Anyone tried the Immaculate Grid game?

[backwardsk]

4 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

Does anyone know if a player has to play in a ML game to be eligible or just in an organization?

For example, can Kremer be chosen for the Dodgers and Orioles?

Nope to Kremer, just like nope to Juan Bell.

[cboemmeljr]

Played for the first time today.  Got 7/9.  Missed 300+ saves Tampa Bay and who played for Seattle and Boston.

️ Immaculate Grid 113 7/9:
Rarity: 379

️
️
Play at:
https://immaculategrid.com
@immaculategrid x @baseball_ref

[Frobby]

Today was one of those annoying days.  I got 8/9, and I could picture the Tampa closer who I expected was the right answer but couldn’t come up with his name.  Finally gave up and guessed someone else, incorrectly.  Saw the guy who was the most popular answer and of course it was the guy I was thinking of.  

By the way, how do you do “hidden content” in a post?   I haven’t learned that trick.  
 

[Can_of_corn]

2 hours ago, Frobby said:

Today was one of those annoying days.  I got 8/9, and I could picture the Tampa closer who I expected was the right answer but couldn’t come up with his name.  Finally gave up and guessed someone else, incorrectly.  Saw the guy who was the most popular answer and of course it was the guy I was thinking of.  

By the way, how do you do “hidden content” in a post?   I haven’t learned that trick.  
 

Spoiler icon is an eye, 9th in the row next to the smiley face.

[ArtVanDelay]

11 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Spoiler icon is an eye, 9th in the row next to the smiley face.

It doesn’t show up on mobile for me but it does on my computer. 

[ArtVanDelay]

Could’ve had my best score today but I stupidly used RA Dickey for Marlins/Mets. I was thinking he was part of that Jose Reyes trade from Miami to Toronto but then realized that was Buehrle, and that Dickey was a separate trade.

I had a couple great pulls with Gregg Zaun and John Buck but botched it on Dickey.

[Moose Milligan]

Back on track today with a 9/9 and a 60 rarity score.

Spoiler

Will Clark, Jim Edmonds, Albert Pujols

Andres Galarraga, Mark Langston, Gary Pettis

Willie Mays, Greg Vaughn, Barry Bonds

 

[Frobby]

5 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

Back on track today with a 9/9 and a 60 rarity score.

  Reveal hidden contents

Will Clark, Jim Edmonds, Albert Pujols

Andres Galarraga, Mark Langston, Gary Pettis

Willie Mays, Greg Vaughn, Barry Bonds

 

I didn’t know you were such a savant.  If they make a grid game that just includes the Orioles and their minor league system down to the DSL, I’ll probably do better.  I don’t pay much attention to who’s played on which other teams, so the dual team questions kill me.  

[Moose Milligan]

Just now, Frobby said:

I didn’t know you were such a savant.  If they make a grid game that just includes the Orioles and their minor league system down to the DSL, I’ll probably do better.  I don’t pay much attention to who’s played on which other teams, so the dual team questions kill me.  

Just know that if they ever do Orioles/A's you can use your guy Jeff Fiorentino!

 

[Frobby]

3 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Just know that if they ever do Orioles/A's you can use your guy Jeff Fiorentino!

 

See, I wouldn’t have known that.  But I’m sure I could have come up with someone suitably obscure so long as the Orioles were involved.  Two West Coast teams?  NL teams?  AL Central teams?  Fuggetaboudit!

I actually only missed one today, and that was because I could only come up with two possibilities for a Padre with 40 homers, and the one I picked initially was wrong.  So I had to use a second guess there (which was correct).  I did have 3 answers under 1% though, so that made me happy.  I enjoy getting obscure correct answers.  

[Moose Milligan]

1 minute ago, Frobby said:

See, I wouldn’t have known that.  But I’m sure I could have come up with someone suitably obscure so long as the Orioles were involved.  Two West Coast teams?  NL teams?  AL Central teams?  Fuggetaboudit!

I actually only missed one today, and that was because I could only come up with two possibilities for a Padre with 40 homers, and the one I picked initially was wrong.  So I had to use a second guess there (which was correct).  I did have 3 answers under 1% though, so that made me happy.  I enjoy getting obscure correct answers.  

I admittedly didn't know that off the top of my head, I looked him up on Baseball Reference.  I just remembered how much you liked him back in the day cause of the whole scrappy/Screech thing.  And I was wondering if anyone else had ever picked him up...sure enough, the A's did for two games.  

Depending on the day, I like going for the obscure answers...sometimes I just want to get them done.  I find myself using a lot of the same players over and over...that's not a complaint, but I'm surprised at how some guys can net correct answers.  I think I've used Greg Vaughn three times in the past week.

 

 

[Moose Milligan]

Joe Posnanski wrote about Immaculate Grid in his blog today.  Fair long read, but fun.  And I echo his sentiments about wanting to just getting it done sometimes.

Quote

My Immaculate Immaculate Grid

As mentioned, many of you Brilliant Readers have challenged me to write about playing Immaculate Grid. I wasn’t going to do it; I absolutely play every morning, but I have mixed feelings about it. Some days I love IG. Some days, when I’m getting a terrible headache trying to think about who played for the Rockies or Rays, I kind of hate it. Sometimes my strategy is just to pick the most obvious players and get through. Some days I try to go as obscure as I can go and shoot for the lowest rarity score. I feel way too much pressure playing it. Who needs that?

Rarity scores, again for those of you who don’t know, deal with the percentage of people who selected the player you selected. For example, let’s say that you have to find a player who played for both the Washington Nationals and San Diego Padres. I imagine that Juan Soto would probably be selected by 70% or more of the people playing; he’s the obvious one. So that would be 70-plus points on your rarity score.

But if you chose, I don’t know, Nate Colbert — who played for the Padres and spent a few weeks in Montreal, the Nationals’ predecessor — I would bet that fewer than 1% would choose him. So that would mean less than 1 point on your rarity score.

On Wednesday, I saw that the Royals were one of the teams … this is a big advantage for me because, as you might know, I was columnist at The Kansas City Star for 15 years when the team was awful and the players obscure. Also, one of the categories was “All-Star.” There probably aren’t too many people on earth more versed on terrible Royals All-Stars. I immediately thought: “OK, I can choose Ken Harvey, Mark Redman, Mike MacDougal or Old Aaron Crow Medicine Show, and that’s a guaranteed less than 1%.”

And that’s when I said: OK, I’m going for a less than a 5 rarity score on this one. And then I’m going to retire in glory and start enjoying my life by not even going for rarity scores when playing Immaculate Grid.

So, Royals All-Star: I went for Ken Harvey. He’s probably my favorite obscure Royals All-Star; in his marvelous career he once threw a ball directly into a pitcher’s face and he once was hit in the back with a cutoff throw because he was facing home plate for some reason. He was a pretty good hitter, though; I remember he had this weird thing where he put his right hand over his left when swinging the bat. So I went for Harvey … and he was chosen by 0.3%. Winner!

There’s another reason I went for Harvey — the box to the left asked me to pick a player who was on the Royals and Marlins. And I remembered that Mark Redman, my other choice for obscure Royals All-Star*, had pitched for the Marlins in their 2003 championship season. I vividly remember him getting lit up by the Yankees in that World Series. So I went with Redman — 0.2%. Winner!

*I got into a sort of spat with White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen over Redman — he chose Redman for that All-Star Game in 2006, and I took him to task over it, and he, well, let’s just say he didn’t like that.

One box to the left — Royal and Astro. Hmm. I immediately thought of Carlos Beltrán, of course, every Royals fan remembers that 2004 trade (and remembers Beltrán going absolutely bonkers in the playoffs) but that seemed WAY too obvious. I banged my head against the wall for a while and came up with a crazy good one — Runelvys Hernandez. He was a hilariously hotheaded pitcher for Kansas City in their charmed season of 2003 … and I remembered him being on the Astros because he got suspended for a positive drug test while with them. I knew Runelvys would be a big-time rare choice — and he was, 0.05%. Winner!

OK, now, sadly, I had to move away from the Royals. An A’s All-Star? The name Carney Lansford immediately popped into my head for some reason. It was actually a lucky choice; for some reason, I thought Lansford had won his batting title with the A’s. He hadn’t — that was with the Red Sox. But he was an A’s All-Star (whew) and that was 0.8%. Winner!

A’s and Marlins? Oh, I had no idea … until I thought of someone super-obscure who I know. Well, I know his dad better — Brad Ziegler! Remember him? I did a big story on him at one point; he’s from Kansas, and while in the minor leagues he was hit in the head with a line drive and, if memory serves, his life was in the balance. He recovered and ended up having an excellent career throwing Dan Quisenberry-style submarine sinkers. I knew he’d played for Oakland and I thought I remembered him playing for the Marlins at the end of his career. And: 0.5%. Winner!

A’s and Astros. I thought: OK, I’m going old school — I’m going to pick a Kansas City A’s player. And, the first name that came to mind was Jim Gentile. Well, that’s not right: The first name that came to mind was Gus Zernial, but I thought he probably retired before the Astros even existed. Did Jim Gentile play for the Houston Astros? For some reason, I thought he did. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine a Jim Gentile Astros baseball card.* I pulled the trigger: 0.03%. Winner!

*One does exist … but being honest, this was not the one I pictured:

OK, now I was getting nervous — I had a real shot here at my ultimate Immaculate Grid. I needed a Mets All-Star. I thought back to my childhood and Joel Youngblood came to mind quickly. But I had two concerns. One, was Youngblood ever actually an All-Star? He had to be, right? I mean those Mets teams of the 1970s and early 1980s were terrible, and he was typically their best player, no? He had to be a multiple-time All-Star, right?

My second concern was that Mets fans, going for the low rarity score, would choose him, too. But I couldn’t think of a better choice (was Felix Millan* an All-Star?) so I went for it. And two things happened.

I was right and wrong at the same time. Youngblood WAS a Mets All-Star, but it was during the garbage strike season of 1981, and he played only 43 games that year. I got SO lucky on him.

His rarity score was 0.07% so Mets fans did not go with him. Winner!

*Good thing I didn’t choose Felix Millan — he was a three-time All-Star, but never with the Mets. All three came when he was playing with Atlanta.

OK, two more to go. I’m shaking.

Met and Marlin. My first thought: Jeff Conine. Whenever I think of the Marlins, my first thought is Jeff Conine (I thought of him, too, with the Royals and Marlins because I remember him in Kansas City). But I thought: Too obvious. I don’t know, is he too obvious? I just punched him into Immaculate Grid and — 1%. I’m glad I didn’t pick him.

But who was a Met and Marlin that is less obvious than Jeff Conine (who played just 21 games for the Mets?). I had a quirky idea — one of my favorite 1980s Mets was Dave Magadan. Remember him? Super-light hitting, high-average corner infielder. I thought Mags would win a batting title, so for a time I collected his rookie cards.

But did Dave Magadan play for the Marlins? He just seemed like the kind of guy who played for the Marlins. I didn’t feel confident at all in this one; but once I was down the Dave Magadan path, I couldn’t quite move on. Magadan had to play for the Marlins, right? I mean, what’s even the point of there being a Marlins team if Dave Magadan didn’t play for them?

So I closed my eyes and pressed the button and — 0.3%. Oh my gosh: Winner! As it turns out, Magadan didn’t just for the Marlins, he played for them twice. They signed him in December 1992, traded him to Seattle in June of 1993, and traded to get him back in November 1993. My gut, for once, was right! And I was one square away from near-perfection.

And the last square — Astro and Met — I immediately, and I do mean immediately, thought “Danny Heep, Danny Heep, Danny Heep!” I vividly remembered him as an Astro and vividly remembered him as a Met, I totally loved Danny Heep. And so I had just one more question: Would Danny Heep be obscure enough?

Here was my thinking: There are some SUPER-obvious players who played for the Astros and Mets. I mean, you start with Nolan Ryan, but there’s also Carlos Beltrán and Mike Scott, I mean, everybody would remember Mike Scott because of the 1986 playoffs, right? I thought: You gotta pull the trigger on Danny Heep.

And so I did: 0.4%. Winner!

And my total rarity score was … 3.

You might have had a lower rarity score than 3. I suspect many people have. But that’s the lowest score I’m ever getting on this crazy game. I’ve climbed as high on the mountain as I’m willing to go. I spent like three hours on this crazy game, and I just can’t do that again. From now on, I’m going to pick the obvious players and just get through it.

 

[Frobby]

7 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

I admittedly didn't know that off the top of my head, I looked him up on Baseball Reference.  I just remembered how much you liked him back in the day cause of the whole scrappy/Screech thing.  And I was wondering if anyone else had ever picked him up...sure enough, the A's did for two games.  

Depending on the day, I like going for the obscure answers...sometimes I just want to get them done.  I find myself using a lot of the same players over and over...that's not a complaint, but I'm surprised at how some guys can net correct answers.  I think I've used Greg Vaughn three times in the past week.

 

 

I couldn’t name you two teams Greg Vaughn played on. But I might have a chance with Arky Vaughn. 

[Surhoffan17]

5 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

Back on track today with a 9/9 and a 60 rarity score.

  Hide contents

 

 

You beat me. I did 9/9 but with a 105 rarity score. 

Here are mine:

Spoiler

Will Clark, Jack Clark, Ozzie Smith

JT Snow, Rickey Henderson, Jim Edmonds

Willie Mays, Greg Vaughn, Barry Bonds

 

[Surhoffan17]

I'll just throw this out there. Mike Morgan is a great one for the IG. We had him in 88 and traded him for Devo. There are two others who have played on more teams than him that I am always using.