Beat the Streak Report: Thursday, May 20
I think my least-favorite scenario when it comes to Beat the Streak is when I submit my seemingly fool-proof pick, forget about baseball for a few hours, totally miss out on news that the player who I picked was a late-scratch due to some injury that on the surface looks questionable at best, only to then look at the next morning’s box score and find out that said player heroically scrounged up the strength to pinch-hit for one courageous at-bat, strike out swinging to a pitcher who hasn’t topped 93 on a fastball since forever to simultaneously press reset on my mythological streak button.
Thanks, Manny.
Time for Thursday’s picks.
Oh, hello there …
? Robinson cano: .462 AVG (12-for-26) lifetime vs. Rays starter James Shields
? Jason Bartlett: .389 AVG (7-for-18) lifetime vs. Yankees starter Andy Pettitte
? Ryan Braun: .375 AVG (9-for-24) lifetime vs. Pirates starter Paul Maholm
? Dustin Pedroia: .750 AVG (6-for-8) lifetime vs. Twins starter Francisco Liriano
? Chase Utley: .667 AVG (6-for-9) lifetime vs. Cubs starter Ryan Dempster
Feeling kinda spicy?
? Geoff Blum: .400 AVG (6-for-15) lifetime vs. Rockies starter Ubaldo Jimenez. Yeah, I feel totally confident taking a lifetime .251 utility player vs. the unstoppable force that is Ubaldo.
You’ll thank me later …
? Prince Fielder: .081 AVG (3-for-37) lifetime vs. Pirates starter Paul Maholm
? Adrian Gonzalez: .105 AVG (2-for-19) lifetime vs. Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw
? Hanley Ramirez: .125 AVG (2-for-16) lifetime vs. Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright
? Mark Teixeira: .158 AVG (3-for-19) lifetime vs. Rays starter James Shields
Leaderboard time!
Carlos Gonzalez’s 0-for-5 spot vs. the Astros yesterday sucked all the wind out of “lukehartzeim”‘s 27-game streak, leaving “blakerockwell” all alone atop the leaderboard with a 28-game run thanks to Joe Mauer’s 1-for-4.
“blakerockwell” is officially 49.1 percent on his way to that gold-plated pony.
Top MLB streakers
? Russell Martin: 14 games
? John Buck: 10 games
? Jeff Mathis: 10 games (DL)
? Jhonny Peralta: 9 games
? J.J. Hardy: 8 games (DL)
? Prince Fielder: 8 games
Beat the Streak Report 
Morning all, as much as I talked up Ryan Braun last night, I think I am going with Pods in the early game ( still got half hour to decide). He hits .306 v righty, ( but has never faced Talbot) .318 on the road and .390 in day games. Good luck to all.
I’m so demoralized. I took Manny Ramirez on BTS because of his 15 for 30 success of Garland in the past. I find the shock of Ramirez not starting and was disappointed but I felt at least my 9 game streak will stay intact. It could have been worse if I had taken Shin-Soo Choo who went 0 for 2 with 2 walks and a HBP. Then I wake up to a BIG O next to “your current streak” and find out that Ramirez was pinch hit in the 5th inning, struckout and was then removed form the game. That was just enough to ruin my streak and I’m very deflated. I can’t imagine what the person who lost a streak of 20 on Ramirez must be feeling. Ah I can’t stand Joe Torre! If I lost a streak I’d rather lose because of an 0 for 4 instead of a sneaky pinch hit performance. If Ramirez is hurt why use him at all? I also lost my streak on streak for the cash which is on espn.com because I took the Dodgers and did not know about Ramirez not starting and the major bat lost in the line up.
took austin kearns today to get my streak back up to 2. he has quietly been hitting the ball well for a struggling indians team
I thought Ryan Braun would at least get 15% of bts picks today…yet he doesn’t and Pujols gets more picks. I’d have to say Pujols is in the running for the streak breaker of the year award. We’ll see what he does today. Made a last second switch from Braun to Butler to ride the momentum of the Royals win last night when he had a clutch rbi double in the 9th and it paid off.
I had the same pinch hit scenario with Utley last week. That stopped my streak of 6, which I’ve topped out at 3 times. Going with Tejada and Uribe today to get to a streak of 2 in BTS and HRBTS respectively.
Werth out today against cubs. damn Utley just hit a bomb.
Thank goodness I picked Utley today, I was going to go with werth and he isn’t playing and Utley just hit a homerun so that gets me back to 2, haha. Gotta start someone though right. I joined the bloggers group so we’ll see how I do now. The longest so far this season streak wise for me is 10. Hoping to build on that streak now. GL to all today.
Thank goodness I picked Utley today, I was going to go with werth and he isn’t playing and Utley just hit a homerun so that gets me back to 2, haha. Gotta start someone though right. I joined the bloggers group so we’ll see how I do now. The longest so far this season streak wise for me is 10. Hoping to build on that streak now. GL to all today.
Uh, oh. Werth is pinch hitting. Good luck to those who picked him.
wow 10% taking Pujols. I guess they dont read the blog, o by the way hes 0-1 with surprise surprise a WALK!!! I got mccutchen tonight to get me to a 15streak, gl all
Darn! I was hoping AP goes 1-for-0 with 2 walks and HBP. Nate Robertson sucks moose hole. Let’s hope for all star performance from Paul tonight.
Braves win!
Braves Reds best game of the year. Braves rally from down 9-3 in the ninth to win with a brooks conrad walk off grand slam wooooooooo go braves, and go mccutchen tonight.
Ichiro gets a hit on a pop up to third baseman on his last at bat. Interesting. Sometimes its all luck. All luck, I tell you. Maybe Ichiro’s speed does make luck happen little more often but wow that was close. It was a very had idea going against triple dead zone of Ichiro for this year: LHP and day game at home. I remember last year where he was going hitless in all day games at the least until the last month. I wonder what changed.
well there you go, Ryan Braun goes hitless wiping out a nice chunk of the leaderboard, as well as jason werths 0-1. the cutchinator extends me to 15 games with a relaxing first inning single, see yall at the finish line. way to get off the snide mr. feldman lets see if you can get to a 2 game streak now.
Big Vlad extended my streak to 6, and what a nice way to do it, with a homerun.
Friday I will be looking for the hot bat of Helton.
I’m going with Ichiro on Friday. He is 2 for 2 against LeBlanc but the problem is he isn’t hitting lefties. Will do some research to see how he hits at night and what not.
Morning guys, anyone else notice that Evan Longoria is a “Pick of the Day” because of his .373 BA at HOME. This is a nice little nugget of info to file away, but unless I missed something, the Rays are on the ROAD today in Houston…Conspiracy? LOL
He’ll probably go 3-4 anyway because Brett Myers is usually batting practice these days, but still…The info provided should be relevant to THAT DAY’S game.
LOL Leeungaretta. I didn’t even notice they were playing in Houston. I’m going with AL hitters during this weekends inter league play. Players from NYY, TB, MIN and TEX are on my radar. Good Luck!
I got back to 1 on beat the streak with Utley but lost on survivor with the Giants. Lincecum gave up 5 Earned Runs and they lost 8-7. I stopped playing HR beat the streak because my highest streak in that game is 1 which occurred seven times and all 7 times it returned to 0 the next day. That included a day I picked A-Rod and it turns out you can lose your streak in that game even if the player you picked never made an out. A Rod went 1 for 1 with a single and 3 walks and that game perhaps counts singles, doubles and triples like outs and I quit after losing my 7th 1 game streak. That game is junkshoot if there ever is one as It’s impossible to predict home runs. The others have real chances at streaks.