Beat the Streak Report: Thursday, April 8
Thursday’s recommended picks
Johnny Damon, OF, Tigers
.750 AVG (6-for-8) lifetime vs. Royals starter Brian Bannister
Brian Roberts, 2B, Orioles
.444 AVG (8-for-18) lifetime vs. Rays starter Jeff Niemann
Brandon Phillips, 2B, Reds
.417 AVG (5-for-12) lifetime vs. Cardinals starter Brad Penny
BTS all-time leader: Michael Karatzia, 49
MLB all-time leader: Joe DiMaggio, 56
Yesterday’s results
There were a few more 0-for’s in yesterday’s group of most selected hitters, but BTS users still made winning picks for the most part.
Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera, the day’s most popular pick, didn’t do his usual damage against Royals starter Luke Hochevar, but he came to life with a game-tying homer off closer Joakim Soria in the ninth inning to keep many budding streaks alive.
Mark Teixeira was the biggest streak killer of the day, as his 0-for-3 effort thwarted several thousand fans who went with the slugging first baseman.
With four days of the season in the books, the drive for five is under way as the pack at the top of the leaderboard slowly but surely thins out.
Yesterday’s Top 5 most selected players
1. Miguel Cabrera (DET): 15.5%, 2-for-5
2. Chase Utley (PHI): 8.4%, 2-for-4
3. Albert Pujols (STL): 6.7%, 1-for-4
4. Joe Mauer (MIN): 5.9%, 1-for-3
5. Mark Teixeira (NYY): 3.8%, 0-for-3
Beat the Streak Report 
miggy gave us all a scare yesterday waiting until the 9th to get that 1st hit. taking mauer today as he has dominated santana in the past.
dragbunt’s tip of the day:
Check the weather forecast for games at:
http://www.weather.com
Choose Sports from the options bar near the top.
Cubs – Derek Lee in a hitting funk – stay away for now but watch for him when he goes on a tear.
pperkins are the Levi Ghetto Cats looking for new members?
Good luck to all today,
dragbunt
well i looked at the first ten pages on the leader board, and of course there are many more pages of people who had 4 game streaks, but to get an idea of what people are picking i counted 50 for ichiro, 38 for mauer, and 31 for pujols. wonder what it would be like if i went through ALL the pages of people with 4. LOL have a great day watching games
Schenk. Mauer is not facing santana today, its Joel Piniero who pitched last year with St Louis
I went through all the pages of the leaderboard (100) and they are all 4 game streaks. With 25 names per page, that’s at least 2500 people with streaks of 4!
I wonder how many people are playing this contest.
well, i was one that thought Pujlos would do it. i changed pick three times over nite. so IM back to zero
i knew who he was facing just put down the wrong name. but let me correct that, he has dominated pineiro in his career
Thank God, picked Matt Kemp today, came through with aa double in the 7th. 5 gm hit streak lets keep it rollin.
Not sure why so many people have Pujols today.
I remember a lot of 7 IP, 2 H allowed games from Arroyo last year and look at Arroyo’s line so far today.
I went with Ryan Zimmerman instead.
Similar “owning” of the opposing pitcher, but the last time Kendrick started regularly, he gave up lots of hits and Kendrick was being primed as a reliever towards the end of spring training.
champion_88
i think the reason people took pujols today is because hes a great hitter and can hit any pitcher in the majors. also arroyo had alot of bad games last year to go along with those good games. im happy i stayed away from him today. unless this game goes to extras pujols probably wont get up again just got walked by arroyo
“I wonder how many people are playing this contest.”
You can get a good estimate using the text of the entry today.
“Mark Teixeira was the biggest streak killer of the day, as his 0-for-3 effort thwarted several thousand fans who went with the slugging first baseman.”
If you check the results tab for 4-7-10, you see that 3.8% of all users who made a pick yesterday, used Teixeira.
Now, I have always been taught that “several” means five or more, so to get a low-end number, let us assume, “several thousand” means five thousand players.
You can then set up a simple proportion of 5,000 / 3.8% = X / 100%
so, 5,000 * 100 = 3.8% * X,
and X = 500,000 / 3.8 = 131,579 people
So, a good estimate would say that around 131,579 people made a pick yesterday.
yeah, but Pujols is the new Barry Bonds lite for this generation, in that you take a risk that he loses AB’s, just by getting walked.
that problem has been somewhat solved now, with Matt Holliday as protection, but still.
and Pujols is not a true average hitter like Mauer, Ichiro, Jeter, etc. are.
Stay away from the sluggers guys, the only way you can win with them is if you’re lucky enough to catch them right as they go on a hot streak and only then would I ride him for a few days but with all the walks these sluggers get, I wouldn’t touch them. The only one I would go for is A-Rod and only then sporadically.
2-1 final…Pujols: 0 for 3, 1 walk
your right with pujols being the new bonds. that why i stay away from him. i think your better off sticking with guys that are just looking to get on base. you need to stay away from guys that are going to get walked alot or strike out alot. polanco is a great example of someone who doeanst get walked but also doesnt strike out much eventhough he sees plenty of 2 strike counts. he knows how to change his approach based on the situation and count. others like him are ichiro, ryan theriot (not sure if i spelled that right) and joe mauer
Mark Texeira is know to start off the season slowly.
I’m staying away from picking him until May.
Have we lost two “go to” type leadoff guys this season?
Shane Victorino and Jacoby Elsbury are now batting sometimes in the 6th spot.
Advise on stay away from sluggers in solid. If you want, play HR survivior and play Pujols, Fielder etc. Taking them in Beat the Streak is the equilavent of dating a super model.
As you are driving her around in her Maserati it’s fun until you hit that brick wall at 150mph and it’s over. Just like your streak is over when Pujols walks twice, strikes out twice and hits a sac fly. Game, Set and Match your streak hits the wall.
wtf!!! horrable day. anybody that survive this day tip my hat to ya. ICHIRO WHY U ALWAYS DO THIS TO ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Interesting to see which players are recommended to pick.
I see that Brian Roberts is recommended.
He is 0-10 right now.
So that means that the picks are based on last year’s stats and doesn’t take in other factors such as the fact that some players are playing with some injuries such as Roberts who has been having back issues.
Brian Roberts is a “take at your own risk” player.
Besides playing hurt (thanks for the info).
He is an old school lead off man. Walks, gets hit by a pitchs, sacrifices etc. He would consider this a good day:
2 walks, a HBP, sac bunt, scores three runs and lines out to short. – Orioles win 4 – 2.
What happend to your streak in this scenario? He was 0 – 1 and you lost your streak. He is not afraid to not swing the bat to help his team. Beware.
The picks of the day are less than relilable. Notice that they are not “Kings at the Plate” this season. Burger King appears to be gone as a sponsor and looks like MLB is taking on the premium of the insurance policy in case anyone wins the whole enchalata.
You’re right about Roberts. It’s interesting to see which players actually get the hits. Guess that’s why some people stay away from the Home Run hitter as they are so streaky and aim for home runs not measly hits. 🙂
I live in Baltimore and was just listening to the pregame show where they were discussing Roberts and his spring training back problems and slow start. So I was suprised to see that he was one of the top picks.
I’m sure MlB can handle paying out the top prize if anyone does win. They’ve also got so many people logging in to play this game that I’m sure they get some advertising money too.
WOW both Ichiro and Pujols ended alot of streaks today!
how crazy is this year going to be if its starting out like this already
im getting nervous about how mauer will perform today. 3 of the top 4 most picked guys went hitless with mauer’s at bats pending. hopefully he will come through unlike the other guys
there you go mauer. get the hit out of the way and continue my streak now just lose the game
I went with Pujols but you live and learn and season just started so a LOOOOOOONG way to go right now and I’m hoping I hit a hot patch and get like 2 or 3 hits a day. We will see what happens and I have Lee tomorrow and I know he’s hitless but maybe he needs a time like Cincy to get going.
Also I forgot to say that Ichiro had a 23 game hitting streak going against Oakland and that ended today. I wouldn’t of have went with him today based on that hitting streak as everything has to end eventually.