Pittsburgh Pirates: Good Names to Remember for Immaculate Grid

Immaculate Grid has become a very popular baseball online trivia game, and if you're going for a rarity score, here are some good former Pittsburgh Pirates to remember

Immaculate Grid is one of the newest online baseball board games that’s getting extremely popular among fans. It’s a fairly simple game to understand. Every day, a new three-by-three grid is generated, including six different teams and/or accomplishments/milestones. So for example, today’s grid (August 18th) has the Milwaukee, Washington Nationals, and players with 100+ RBIs on the X-axis. The Y-axis is the Colorado Rockies, Cincinnati Reds, and New York Mets. This game will test your knowledge and baseball trivia.

There are two ways you can play this game. One way is that you can time yourself and try and fill out the grid the fastest, or try and get the lowest rarity score possible. Rarity score is based on how many times a player has been guessed and put into a percentage. Today, I want to look at some names that Pittsburgh Pirates fans should remember if they’re trying to go for the best rarity score.

Obligatory honorable mention is Octavio Dotel. However, Dotel is one of the more poplar names, so to guess.

Kevin Correia

Kevin Correia is a good name to guess for a lot of reasons. The first is that he pitched for six teams. However, Correia is far from one of the most popular names in baseball during his era and is also one of the lesser remembered Pittsburgh Pirates all-stars from the early-2010s.

Throughout his career, Corriea pitched to a 4.62 ERA, 4.53 FIP, and 1.43 WHIP in 13 seasons, and 1428 innings. Correia served as both a swingman and a starter throughout his career. Of his 358 games, 221 were starts. Correia wasn’t much of a strikeout pitcher with a strikeout rate of just 14.6%. But he did have a solid 7.6% walk rate and 1.1 HR/9.

So what makes Correia a good guess for the rarity score? Even though Correia played on so many teams, few remember the stints he had because they were so short. For example, you probably don’t remember Correia’s tenure with the Phillies or the Dodgers. Both lasted fewer than 25 innings. Correia may have pitched two seasons with the Padres, but they were mostly uneventful years. Even in his two years with the Pirates, one of which he made the All-Star Game (2011), Correia was far from the team’s ace, or even their most popular pitcher in those two campaigns.

Even Correia’s six seasons with the San Francisco Giants are mostly obscured. Correia pitched more than 100 innings in just two of those seasons and started more than a dozen games just once. Granted, he was used in a swing-man/long-relief role, but the point still stands. Because of Correia’s long, but mostly forgotten career with multiple teams, he is one good player to guess for Immaculate Grid.

Jose Veras

Jose Veras was a relief pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2011. During his one season in Pittsburgh, Veras pitched to a 3.80 ERA, 3.50 FIP, and 1.24 WHIP in 71 innings. Veras struck out over a quarter of the opponents he faced this season with a 25.9% strikeout rate while holding a quality 0.80 HR/9. Though he also handed out a walk to 11.2% of the opponents he faced.

Veras’ career lasted nine seasons. Across those nine seasons, Veras owned a 3.91 ERA, 4.13 FIP, and 1.32 WHIP over 423 frames. Veras always had a healthy strikeout rate and finished his career at 24%. He also averaged about one home run allowed every nine innings. Walks were an issue for Veras, as he dished out a free pass 12.1% of the time.

Veras is a good name to remember because of the amount of teams he played for, and the few he played consecutive seasons with. The only team Veras stayed with for two straight years was the New York Yankees from 2006 through 2008. After that, Veras became a journeyman relief pitcher.

The righty reliever had a short stint in Cleveland before being moved to the Miami Marlins in 2010. ‘11 marked the lone season he wore black and gold. Following 2011, Veras opened the 2012 season for the division rival Milwaukee Brewers. The next year, Veras was the Houston Astros’ closing pitcher before they shipped him off to the Detroit Tigers. Veras was only a rental, who became a free agent at the end of 2013. Veras’ last season was in 2014, where he appeared in 12 contests for the Cubs before latching back on with the Houston Astros for a short stint.

The Yankees ended up being the only team Veras pitched more than 100 innings for. The Pirates, Astros, and Brewers are the only other ones he pitched at least 50 frames for. Because of how much Veras bounced around, and the fact he was never a big name closing pitcher, only racking up five or more saves in just one season, and mostly serving as a middle relief or set-up man, the veteran reliever should have a fairly low rarity score.

Erik Kratz

Erik Kratz was the definition of a career second catcher. At the age of 30, Kratz made his Major League debut in 2010, and wouldn’t retire until he was 40 in 2020. The backstop played in two seasons for the Pirates, the first in 2010, and then again in 2016. In total, he appeared in 27 games and made 93 trips to the plate, and in between those seasons, Kratz appeared for five different teams.

For his career, Kratz only made it into 332 games and 951 plate appearances. Kratz wasn’t much of a hitter, slashing just .209/.256/.355. While he did have a solid 21.9% strikeout rate, he only walked 4.9% of the time. He also only managed to hit 31 home runs, 23 of which came between the years 2012 and 2014. Though Kratz was a defense first catcher, racking up +20 defensive runs saved and +2.5 dWAR.

There is a whole litany of jerseys Kratz has worn. After the Pirates, Kratz played a few seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies. In 2014, Kratz appeared for both the Toronto Blue Jays and Kansas City Royals. 2015 saw him start the year in Kansas before returning to Philly. Kratz would open the following season with the Houston Astros before the Pirates acquired him for the second time. 2017 marked Kratz’s first stint with the Yankees, playing just four games. He then went on to the Brewers where he became a key part of their clubhouse dynamic and backup catcher role. Though Kratz’s time in Milwaukee lasted just the 2018 season, as he would play with the San Francisco Giants and Tampa Bay Rays in 2019. Kratz made a return to pinstripes for his final Major League season.

Kratz barely played for any of these teams. The only one he appeared in more than 100 games for was the Phillies. Of the nine Major League teams Krtaz played for, seven let him play fewer than 35 games. Many forget that Kratz was a Ray, Giant, Blue Jay, and even Pirate, which makes him one of the journeyman catchers to remember.

Dana Eveland

I know what you’re thinking, who is Dana Eveland? I’m sure there are some out there who remember Veras, Correia, and even Lavarnway, but Dana Eveland? I’ll tell you why you probably don’t know who this is. It’s because he pitched 9.2 innings for an extremely forgettable 110 loss 2010 Pirates team. However, Eveland had a long journey, both before and after his very short tenure in Pittsburgh.

Eveland’s career lasted from 2005 through 2016. Across 12 years, Eveland pitched to just a 5.46 ERA, 4.44 FIP, and 1.67 WHIP. While Eveland only allowed 0.70 HR/9, he also struck out just 15.8% of opponents while walking them at a 10.8% rate. He also allowed 10.5 hits per-9 innings.

Eveland’s career started out with the Milwaukee Brewers, where he pitched from 2005-2006. The Oakland A’s are the team he spent the most time with, pitching 212 innings over the next two seasons. Eveland started the ‘10 season out with the Toronto Blue Jays before the Pirates picked him up. He then appeared in a few games with the Dodgers and Orioles for the next two years before not appearing in 2013. Then in 2014, he would pitch 27.1 innings for the New York Mets. Eveland stayed in the AL East for 2015, appearing in ten games for the Braves, before heading to Tampa Bay for his last year in the big leagues.

The only diehard fans who might remember Eveland are Oakland fans. He appeared for a third of Major League Baseball’s teams, yet was always considered a depth piece who went from station to station. If you remember any of Dana Eveland’s three games with the 2010 Pirates, keep him in mind the next time the Pirates come up on Immaculate Grid. There’s a good chance one of the other teams he played for will be on there as well.