Beat the Streak Report: Tuesday, Oct. 6
Today’s recommended picks
Magglio Ordonez, OF, Tigers
.462 AVG (18-for-39) lifetime vs. Twins starter Scott Baker
Carlos Guillen, OF, Tigers
.407 AVG (11-for-27) lifetime vs. Twins starter Scott Baker
Jason Kubel, OF, Twins
.727 AVG (8-for-11) lifetime vs. Tigers starter Rick Porcello
BTS all-time leader: Michael Karatzia, 49
MLB all-time leader: Joe DiMaggio, 56
Today’s preview
On the eve of the playoffs, the Tigers and Twins are set to battle for the AL Central title, and BTS fans will look to close out the season on a winning note.
Given that only two teams are playing today, there clearly isn’t a large slate of players to choose from. However, there are a few who’ve enjoyed success against the scheduled starting pitchers, along with the usual hard-hitting suspects such as Joe Mauer and Miguel Cabrera.
stongematt79 stands as the current leader at 21 games, with emld75 one game behind. mike6437 and shane.99 both have the chance to finish the season at 20 games — and even take over the top spot should the other leaders fall — if their final pick comes through with a hit.
Beat the Streak Report 
Switching to Ordonez – Thanks hammanm
champion_88 – Your analysis of your year—–
As hammanm mentioned before, batting average is not a meaningful stat for us. All we want is a hit. I’ll take a 57 game streak when my pick goes 1 – 4 or 1-5 each day! đŸ™‚
This is where we learn things—-Albert Pujols and Joe Mauer “bunch” their hits – 2 for 3, 3 for 4 etc. Then the next day they take an o-fer – 2 with 2 walks. That is why it is dangerous to take them when you have a decent streak on the line.
dragbunt
Miguel Cabrera was out partying allegedly out partying Sat night 10/3 with his White Sox Friends. This is the night before he is playing in final game of season with Tigers and Twins tied for 1st place. His wife called police with a domestic disturbance complaint at 6am on Sunday 10/4. 7 hours for game time. Who does he think he is? BABE RUTH.
His blood alcohol level is 3 times the legal limit!
Cabrera goes 0 – 3 but Tigers win Sunday 10/4 game!
I post this to let all know that he is now offically named “The Black Cat 2” in my mind. Has common sense completely “left his cabeza?”
Wonder if he came home with a glitter all over his clothes?
Imagine you had a nice streak going and lost it on him – devestating!
dragbunt
I find it baffling that the King put out 2 separate entries for one day’s worth of games (appreciate it though,) but then missed days at a time during the year, without even adding in the appropriate entries when he got back.
I say batting average as a goal to improve on, because any batting average could theroetically a safe average to win the streak with. Alfonso Soriano went 1 for 5 a bunch of times early, meaning a .200 batting average could be profitable, but it is so vulnerable, because you could be screwed if you do not even get that 5th AB.
If you average .333, you are safe if your pick gets walked or hit, because you will still get your 3 AB. Not a lot you can do when your pick goes 0 for 2, as I doubt anyone could average .500 over a whole season.
Besides batting average helps measure how good you are overall. A .259 average is sort of lousy, but a .330 hitter’s cold streak might not be that much worse than my average performances.
I went with Kubel for today, just because the Twins lineups is hotter than the Tigers.
Ordonez is the only Tigers’ hitter doing well and the Twins may just pitch around him leading to a classic 0 for 2, 2 walks line.
I will have full details in a few minutes for the year but I had a plus 300 average in BTS and over 200 hits but yet I had only an 11 game hit streak for my high.
Wed 10/7…….
Why is MLB having the Tigers/Twins winner going to NYY to play a game on Wed.? The odds of beating the NYY are not good, now add CC Sabathia and no off day for travel and getting pitchers a bit of rest etc. Totally unfair.
The RSOX should play the LAA on Wed and NYY v. Tigers/Twins should be Thursday.
Someone help me here? All I can think of is that TV moguls want to make absolutely sure that NYY advances so audiences are huge and revenues will then be high on commercial time.
dragbunt
champion_88 – I did my batting average for the year and was very suprised that I came out with a .297 average.
The batting average does give a nice perspective to how you are actually doing. I had 207 hits with 695 at bats.
Great game going on between Twins – Tigers.
Announcers just mentioned that the Twins have not won a game in NYY since July 2007 I believe. That is a great stat – is there a web site out there that gives this kind of info.?
Ordonez homers just now 4 – 4. NYY must be loving this and hoping that this games goes about 18 innings!
dragbunt
My results for the year are:
Total games played – 144 (started playing on 5/8)
Games w/hit – 120
Success % – .833
Total hits – 188
BA – .357
Only picked the same player on consecutive days 5 times.
I’m going with Jeter tonight.
We have reached the end of another season of baseball and what a year its been. The Burger King ‘Beat the Streak’ has been a lot of fun for me and my family.
But like any contest, there can be improvements to make it more enjoyable. Here are two suggestions for next year’s contest:
1. “Institute Flexible Player Pick Times”
What I mean by this is that instead of having one time deadline for all games, player pick times should be based on the start of the game for the player selected.
For example. If I am interested in a west coast game that starts at 10:00pm est, why do I have to be restricted to the earliest game start for the day, which could be at 1:00pm? By offering flexibility for the game selected, members don’t have to rush to get their picks in early. The rule should be changed to 15 minutes or 30 minutes before the start of any game for which you select a player.
2. “Offer a Default player Selection”
Do to busy personal schedules, it’s sometimes difficult to log in before the deadline to select a player. Why not offer a “Default Player” option the system selects based on your choice. This option can be changed at any time by the member. For example, I might want to choose Ichiro Suzuki from the Mariners as my default player selection. That way if I am unable to get logged on in time, the system selects my default player for the day.
Wed. 10/7
Going with Derek Jeter and NYY in Survivor BTS.
carl_spurchise – 2 solid suggestions – The default pick would be easy to do too. This would increase the chances of someone actually winning.
Weather in NY looks windy – I checked forecast and it shows wind blowing from the west meaning a 23 mph wind blowing from behind home plate toward CF. Pitchers better keep the ball low and get ground balls. Anything hit in the air could be a HR.
I guess this is the only place to leave comments as the post season screens do not have a blog option.
dragbunt
The reason why the Twins are playing on Wed is because the Yanks were the best team in baseball and they had the option to pick when they wanted to start their series and they chose Wed. since they will get off on Thursday and have the longer series are far as days go.
Thursday 10/8………..
Some interesting match-ups!
Looking at:
Victor Martinez v. Lackey
Tulowitzi v. Hammels
Furcal is hot v. Tough Wainwright
Ryan Howard is hot v. Cook
Your thoughts?
dragbunt
I’m going with Furcal for Thursday night.
10/8 Thursday
Going with Ryan Howard v. Cook – Cook does give up his share of hits.
Albert Pujols was the number one player picked yesterday and he had an o-fer. Joe Torre will not pitch to him in any critical situatuion. Torre had Pujols walked in the first inning when he came to bat with a man on second base.
Dangerous to pick Pujols.
The Dodgers v. Cards matchup is pretty even.
Larussa v. Torre is another classic matchup of HOF caliber managers.
Joe Torre wasn’t born yesterday!
Cards v. LAD
Thurs 10/8 3rd inning with a man on 2nd and 2 outs for Cards. Torre has Pujols intentionally walked to pitch to Holliday who had homered in his first at bat. Holliday grounded out to end the inning. Torre did’nt win 81 post season games by accident!
dragbunt
Friday 10/9
Going with Jeter and NYY in Survivor BTS.
Saturday 10/10 –
Snow in Colorado!
High temp 37 degrees makes it a day to look hard at the LAD v. STL game.
dragbunt
Just to update for my yearly stats, I went 1 for 4 in the 1-game playoff between the Tigers and Twins, bringing my 2009 regular season total to 177/683, which works out to a .259 batting average.
In the Divisional Series, I went 9 for 24 over the 6 games, good for a .375 batting average over that limited sample. Combined with the regular season data, my overall 2009 line has changed to 186/707, which works out to a .263 batting average.
There are 10-18 more picking days left in the postseason, depending on the length of the LCS and World Series. We lost 2 picking days due to the early ends of the Divisional Series.
Assuming 4 AB’s per day, I would pick up between 40-82 more AB’s before the end of the season, which means I will probably finish between 750-790 AB. In order to bat .270 overall, I will need to finish the season with:
1) 747 AB: 16/38, .421 batting average over that span
2) 789 AB: 27/82, .329 batting average over that span.
Where is everyone else on this commenting thread? And where are the updated posts? Is the KING sleeping for the winter already?
Also, I forgot to include stats on what I need to do to finish with a 200-hit season:
1) 747 AB: 14/38, .368 batting average
2) 789 AB: 14/81, .173 batting average
Let each series go the full 7 games please!!!
To MLB Fantasy Staff:
I would like to ask you to post the # of total hits that the winner collects during the streak, once the contest ends?
I made a stupid mistake today and assumed Hiroki Kuroda was a lefty, which kept me away from picking Ryan Howard and instead picked Rafael Furcal, which snapped my 9-game streak.
Since there are over 200 people at 10 games right now, I assume you will need to win out to have a chance at winning, which means I am done for the year. However, I would like to know if this stupid move is what cost me from winning or if I would have lost anyway.
I will diligently keep picking away, so I will know how many total hits I should have had, but I need you to post how many the winner has, so I know how angry to get at myself over the long winter.
Thanks a lot!
Hope some of the regulars here are still alive!
champion_88
Hammanm, vinny and myself have been exchanging info via email. If you want to be added to our email tree, post your email address for me. You are more than welcome to join us.
dragbunt104
Yeah Champion88. Join us and we can exchange info. I’m at a 10 game streak right now and have Howard tonight. I know that the Dodgers are going to win it tonight because they won’t go down without a fight.
MLB – Please be fair with your contest:
“World Series Tickets for Life” Contest
There is no way in the world anyone could predict the final score, hits by each team and number of errors in each world series game to win tickets for world series’ for life.
Again, the one prize of two tickets to a Opening Day 2010 game valued at ($150) for the Free Agent contest is weak.
A billion dollar organization like MLB offers this prize, with 4 pages go rules and disclaimers. You should be embarrased.
Ebenizer Scrouge looks like a philanthropist compared to MLB.
Please do better,
dragbunt104
When is the season starting? The Leafs are killing me right now, I need to watch some baseball and win my 1,500,000 on beat the streak! GO JAYS!
The season starts April 4th, provided that there are no early season games in Japan or China?
I am a little concerned that the prize may have gone down this season or even held steady.
Pretty much every season the prize has increased, but now on the fantasy page, it only shows the prize as $1 million, which is where it started last year?
Why has it not increased to, at least, $2 million to start with for 2010?
Thanks for the update.
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