Crazy Hobby? Inside 'Immaculate Grid'
PLUS: COULD RONALD ACUNA, JR. WIN BACK-TO-BACK MVP HONORS?
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Pregame Pepper: Theo Returns to Red Sox
Did you know…
Mazel tov to Theo Epstein, who presided over the end of World Championship droughts with both the Red Sox (2004) and Cubs (2016) in his new semi-ownership spot with Boston, as partial owner and senior advisor for Fenway Sports Group.
“It’s a great honor, something I’m really excited about,” Epstein said yesterday. “It’s exciting to be joining such a dynamic, groundbreaking company across multiple sports, doing so many innovative things at the cutting edge of everything going on in sports. For me, it’s perfect, as I was looking for a pathway into ownership.”
Epstein, 50, has a strong relationship with newly-hired Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, whom he hired in Chicago as director of strategic initiatives for the Cubs. Breslow eventually became director of pitching for the organization before being promoted to assistant general manager.
“I’m a full believer in him and what he and his team are going to mean for the Red Sox,” Epstein said of Breslow.
Elsewhere around the diamond:
New Orioles ace Corbin Burnes insists he will test free agency this fall . . .
No surprise: Cal Ripken, Jr. is part of the new Baltimore Orioles ownership group . . .
World Series MVP Corey Seager will miss most of spring training after submitting to surgery for a left sports hernia . . .
A comeback by two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom would go a long way in the Texas bid to become the first repeat World Champion since the 2000 Yankees …
All-Star southpaw Blake Snell has two Cy Youngs, zero Tommy John surgeries, and a great track record (486 2/3 innings since 2020) — everything but a contract for 2024 . . .
Shota Imanaga, signed by the Chicago Cubs, had a better strikeout rate last season than the much-coveted Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who got much more money from the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Leading Off
Taking Immaculate Grid Even Further
By Daniel R. Epstein
The older I get, the more I discover that the nerdiest, geekiest interests are the most entertaining—especially when pursued to their extremes. They also lead to the best friendships and memorable life experiences.
If you’re reading this newsletter, you may have more than a casual interest in baseball. That’s probably because of the love and fulfillment you derive from the game—which can be individualistic and collectivistic at the same time in different ways.
Immaculate Grid falls right in the nerdy baseball wheelhouse for many of us. The daily test of finding, say, someone who played for the Angels and Cardinals is something to look forward to each morning. If you challenge yourself—or your friends—to find someone more obscure than Albert Pujols, Jim Edmonds, or David Freese, more power to you.
I have an admission to make. I’m afraid I’ve taken the Grid too far. What I’m about to reveal goes way beyond the “cool in an uncool way” vibe that defines a lot of baseball passion projects. What I do is straight-up uncool.
Each day after I play the Grid, I make a 26-man roster of players that fit one of the squares. Specifically, these rosters are for the intersection of two teams, which is what almost all categories were back in the summer when the Grid first launched. I’ve also done a handful of one-team-only rosters, such as players who only played for the Mariners and no other franchise. (That one got ugly pretty fast after Félix Hernández and Edgar Martinez.)
I’ve been working on this mostly useless collection of rosters for precisely 206 days, and I know that because I’ve done 206 rosters and I don’t think I’ve missed a day. No one would admit to such an absurd endeavor if it wasn’t true, but if you’d like proof, you can see them all for yourself. I also started a thread on X/Twitter where I post the new one each day.
There are four rules and guidelines posted on the bottom of every roster to give myself some structure:
These are the best players who played for both franchises and fill a 26-man roster, not the rarest.
9 in the lineup, 5 on the bench, 5 in the rotation, and 7 in the bullpen. Bench and bullpen must have at least one lefty and one righty. Bench must have 1 C, 1 IF, and 1 OF.
By "best players," I mean the best production with these two franchises only. How they played for any other franchise is irrelevant.
Yes, I looked them up, but no, I did not cheat. I completed this roster after I filled out my grid.
There have been some fun rosters along the way and I’m not even halfway done yet according to the spreadsheet where I keep track. Unsurprisingly, the Red Sox/Yankees roster is the best one of all:
All-Red Sox/Yankees 26-Man Roster
Though the Athletics/Yankees roster can give it a run for its money:
All-Athletics/Yankees 26-Man Roster
Two old-time rivals from the early origins of the National League in the 1800s will have the largest pool of eligible players. They also create some interesting hypotheticals, such as a Mordecai Brown/Willson Contreras battery:
All-Cardinals/Cubs 26-Man Roster
I have to dig deeper to find quality players who fit the roster requirements for newer franchises, such as the 1998 expansion teams. Nothing against Tommy Pham, but having him in the cleanup spot doesn’t quite compare to the teams above with Babe Ruth, Reggie Jackson, and Jim Edmonds batting fourth:
All-Diamondbacks/Rays 26-Man Roster
For the single-franchise rosters, the rules are a little different.
These are the best players who played for both franchises and fill a 26-man roster, not the rarest.
If possible, active players in 2023 will not be used.
9 in the lineup, 5 on the bench, 5 in the rotation, and 7 in the bullpen. Bench and bullpen must have at least one lefty and one righty. Bench must have 1 C, 1 IF, and 1 OF.
Yes, I looked them up, but no, I did not cheat. I completed this roster after I filled out my grid.
The “no active players” rule is a killer. I could easily put Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Eury Pérez on the Marlins roster, but odds are they won’t spend their entire careers in Miami, so it would’ve been too much of a cheat code. That makes the Marlins-only roster so difficult to fill that the late José Fernández—a career .213 hitter—serves as a DH/two-way player:
All-Marlins ONLY 26-Man Roster
If you’ve heard of more than five of those players, you have my respect and my sympathies.
Obviously, my enjoyment of Immaculate Grid has crossed the boundaries of normality and sanity. I’ve wandered deep into the elephant graveyard and Pride Rock is no longer in sight. If I can keep my daily ritual going, I should finish in late October 2025.
I’m not doing this with the intent of publishing it or developing some kind of compendium. I’m under no illusion that this is interesting to anyone but myself, but that’s the point. It’s fun—or at least it fits my warped idea of fun—and that’s what baseball fandom is all about. It just manifests a little differently for people like me—if there are any.
Daniel R. Epstein serves as co-director of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America. His writing can be found at Baseball Prospectus, Forbes SportsMoney, and Off the Bench Baseball. Most of it is less weird than this.
Cleaning Up
Another MVP on Tap For Acuña? Rare Air For Sure
By Dan Schlossberg
Since the advent of the Most Valuable Player Award in 1931, only 13 players have won it in consecutive years — and none since Miguel Cabrera in 2012-13.
At age 26, Ronald Acuña, Jr. could join that elite group.
The rifle-armed right-fielder of the Atlanta Braves was a unanimous winner last year, when he became the first man in baseball history to hit at least 40 home runs (41) and steal at least 70 bases (a club-record 73).
Even if he “slumps” to 30 homers and 50 steals in 2024, he would become the first player with multiple 30/50 seasons, the first with three 30/30 seasons through age 26, and the third to produce even one 30/50 campaign, joining Eric Davis (1987), Barry Bonds (1990), and himself (2023).
The flashy Venezuelan, who teased historians with a 41-homer, 37-steal season in 2019, will have considerable competition for MVP honors in teammate Matt Olson and Dodger sluggers Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and Shohei Ohtani.
Ohtani, limited to serving as a left-handed DH following elbow surgery, actually led the American League (but not the majors) with 44 home runs last summer. He hopes to return to his double life as a pitcher/slugger in 2025.
Both Betts and Ohtani could join Hall of Famer Frank Robinson as the only players with MVP trophies in both leagues. Robinson did it for the 1961 Cincinnati Reds and 1966 Baltimore Orioles.
Acuña may have something to say about that. If he succeeds, he’ll be the first Brave with back-to-back MVPs since Dale Murphy in 1981-82.
Acuña boasted several years ago that he hoped to produce the first 50/50 season in baseball history. With larger bases that are also closer together, he seems a safe bet in the steals department but he’d need to produce more power.
Whether that means sacrificing the sweet swing that produced a .337 batting average — second only to Luis Arraez in the Senior Circuit last summer — remains unclear.
As Atlanta’s leadoff man, Acuña’s job is to score runs, which he certainly did last summer with 149. He also led the majors with 217 hits.
It’s worth wondering whether his Venezuelan Winter League performance is draining some of his strength. Would a winter of rest be more beneficial? That’s up to Acuña and the Braves’ medical staff to determine.
In the meantime, he’s about to start spring training as the best player on the best team (Atlanta led the majors with 104 wins, two short of the team record). His goal is to win a World Series ring for the first time.
He was rehabbing a torn ACL in 2021, when the Braves won their last world championship and second since moving to Atlanta in 1966.
Fully healed, he joined Matt Olson and Marcell Ozuna as the second trio of teammates to enjoy simultaneous 40-homer seasons for the Braves. Three guys named Hank Aaron, Davey Johnson, and Darrell Evans did it first — way back in 1973 — and the Colorado Rockies did it twice two decades later.
If nothing else, Ronald Acuña, Jr. is living proof that wearing No. 13 — banned by multiple ballclubs — is not necessarily harmful. In fact, it might even prove beneficial.
Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ covers the game for Here’s The Pitch, forbes.com, Memories & Dreams, Sports Collectors Digest, USA TODAY Sports Weekly, and other outlets. His Hank Aaron biography comes out just before the 50th anniversary of No. 715 in April. Book Dan to speak via ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia: Considering Total Bases
Total bases should be a bigger deal: Hank Aaron had a record 6,856, followed by Albert Pujols at 6,211, Stan Musial at 6,134, and Willie Mays at 6,080 . . .
Two-time MVP Dale Murphy had the most total bases during the decade of the ‘80s, finishing second in both home runs and RBIs, but Hall of Fame electors somehow paid him no attention . . .
One-time Boston Braves manager Tommy Holmes predicted Aaron wouldn’t make the majors, saying he couldn’t pull the ball . . .
Not only did he make it but Aaron led the National League in total bases eight times — five more than Mays — and runs batted in four times vs. none for the Say Hey Kid …
A rare slugger who made great contact, Aaron averaged 63 strikeouts a season over his 23-year career and finished with more walks than Ks.
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.