Players who had 30 steals in a season with the Angels | Immaculate Grid Answers for Grid 121 | August 1, 2023

Are you hooked on Immaculate Grid, the daily trivia game from Baseball Reference? We sure are! We’ll warn you right now—this blog post contains spoilers. But if you’re looking for a little help with today’s grid (or you already filled it out and want to know who else qualified) read on.

To fill out today’s grid, you need to choose players who had 30 steals in a season with the Angels. There were 14 players with 30 steals for Los Angeles. Here are some examples:

Mike Trout

Mike Trout is a three-time All-Star, three-time Silver Slugger Award winner, and 2014 AL MVP centerfielder for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, all achieved in his first three seasons in Major League Baseball. The twenty-three-year-old’s start, which began as a 19-year-old in 2011 and included winning the 2012 AL Rookie of the Year Award and #2 finishes in the 2012 and 2013 AL MVP races, is generally regarded as one of the greatest in the sport’s history.

Trout was a first-round pick in the 2009 amateur draft and was named baseball’s top prospect after the 2010 season. He is the son of Jeff Trout, who was a minor league teammate of Greg Morhardt, the scout who signed Mike for the Angels.

Erick Aybar

Erick Aybar is the brother of Willy Aybar and the uncle of three brothers all known as Wander Franco: Wander Javier Franco, Wander Alexander Franco and Wander Samuel Franco. He was signed as an amateur free agent in 2002 by scouts Leo Perez and Clay Daniel for the Anaheim Angels. He made his pro debut that summer for the Provo Angels, his time there coinciding with author Matt McCarthy, who chronicled his taste of the minors in his 2009 memoir Odd Man Out: A Year on the Mound With a Minor League Misfit. Aybar hit over .300 in each of his first four minor league seasons, hitting lots of triples and getting lots of stolen bases. A peak year for Erick was 2004 with Rancho Cucamonga, when he hit .330 with 14 home runs and 11 triples. He stole 51 bases and was caught 36 times. 2006 found him in Triple A ball with Salt Lake, where he hit .283 in a partial season.

Bobby Abreu

Bobby Abreu was one of the most gifted players in the major leagues during his 18-year career, possessing ample power, speed and a superb batting eye. He was extremely durable and hit over .300 six times, stole 20 or more bases fourteen times, drove in 100 or more runs nine times, hit over 20 homers nine times, worked over 100 walks twelve times with an OBP of more than .400 ten times and registered a career OBP of nearly 40 percent (.395). In the field, he was a steady, though unspectacular, performer. Abreu had two 30/30 seasons (becoming the first member of the Philadelphia Phillies to do so) and seven consecutive 20/20 seasons. Despite his superior talent and outstanding statistics, he was (rather curiously) only a two-time All-Star selection.

Luis Polonia

Luis Polonia was a speedy journeyman with a high batting average who played 12 years in the big leagues. His speed resulted in many triples but he was not a wise baserunner and led his league in times caught stealing five times (3 in the majors, 2 in the minors). He appeared in 1,379 major league games with a .293 average. He was in the top five in triples four different times, and in the top five in stolen bases three times. Not a particularly strong defensive outfielder, Dennis Lamp once said “If you hit him 100 fly balls, you could write a book about it: Catch-22.

Gary Pettis

Gary Pettis had been a right-handed hitter throughout his amateur career. When he signed with the California Angels, scout Loyd Christopher noted that Pettis signed with his left hand. This led to the team’s conversion of Pettis into a switch-hitter (Source: 1979 Baseball Guide).

Pettis’ brother, Stacey Pettis, was a minor league outfielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates and California Angels from 1981 to 1987. His nephew is Marquis Pettis.

When the Angels first brought him to minor-league camp, they were determined to make Pettis an infielder; he only got to show off what he could do as an outfielder as the result of an outfielder’s injury.

All 14 Players

You can see all 14 players with 30 steals for Los Angeles on Stathead. Good luck with your grid!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 1st, 2023 at 9:23 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.