This will never happen again: I've got two guys in the same row--Billy Martin and Dave Boswell--who got into a famous barroom brawl that cost one of them his job: https://twins-time.com/2022/02/billy-in-the-bar-august-1969/.

https://i.postimg.cc/FzzhfLX1/grid.jpg

Not to mention Giles and Briles side-by-side.

Better come back, maybe next week, 'cause you see I'm on a losing streak. Things to remember: Curt Blefary never played center field (Wednesday), Scipio Spinks was born in Chicago (today). Yesterday's, with the Marlins, was a lost cause.

9/9, 60. I was good through the first four, then Renteria, then Welch, then I just gave up and went for the 9.

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

Neither snow nor rain...9/9, 15. Could've used Stairs for the Perry box too, which has led me to the Kurt Bevacqua Rule: not Montreal, but the other three '69 teams. Took a guess on U.L. Washington, who I figured must have spelled off Brett occasionally. He did--exactly once. (Didn't he always have a toothpick in his mouth?)

https://i.postimg.cc/G3BMggW1/grid.jpg

Yes, he did (the toothpick). And he was on first when Brett hit the pine tar HR.

Periodically returned to this through the day, knowing full well I had nothing for Arizona.

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

Was pretty good through the first seven, with an auto-fill-assisted guess on Miguel Dilone. I remembered Mark Reynolds from yesterday's strikeouts/power discussion. But the famous-again Ron Leflore still had me over 30%, so I threw in the towel with Schilling and Carroll. Tony Womack crossed my mind at one point, but forgot him by the time I finished.

So one of those grids: 9/9, 112.

Colourful curse words: 8/9, 106:

https://i.postimg.cc/8CNd9Xjq/grid.jpg

People I thought of for lifetime White Sox box: Minnie Minoso, Eddie Cicotte, Richard Dotson, Jason Bere, Al Lopez, none of whom would have been right--Al Lopez didn't even play for the Chicago (but managed them for 12 years). Who I guessed: Chico Carrasquel, who was there six out of 10 seasons. Who I should have guessed: Luke Appling or Red Faber. Who I could have guessed if I paid a lot more attention to Jays' games: Nick Nastrini, who's had three lifetime starts for the White Sox and got hammered by Toronto the other night.

Old Nick would have been 0.9%.

I don’t understand what’s going on with the no hitter cat. It’s paired with three different teams and the rules say that the no hitter has to happen with that team… when I was done (7/9) the number stated in the results screen was just over 2x the number that the bb ref page is giving me.

Not sure what you mean by "the number"...I had two days in a row where one box kept me from scoring under 10%, then today was a wipeout.

Number = number of guys who pitched a no-hitter for that team? (It is team-specific, you're right.)

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!