Making arbitrary predictions about former Atlanta Braves players: Do or die

For baseball fans, the daily trivia game “Immaculate Grid” has been an entertaining and thrilling challenge. We wanted to produce a comparable Atlanta Braves-related project. Introducing the newest series from House That Hank Built: guessing random former Atlanta Braves players! Take advantage of the chance to play our guessing game every morning at 3:00 PM EST. Not caught yesterday’s? Play this now.

See if you can guess the player from a random Atlanta Braves jersey after we give you five hints! Cheat not and enjoy yourself! Let’s get started!

First Career Hint: This player played in the Major League Baseball for a total of 14 seasons. He appeared for the following teams during this time: The Atlanta Braves, Chicago White Sox, Oakland A’s, and Kansas City Royals

Hint #2 (Jersey Numbers): This player wore 24, 26, and 23 as his jersey numbers during his 14 seasons in the major leagues. With the Braves, he wore a 24.

Do you believe you already know it? If so, go to the final slide to verify your response. If not, you can find more hints on the next page.

Today, two years ago, the Atlanta Braves won their second World Series title in franchise history and their first since 1995. We thought it would be a great idea to reflect on what made this accomplishment even more special as we mark the anniversary of this magical season.

The World Series’ sixth game got off to an absolutely explosive start. In the third inning, Jorge Soler gave the Braves an early 3-0 lead over Houston by sending a 3-2 pitch into orbit. Rumour has it that the ball hasn’t landed yet.

In the fifth, Dansby Swanson drove in two runs and Freddie Freeman doubled in one run to give the Braves three more runs. In the seventh, Freeman would hit a solo home run.

Let’s examine three lessons from the 2021 Atlanta Braves’ exciting and rewarding season.

Three finalists for four awards—three each for the American and National leagues—were announced by MLB last night. The 2023 Atlanta Braves regular season was outstanding, and as a result, they were nominated for two awards.

While we thought the other one might be possible, we saw one of these as a lock, so it’s good to see it receive the same level of national respect as the Braves. So without further ado, let’s analyse each nomination.

Ronald will compete against Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts, two Los Angeles Dodgers, for the NL MVP award. Sadly, this indicates that Matt Olson of the Braves, at first base, narrowly missed being selected as a finalist. Olson finished first in MLB in 2023 with a 160 wRC+, home runs, and RBI. Based on Fangraphs, the three finalists tied for first place with 8.3 fWAR each, while Freeman came in third place with 7.9 fWAR. These three individuals were the top three finishers in total fWAR. Despite the strong arguments made by each player, many believe Ronald is the clear favourite to win his first MVP award. Betts and Freeman won the award in 2018 and 2020, respectively, while playing for the Boston Red Sox and the Braves.

Atlanta Braves supporters had high hopes for Ronald Acuña Jr. to revert to his MVP form from 2021 before his season-ending knee injury in 2023. Even though it was evident that Acuña Jr. wasn’t completely well in 2022, he persevered throughout the season.

The best Ronald we have seen so far this year was this one. His three consecutive NL player of the month awards demonstrate just how consistent he was throughout the entire season. He was the best player in baseball from the first game on. That just goes to show how ridiculously skilled he is—he cut his strikeout rate in half without losing any of the speed or power with which he plays the game.