Beat the Streak Report: Wednesday, June 9
One day after getting taken to the slaughterhouse by Ichiro Suzuki’s 0-fer, 20 percent of our streakers regrouped and put all their eggs in the Robinson Cano basket; a fantastic basket to be in.
On cue, Cano delivered in spades, going 3-for-4 off Kevin Millwod and the Orioles, just as predicted right here yesterday.
Unfortunately, not everyone was so sagacious, as a combined 13.8 percent of streakers did not pass Go or collect $200, thanks to hit-free performances from Ryan Braun, Ichiro and Miguel Cabrera — the day’s second, third and fifth most popular choices, respectively.
Now, at this point, I’d like to address the bevy of e-mails that have rampaged through my inbox:
No, you cannot select Stephen Strasburg in Beat the Streak.
In other streak news, “brentandcam” upped their Survivor run to 21 games after correctly picking the Rays, who downed the Blue Jays 9-0 behind Jeff Niemann’s complete-game shutout.
16 more correct selections and “brentandcam” will be $10,000 richer and will be joyriding all the way to the the 2011 All-Star Game in Phoenix, Ariz.
I’m just so happy for him/her/them.
Time for Wednesday’s picks
Oh, hello there …
? Billy Butler: .435 AVG (10-for-23) lifetime vs. Twins starter Carl Pavano
? Russell Martin: .438 AVG (7-for-14) lifetime vs. Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright
? Jose Lopez: .538 AVG (7-for-13) lifetime vs. Rangers starter C.J. Wilson
? Matt Holliday: .500 AVG (7-for-14) lifetime vs. Dodgers starter Hiroki Kuroda
? Erick Aybar: .381 AVG (8-for-21) lifetime vs. Athletics starter Dallas Braden
? Jason Kubel: .412 AVG (7-for-17) lifetime vs. Royals starter Kyle Davies
Feeling kinda spicy?
? Yuniesky Betancourt: .385 AVG (5-for-13) lifetime vs. Twins starter Carl Pavano. Ya know, I’ll give Betancourt the Feldmania stamp of approval on this one. He’s batting .285 on the year and has hit safely in six of his last seven games. Ahthankyou.
You’ll thank me later …
? Justin Morneau: .063 AVG (1-for-16) lifetime vs. Royals starter Kyle Davies
? Kurt Suzuki: .083 AVG (2-for-24) lifetime vs. Angels starter Joe Saunders
? Jorge Cantu: .150 AVG (3-for-20) lifetime vs. Phillies starter Roy Halladay
? Carl Crawford: .167 AVG (2-for-12) lifetime vs. Blue Jays starter Shaun Marcum
Leaderboard time!
Dustin Pedroia’s 0-fer put the kibosh on “SLaGFYmanny”‘s 26-game game streak, which means our leaderboard is down to three:
BsblGeenus
dyno11mike
ecurryjmp2
Best of luck. May your Wednesday be chalk full of Justin Masterson implosions, John Lannan hit fiestas and Kenshin Kawakami breakdowns.
Top MLB streakers
? Elvis Andrus: 13 games
? Martin Prado: 12 games
? Jeff Francoeur: 11 games
? Brandon Phillips: 11 games
? Jeff Mathis: 10 games (DL)
? Jeff Keppinger: 10 games
Beat the Streak Report 
So is today the day Ichi will get a rest?? After two straight 0-fers and facing another hard throwing lefty (CJ Wilson.) I would think he might sit today. BUT that’s just me speculating, havnt seen or heard anything that says he will or will not play. GL to all tonight. Of course my one day that I would be able to sit and watch an afternoon game there aren’t any, oh well.
M
ATTENTION–70 percent chance of rain tonite in the Dallas Fort Worth area
Anyone live close to Baltimore & know if tonight’s game will be played or not?
Side note & random thoughts. Been reading a bit about strategies: Like which pitchers to avoid, avoiding anyone is a recipe for failure, gotta go with a so-so hitter every now & again, and so on.
My take: That’s all fantasy. On any given day (barring a lot of 1-2-3 hitters), I’d expect to see 50% of the overall top 6 averages per team with hits. If that’s a fairly true statement, then one just has to be lucky enough to call heads vs. tails correctly and avoid the random “gimme” that goes 0-fer. And currently having 36 players above 300, why risk your pick unnecessarily on a 250-280 hitter?
For example, of those 36, 33 played yesterday, 12 did not get hits & one was due to pinch hitting. So 21 did get at least 1 hit. And yesterday was an exception IMO, higher than normal 0-fers from some really good/consistent hitters.
Just some random thoughts. Make your best feel/guess & hope lady luck favors you with her smile.
^^ Obviously we all have our own theories. I personally buy the idea to avoid top-notch pitchers; don’t pay too much attention to previous 5-year stats but current year stats only; avoid other added risk factors: avoid players that went 0-fer day before, avoid rain-forecasted outdoor games, and some other tidbits. To each their own. If there was a magic formula we’d be player for some sort of certificate vs. hard cash.
lol, are there 2 lavolpe’s here?
Several good choices in the matchup against Pavano. I settled on David DeJesus.
If the wind continues to blow out there, this game is also a good consideration for HRBTS (Guillen, Butler, Callaspo; Cuddyer, Kubel).
Cano v. Tillman of O’s looks good to me.
NYY over O’s
HR BTS – M Cabrerra or Konerko in Chgo which is a hitters park and wind blowing out toward left field at 19mph.
Could be a wild evening.
In response to the Hello there… picks. It is fantastic that Holliday is 7 for 14 against Kuroda, but he will be facing Clayton Kershaw tonight. Kuroda pitched last night.
PHI-FLA game postponed. Time to change picks or pick a safe “no selection”.
SD-NYM postponed also with time to change picks.
Today’s Top Picks of the current Top2500, all games included. Total of 150 hitters picked overall.
Player, Times Picked, Percentage
Robinson Cano, 597, 23.88%
Joe Mauer, 255, 10.2
Derek Jeter, 251, 10.04
Vladimir Guerrero, 97, 3.88
Jason Kubel, 81, 3.24
Miguel Cabrera, 71, 2.84
Adam Dunn, 63, 2.52
Alex Rodriguez, 56, 2.24
Justin Morneau, 53, 2.12
Kevin Youkilis, 47, 1.88
Victor Martinez, 44, 1.76
Ichiro Suzuki, 43, 1.72
Albert Pujols, 40, 1.6
… No Selection, 26, 1.04
Hightest “No Selection”: Page 8 with a streak of 16 now reset to zero.
Is today the start of a bts trend? I see lots of big time bats that aren’t necessarily great bts picks such as Kubel, A-rod, Dunn, Youk, V-Mart (at least this year although i had him yesterday), and Pujols. Prince also makes his way to the top 15 in total popularity. Some of them already got hits so if they all go get hits will we be seeing a more diverse selection more often now? It’s interesting to see that a lot of these guys don’t just go to the best player on each. A guy like Kubel may have been the 5th or 6th twin i would of went with and a guy like Dunn would of been 3rd even with good numbers against the pitcher.
Dunn really never has been a great pick, because he gets walked a lot. Not a lot of outright intentional walks, but he is probably next behind Pujols, in terms of AB’s lost due to getting pitched around.
V-Mart is having around the same type of season as last year. Only difference is that last year he was hot right out of the gate, so his .410 batting average was very noticeable, but now he has been red-hot over the last 2 weeks, yet his batting average is “only” .297, so everyone does not notice him.
Youk is getting a lot of walks this year and Adrian Beltre is having a great season, so the Red Sox pick share is getting split.
Kubel is really not that great of a hitter. He had a great September last year to get the Twins into the playoffs, but even in a down season, Mauer is a better pick normally. Kubel’s value is also somewhat inflated by the fact that all of the Twins’ good hitters are lefties, so he is really the only viable righty.
Boston gets 2-hit by Masterson, a 1-5 win pitcher with more hits than innings pitched. I didn’t see it coming and my 4 game streak is reset as the result. Those that picked V-Mart & JD were very wise or just very lucky. Well back to the starting line, not alone.
Kubel is really not that great of a hitter. He had a great September last year to get the Twins into the playoffs, but even in a down season, Mauer is a better pick normally. Kubel’s value is also somewhat inflated by the fact that all of the Twins’ good hitters are lefties, so he is really the only viable righty.
i just want you to know that kubel isnt a righty and if anyone is picking him for bts they really dont know what they are doing. hes really struggled at the plate this year and if you are going to take a twin why not take one of the twins that are actually producing
i want to say goodluck to everyone’s streaks. i’m going to south africa to watch the world cup (GO AUSTRALIA) and my brother will be making picks for me. hopefully when i return i will see some people in our group with 20+ or 30+ streaks
Cubs and ChiSox fans will argue who is the better baseball team in Chicago all day and night.
BUT – When Hockey season rolls around they all cheer for the Blackhawks who tonight defeated the Phil Flyers 4- 3 in OT to win their first Stanley Cup since 1961!
GO HAWKS – Big celebrations in Chicago tonight with fireworks etc. Hopefully no cars turned over and set on fire and not too many arrests!
Great day for BTS, with all but the 3 late games done, 8.4% Top2500 reset (1/2 due to BOS & No-Selections)
Don’t you just hate it when your HR BTS hitter goes yard, but your BTS hitter goes 0-fer? Bad karma.
Frustration talking: Anyone else thinking along the lines… “got a new plan for next year” ?
Gurpsing, who do you like in HR BTS as I see your at 4 right now and I was wondering who you like for Thursday? I’m at 2 and I had Cano but the Yanks are facing a rookie when it was Guthrie at first. I have Ortiz right now as wind is blowing out towards right field in Cleveland. I was one of the fortunate ones who picked Martinez in BTS and I have Swisher tomorrow.
“i want to say goodluck to everyone’s streaks. i’m going to south africa to watch the world cup (GO AUSTRALIA) and my brother will be making picks for me. hopefully when i return i will see some people in our group with 20+ or 30+ streaks”
your hotel does not get internet service?
^^^^^^^^^
also, what day will you be returning?
how many games are you actually attending?
we will miss you!