In recent weeks, “Immaculate Grid” has become the buzz of the baseball world. Now owned by the Philadelphia-based Sports Reference, the game features nine boxes, each of which you have to find a player that fits the criteria of two different characteristics.
A recent example involving the Philadelphia Phillies came on July 25. You needed to find a Phillie that also played for the Toronto Blue Jays, one who also played for the Milwaukee Brewers and one who drove in 100 or more runs. Three possible answers would be Roy Halladay, Geoff Jenkins and Pat Burrell, respectively.
Answers cannot be repeated, though. So if you use Halladay as the player who played for the Phillies and Blue Jays, he wouldn’t be eligible if there was another box that asked for a Toronto pitcher that won the American League Cy Young Award. You also are given a rarity score based on your answers, so Halladay isn’t an especially useful answer because he’s the most obvious example of a player who played for both teams. Someone like Ben Revere would be a much less common answer that would help to improve your rarity score.
Here’s 15 Phillies from the last 25 years that would be helpful to keep in mind if you play Immaculate Grid.
José Mesa
Year(s) Played For The Phillies: 2001-2003; 2007
Other Franchises Played For: Cleveland Guardians, Baltimore Orioles, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, Pittsburgh Pirates, Colorado Rockies and Detroit Tigers
Mesa is 21st in MLB history with 321 saves. He spent the largest and most notable chunk of his career playing for the franchise now known as the Guardians. In total, though, Mesa played for seven teams, including two stints with the Phillies.
DHL actually made a commercial making fun of how often Kenny Lofton changed teams. pic.twitter.com/P9NJsvYZSN
— Tim Kelly (@TimKellySports) February 1, 2020
Kenny Lofton
Year(s) Played For The Phillies: 2005
Other Franchises Played For: Guardians, Pirates, San Francisco Giants, Atlanta Braves, Texas Rangers, Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago Cubs, New York Yankees, Houston Astros and Chicago White Sox
Lofton spent a decade playing for Cleveland, but even that came over three separate stints. In total, Lofton played for 11 different franchises, including hitting .335 with 22 stolen bases for the Phillies in 110 games for the 2005 Phillies.
Kevin Milwood
Year(s) Played For The Phillies: 2003-2004
Other Franchises Played For: Braves, Guardians, Rangers, Orioles, Colorado Rockies and Seattle Mariners
Millwood spent the first six seasons of his career in Atlanta, and is remembered in Philadelphia for throwing a no-hitter in 2003, the final season of Veterans Stadium. He would ultimately take the mound for seven teams during his 16-year career.
Marlon Byrd
Year(s) Played For The Phillies: 2002-2005; 2015
Other Franchises Played For: Washington Nationals, Rangers, Cubs, Red Sox, Mets, Pirates, Cincinnati Reds, Giants, Guardians
Byrd was a 10th-round pick by the Phillies in the 1999 MLB Draft, and had two different stints in red pinstripes. Byrd’s first stint with the Phillies ended when he was traded to the Nationals in 2005 for Endy Chavez, another name that’s worth keeping in mind for Immaculate Grid.
David Dellucci
Year(s) Played For The Phillies: 2006
Other Franchises Played For: Orioles, Arizona Diamondbacks, New York Yankees, Rangers, Guardians, Toronto Blue Jays
In 132 games for the Phillies in 2006, Dellucci homered 13 times, drove in 39 runs and posted an .899 OPS. He was also part of the Diamondbacks team that won the 2001 World Series.
Russell Branyan
Year(s) Played For The Phillies: 2007
Other Franchises Played For: Guardians, Reds, Milwaukee Brewers, San Diego Padres, St. Louis Cardinals, Mariners, Diamondbacks, Los Angeles Angels
Branyan hit 194 home runs during a 14-year career, two of which came during a seven-game stint with the Phillies during the 2007 season. The Phillies were one of three teams Branyan played for in 2007, along with the Padres and Cardinals.
Matt Stairs
Year(s) Played For The Phillies: 2008-2009
Other Franchises Played For: Montreal Expos/Nationals, Red Sox, Oakland Athletics, Cubs, Pirates, Kansas City Royals, Rangers, Tigers, Padres
The author of one of the most iconic home runs in Phillies history played for 12 different MLB franchises, a mark that’s only been topped by Edwin Jackson and Roosevelt Davis. Stairs played long enough that he was an Expo in 1992 and 1993, before finishing his career with the same franchise in Washington in 2011.
Cody Ransom
Year(s) Played For The Phillies: 2010
Other Franchises Played For: Giants, Astros, Yankees, Diamondbacks, Brewers, Padres, Cubs
Phillies fans have a lot of great memories from a 2010 season that saw the team win their fourth-consecutive NL East title. Ransom’s 22-game tenure — in which he hit .190 with two home runs — wasn’t one of them.
Ty Wigginton
Year(s) Played For The Phillies: 2012
Other Franchises Played For: Mets, Rays, Pirates, Astros, Orioles, Rockies, Cardinals
Wigginton was an All-Star for the Orioles in 2010, two years before he homered 11 times and posted a .688 OPS for the Phillies in 125 games as Ryan Howard recovered from a torn left Achilles.
Jerome Williams
Year(s) Played For the Phillies: 2014-15
Other Franchises Played For: Giants, Cubs, Nationals, Angels, Astros, Rangers, Cardinals
The image of Williams doing a split at home plate in Baltimore on June 16, 2015 will probably never be erased from Phillies lore. Incredibly, it’s probably not in the top two of embarrassing moments from a 19-3 loss to the Orioles.
Carlos Santana
Year(s) Played For The Phillies: 2018
Other Franchises Played For: Guardians, Kansas City Royals, Mariners, Pirates, Brewers
In the process of constructing this article, Santana was traded by the Pirates to the Brewers. Santana is helpful from a rarity score perspective if you need to come up with a player who made an All-Star Game with Cleveland, which he did in 2019. That came a year after he walked 110 times and drove in 86 runs in what turned out to be his lone season with the Phillies.
José Bautista
Year(s) Played For The Phillies: 2018
Other Franchises Played For: Blue Jays, Pirates, Royals, Mets, Rays, Braves, Orioles
“Joey Bats” is one of the greatest players in Blue Jays history, but before hitting 288 home runs for Toronto, he had stints with Baltimore, Tampa Bay, Kansas City and Pittsburgh. During his final MLB season of 2018, Bautista played for three NL East times, the Braves, Mets and Phillies. He hit the final two home runs of his career during a 27-game stint with the Phillies.
Logan Morrison
Year(s) Played For The Phillies: 2019
Other Franchises Played For: Miami Marlins, Mariners, Rays, Minnesota Twins, Brewers
Morrison had success playing for both Florida franchises, but his time in Philadelphia was a lot less memorable. “Lo-Mo” hit .200 with two home runs in 35 at-bats for the 2019 Phillies.
Neil Walker
Year(s) Played For The Phillies: 2020
Other Franchises Played For: Pirates, Mets, Yankees, Marlins, Brewers
Walker was one of the many 2010s Pirates that eventually became Phillies. Six years after winning a Silver Slugger Award, Walker posted a .552 OPS in the final 18 games of his career during the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign.
Matt Joyce
Year(s) Played For The Phillies: 2021
Other Franchises Played For: Tigers, Rays, Angels, Pirates, Oakland Athletics, Braves, Marlins
10 years after he was an All-Star with the Rays, Joyce hit .091 with the Phillies in 55 at-bats during the 2021 season, which proved to be his final MLB campaign.
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