Players who played for the Brewers and Astros | 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 a player who played for both the Brewers and Astros. There were 99 players who played with both Milwaukee and Houston. Here are some examples:

Jim Wynn

Jim Wynn had an excellent 15-year major league career. He was one of the many youngsters who played on the Houston Colt 45’s in the early 1960s. His lifetime .250 batting average is better than it appears because he played most of his career in the second dead-ball era and he played in a pitcher-friendly ballpark. His 128 OPS+ puts him in a tie with Goose Goslin, Mickey Cochrane, John Olerud, Keith Hernandez and others.

Additionally, he was an excellent power hitter given those circumstances and he added enough walks to reach a .366 on-base percentage. Wynn hit 291 career home runs; his 37 round trippers in 1967 were second in the National League behind Hank Aaron at 39. His 148 walks in 1969 were a National League record for many years.

He finally was traded to a competitive team for the 1974 season, and his performance (he was 5th in the MVP voting) helped the Los Angeles Dodgers win the pennant. Although Steve Garvey won the MVP award, Wynn had a much higher on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS+ that year.

Nori Aoki

Nori Aoki is a two-time Central League batting champion and current NPB lifetime batting champion who spent six seasons in Major League Baseball.

Aoki won the Tokyo Big Six University League batting title in the spring of 2002 and was a fourth-round pick of the Yakult Swallows in the 2003 NPB draft. In 2004, he led the minor Eastern League in batting average and OBP and saw limited time with Yakult, going 3 for 15 at the plate. Aoki became a regular with the Swallows in 2005 and had an amazing rookie campaign. He batted .344/.387/.417, became the second rookie to win a batting title, was third in the Central League with 29 steals, fourth with 100 runs scored and 7th in OBP. Aoki was a fairly two-dimensional player of speed and contact as he did not walk much or show real power. Additionally, he struck out 113 times, ruining the impression of a contact specialist. On the other hand, he broke the Central League record for hits (202, breaking Bobby Rose’s record by 10) and became the second player in Nippon Pro Baseball history to have 200 hits in a season (Ichiro Suzuki had been the first). He shattered Ichiro’s singles record of 151 with 166 such hits (Norihiro Akahoshi broke Ichiro’s record earlier in the year but Aoki surpassed him by the end). He set a new NPB record with 61 multi-hit games, breaking the mark set by Shigenobu Shima of 60 a year earlier. For his work, Norichika won the Rookie of the Year award in the Central League and made the Best Nine. While it may be questionable if a free swinger can maintain high averages for a long time, Aoki’s collegiate and minor league careers seemed to indicate it was certainly feasible in his case.

Danny Darwin

Danny Darwin is the brother of Jeff Darwin. Darwin played long enough to have teamed with both Sandy Alomar Sr. and Roberto Alomar, and to also have played with both Bobby Bonds and Barry Bonds.

With the Tulsa Oilers in 1977, he went 13-4 with a 2.51 ERA, leading the Texas League with 4 shutouts.

He showed quite an improvement after the All-Star break in 1988. Before the break, he went 3-8 with a 4.69 ERA. After the break, he went 5-5 with a 2.68 ERA while pitching for the Houston Astros.

Mike Fiers

Mike Fiers was selected by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 22nd round of the 2009 amateur draft. He was signed by scout Charlie Sullivan and made his pro debut that summer.

Fiers reached the majors as a September call-up in 2011, making his debut for the Brewers on September 14th. Facing the Colorado Rockies that game, he allowed 2 hits and struck out 2 over a scoreless inning of relief work. he only pitched twice for the Brewers, giving up no runs in his two innings of work.

All 99 Players

You can see all 99 players who played with both Milwaukee and Houston on Baseball Reference. Good luck with your grid!

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