How to win Exact Change

Exact Change gives you a career-stat category and a target, say 1,756 career hits. You add real players one at a time, and each adds their real career total. Hit the number exactly and you win. Go over by even one and you bust.

It’s a game about making change, like at a cash register. You hand over the big bills first, then count out the coins. Here’s how to do that well.

Start with one big, known number

Your first player should get you most of the way there, and you should know their total cold. A famous career you’re sure of is worth more than a slightly better fit you’re guessing at, because every later step depends on knowing exactly how much is left.

That means it pays to know a few career totals by heart. These are retired players, so their numbers will never change:

Active players are risky anchors. Their totals change every week of the season, and the game uses the latest numbers it has, not the ones you remember from last year.

Leave a remainder you can make

The anchor isn’t about getting as close as possible. It’s about leaving a gap you know how to fill. If the target is 1,756 hits and you’re torn between a player with about 1,700 and one with about 1,450, the second is often the better pick. A gap of around 300 hits can be filled by plenty of part-time players and journeymen. A gap of 56 needs someone whose exact total you know, and those are harder to find than you’d think.

Here’s one real way to make 1,756 hits: Deron Johnson (1,447) + Ed Greer (183) + Bob Black (36) + Daniel Ortmeier (65) + Roger Kieschnick (25). One solid career, then coins.

The coins: players with tiny totals

The secret of Exact Change is that baseball history is full of players with very small career numbers. In the game’s baseball data, 795 players have exactly one career home run. Another 535 have exactly two, and 412 have exactly three.

Most of them are pitchers who got lucky at the plate, or hitters who got a cup of coffee. You don’t need to know many, just a couple for each common category. Then, when you’re a few short, you can close it out without risking a bust.

Count before you commit

Before every add, do the subtraction: what’s left, and what will be left after this player? If the answer is a number you can’t fill, pick someone else. And when you’re not sure of a total, round your guess up before you decide. Ending up 10 short is a problem you can still fix. Ending up 10 over is a bust.

Fewer players ranks higher

Any exact landing is a win, but the leaderboard ranks exact landings by who used the fewest players. The top scores come from a big anchor plus one player whose total is exactly the gap.

Don’t chase that at the cost of the win, though. A five-player exact landing beats a two-player bust every time. Even a bust still scores by how far over you went, so if you do go over, go over by a little.

Know which stats were tracked

Some stats weren’t recorded for a player’s whole career in the game’s data, like baseball saves before 1939 or basketball steals before 1982. The game won’t offer a player for a category where their total would only be partial. So if a 1920s star isn’t showing up for strikeouts, that’s why. Pick someone whose whole career was counted.

A simple routine

1. Read the target and pick an anchor you’re sure of that leaves a gap you can fill.
2. Fill the middle of the gap with one or two players you know roughly, guessing their totals high.
3. Close it out with small, sure numbers.
4. Never add a player you aren’t sure of when the gap is smaller than their possible total.