If Meryl Streep played baseball: starting pitcher, rated 85

Meryl Streep as a baseball player: scouting report

Meryl Streep pitches, and the reason is disguise. She has more Academy Award nominations than any other performer and is famous for vanishing into accents, from the Danish lilt of Out of Africa to the Polish English of Sophie's Choice. A starting pitcher wins the same way: the same arm slot, the same expression, and a completely different pitch coming out of it. Her pitching is strong and built on deception rather than velocity.

Her eye is the best part of her card, and it sits near the top of the whole pool. She trained at the Yale School of Drama and is known for preparing in meticulous detail, and on the mound that becomes a pitcher who studies every hitter, spots the hole in a swing and attacks it. Contact is her other strength, so she is a pitcher who can genuinely hit. The arm is solid and the fielding is good, which helps her hold runners and field bunts. She won Oscars for Kramer vs. Kramer, Sophie's Choice and The Iron Lady across more than three decades, and that kind of longevity is what a rotation anchor delivers.

Power is the honest weakness, which a starter can easily live with. If you would rather use her bat every day, second base is her next best spot with a modest drop, and she can also catch, where that eye would call a sharp game for somebody else. Pair her with a catcher who frames well and a defense that turns weak contact into outs. Take her as a middle rotation arm with an ace's brain.

Plays like A crafty starter with a different look for every hitter

Put Meryl Streep in your lineup

12 rolls, nine hitters and a rotation, 162 games. Can you win 117? Free, no account.