Beat the Streak Report: Monday, June 14
Top selection Robinson Cano’s 1-for-3 afternoon pushed the fast forward button on 15.1 percent of streaks nationwide on a crazy, not-so-lazy Sunday that saw seven players launch two home runs a piece, which I’m pretty sure is the final sign of the apocalypse for all Home Run Beat the Streak players.
But enough with the small talk, we have some serious business to address.
Today we are faced with perhaps the most challenging Beat the Streak day on the 2010 calendar.
Not only are we still in the midst of Interleague Play, where hitters are facing unfamiliar opposing pitchers (advantage pitchers), but there are only four games scheduled, slicing away almost three quarters of our player pool.
And while former BTS stalwarts Albert Pujols and, gulp, Ichiro Suzuki are primed for the taking, 2010 BTS reliables like Cano, Miguel Cabrera and Vlad Guerrero each have the day off.
I’m fully aware that the picks below are not for the weak minded.
Today is the day we separate the double decker tacos from the hard shelled.
Time for Monday’s picks
Oh, hello there …
? Adam Jones: Eight-game hitting streak; .302 AVG for June.
? Aaron Hill: .364 AVG (4-for-11) lifetime vs. Padres starter Jon Garland
? Carlos Gomez: .500 AVG (4-for-8) lifetime vs. Angels starter Joe Saunders
? Erick Aybar: .422 AVG (19-for-45) over last 10 games.
Feeling kinda spicy?
? Juan Rivera: .364 AVG (4-for-11) lifetime vs. Brewers starter Randy Wolf. Last two starts for Wolf: 0-2, 13 ER, 15 H, 10.32 ERA. Don’t mind if I do …
You’ll thank me later …
? Miguel Tejada: .000 AVG (0-for-7) lifetime vs. Giants starter Jonathan Sanchez
? Matt Wieters: .167 AVG (6-for-36) for June; .235 season AVG;
Leaderboard time!
“BsblGeenus” and “ecurryjmp2” each survived the weekend and are now riding stellar 32-game streaks.
That means that they are officially 56.1 percent on their way to buying (roughly) 84 billion of those insanely annoying World Cup vuvuzelas thingies and obliterating mankind ’til kingdom come.
In Survivor news, “brentandcam” are still at it, upping his/her/their streak to 26 games by correctly predicting a Yankees win over the Orioles. Apparently, there is no rule voiding any picks when a team faces Kevin Millwood (0-9, 5.16 ERA).
This needs to change.
Top MLB streakers
? Brandon Phillips: 15 games
? Kevin Kouzmanoff: 14 games
? Sean Rodriguez: 14 games
? Jorge Cantu: 12 games
? Julio Borbon: 11 games
? Shin-Soo Choo: 11 games
? Vladimir Guerrero: 11 games
Beat the Streak Report 
Curious to see how many Pujols/Ichiro picks there will be, both in the Top2500 and the field. Also curious how many 2nd/3rd string catchers will be picked by the timid 😉
Well talk about a rough day. I have Hunter of Anaheim. He is hitting well lately and he is hitting Wolf at .667 clip in 3 ABs. I think Matsui is a good sleeper for today.
Man, there is not a single solid pick out there. Ichiro could be a trap because of Wainwright. Wainwright seems to pitch awfully better at home which takes the risk level even higher. And the way Seattle has been hitting, Wainwright can just cruise and maybe even pitch around Ichi if he comes up in a key situation.
Pujols is a 50/50. He has the most weirdest splits ever. He can hit right here or lefty there only if its night or day at home or on the road, etc.
Only 5th starter is going against a team with hitters that I am not that comfortable going with. Will research Sanchez now.
This might be good day to go with someone who is not playing.
Personally I wouldn’t touch Sir Albert with a 10 foot pole. Prior to yesterday, he was slumping big time & his 2 hits yesterday might have been simply due to bad pitching by the D-Backs pen, i.e.. lucky timing on his last 2 ABs. Ichiro may be a good pick as he hits righties well and Wainwright hasn’t been truly lights out this year; however, hits per innings are low & most seem to come with 1 or 2 outs: hence less damage & high win rate. LaRussa doesn’t hesitate to intentionally walk hitters either. Dilemma yes. I’m still sticking with the west coast.
Does anyone know of anyone who is confirmed to have the day off?
I do not see anyone worth picking.
champ88: check rotoworld, it may be helpful. Be cautious, those with day off can pitch hit for the pitcher: 3 of 4 games in NL parks. For the 1 AL park game, less likely, but still a possibility. If you find any inside info for a day-to-day, minor injury related batter, probably better odds won’t come in. You can also pick STL-SEA and hope for a rainout 😉
^^ excuse typo-s above. … pinch hit, not pitch hit.
How about Wise from Toronto? He only has one AB. I didn’t even know he was back up. With Wells playing CF and Marcum pitching, I doubt there will be much opp. for pintching hitting for pitchers. But if its tie game with extra innings, better off Wise will be 2-for-1 for the season. As lavolpe mentioned, catchers maybe too but don’t go with one from Angels. Their reg. catcher is playing first base.
I have yet to put my pick in but after heavy debate I’ve decided I will pick somebody who will play.
What do you think about Colby Rasmus for a hit against some guy named Luke French? I was going to go with Pujols but he hasn’t been exactly tearing it up lately.
Regarding Colby, maybe a better pick than most if he bats in the #2 spot. With Pujols, Holliday & Ludwick following him, he should get the best pitches to hit; just depends on whether he can do anything with those pitches.
I agree the Ludwick would be a good pick and I had a hard time picking between him and Holliday. I went with Holliday even though he hasn’t been lights out lately. Seattle pitching has been terrible this year with the exception of Lee and Hernandez and this guy French will not be able to mow through the Cardinals line-up I don’t think. I also like the lefty-righty match-up as well. GL to everyone as this will be interesting to see how everyone does and who everyone picks.
Keep this in mind, the Cardinals have 3 problem areas: lefty pitchers, pitchers they’ve never seen before, Bud Norris. Any Cards fan will tell you this & I know ’cause I’ve lived outside STL now for 10 years (Go Cubs Go!). Well, it isn’t Bud Norris pitching tonite, but it is a never-before-seen lefty – beware!
whod u guys pick for roday igot…
BTS Juan Uribe
HR BTS Ryan Braun
Survivor Giants
Wish I would have followed my own instincts: “Ichiro may be a good pick as he hits righties well and Wainwright hasn’t been truly lights out this year”. 1st inning hit for Ichiro; now to wait for my pick to get a hit.
Moving on for me. I figured I didn’t have much to lose with my lowly streak so instead of wasting time, I went with Made In Japan. I figure you can’t win this game w/o him and if you couldn’t rely on him today, when??
Today’s Top Picks of the current Top2500. All games included, 75 different batters picked overall
Player, Times Picked, Percentage
Albert Pujols, 657, 26.03%
Torii Hunter, 305, 12.08
Ichiro Suzuki, 253, 10.02
Ryan Braun, 216, 8.56
Aubrey Huff, 174, 6.89
Matt Holliday, 100, 3.96
Pablo Sandoval, 82, 3.25
Freddy Sanchez, 64, 2.54
Vernon Wells, 60, 2.38
Erick Aybar, 57, 2.26
No Selection, 53, 2.1
Buster Posey, 50, 1.98
Bobby Abreu, 38, 1.51
David Freese, 29, 1.15
Craig Tatum, 28, 1.11
Adrian Gonzalez, 26, 1.03
Highest “No Selection”: Page #9 with a streak of 16 now reset to zero.
An average day yesterday for Top2500 streakers, with a 19% reset.
Wow. So many people choosing Pujols. I don’t see the reason. I wonder if it would have been this high if it wasn’t the MLB Pick of the Day.
Kudos to the leaders for going with Huff. I think you need guts to make uncomfortable picks to win this. I thought about him but went with the comfort pick.
Soon as I bash Pujols, he rips a line drive hit. This game can’t be figured out.
pujols and ichiro are both 1-1
Not one comment on Eric Aybar – batting over .450 the past 10 days and bats leadoff v. a hittable Wolf of Brewers. I took him tonight and now I’ve got my fingers crossed as no one is mentioning him. Uribe and Huff also looked good to me.
yeah i have uribe
kinda worried… havent found anyone else who picked uribe…
Survivor: Anyone take a look at the leader page? More than 1 reason for me to hope STL loses tonite: 1) Cubs fan, 2) Didn’t pick them
Tomorrow: anyone hoping the STL-SEA game doesn’t get rained out; have you taken a look at the 2 pitchers in that game?
pujols and ichiro are both 1-1
“I figure you can’t win this game w/o him and if you couldn’t rely on him today, when??”
lol, outside of facing tough lefties, there is not many worse matchups for Ichiro.
“Today’s Top Picks of the current Top2500. All games included, 75 different batters picked overall”
That could be record potential, since if you scale by number of games, that is close to 300 different batters picked.
“Craig Tatum, 28, 1.11”
never heard of this guy?
“Not one comment on Eric Aybar – batting over .450 the past 10 days and bats leadoff v. a hittable Wolf of Brewers. I took him tonight and now I’ve got my fingers crossed as no one is mentioning him. Uribe and Huff also looked good to me.”
I looked at him, but for some reason, he is only hitting .208 at home this season.
I went with Andres Torres by the way.
@champ88: Tatum is backup catcher for BAL. Has played this year.
http://mlb.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=461874
Also, what is this nonsense with these advertisements on Gameday today?
I REALLY hope this is not going to be a permanent addition.
They are REALLY annoying!
Go figure, several posts up, btsplayer suggested maybe picking TOR’s Wise as a safe no-player tonite: he’s in the starting line up & F.Lewis gets day off instead.
Do you have Wise?
I’ve said before u can’t avoid EVERY elite pitcher. Sometimes u just have to take a chance w/ an elite hitter. Ichiro with a hit has me worried, hope F. Sanchez doesn’t go hitless when I didn’t follow my own advice.
@champ88: Nope, I’m one behind you in the bloggers group. Never considered him, but I changed my pick as soon as I saw the SEA-STL lineup today.
Is there a way to turn off the annoying ads between innings? It wouldn’t be so bad if they don’t repeat the same one every time. It makes me want to not buy the product.
Was it last year when they were running banner ads for McD snack wraps on the bottom while BTS was being sponsered by the Burger King?
Regarding GameDay. I don’t use it anymore. I select 4-6 mini gamedays instead. Look for link at bottom of the normal gameday window.
lavolpe, just switched to the Mini. Thanks!
Man, Seattle just can’t catch a break. Before the season started, I really thought they be contending now. Every which way things can go wrong, they did. I sort of see the logic now in Cashman overpaying for players while they’re still peaking. So many teams pay pretty good $ for stars of 2 yrs ago and get nothing in return. The discount in the yesterday’s stars is not worthe the risk. Often they get 0% return.
@btsplayer: You’re welcome. To view more than one:
From the miniplayer, select SCOREBOARD at bottom, click on one of the other games. I have all 4 games displayed right now.
7 game streak…7 1st at-bat hits…I would love to go 50 more days like this.
A.Huff hitless after 7. Unless a bat-around, the 2 leaders drop tonight and are replaced.
Gotta feel for our now-dethroned leaders. Only if the Giants batted around would Huff get another AB. Well bases loaded, and F.Sanchez is the 8th batter and he swings… a single, clears the bags and noooooo; Sanchez makes the last out running to 3rd with Huff on deck!
Other news: Aybar injured in takeout slide; goes 0-fer
MIL slams LAA & they take out Abreu & Hunter; all 0-fer. Wells goes 0-fer.
What started out as a very promising day for BTS turned out to be rather sour indeed.
Definitely feel for anybody who had Huff. I’ve been in that situation (with my guy left on-deck) plenty of times. Not a good feeling thinking “what-if”.
I had a suspicion that Wolf wasn’t gong to be so bad. I said that last night. He was just having some bad games this year. Last year, this guy was very stingy with hits even when ue loses. I remember never even thinking about going against him last year. Given so many ways things can not go your way, no sense in making it harder.
@lavolpe: Have you thought about just tallying top 500 or maybe 1000 instead of 2500 for your list. I am more interested in what people with good streaks are picking. You know the people who are at least in double digits. My suspicion is generally there will be even more concenration of “hot bats” towards the top.
@rip2thecompetition: Yup. I was thinking the same. I don’t know why I get so emotionally involved in this. Its not like what I am thinking, yelling or cursing will change a thing. You know but the Huff was a suspect pick for today. He already had 4 days of great hitting prior to today. That is a lot for him. He is one of those guys who gets lots hits on days he hits but has many zero days too.
@btsplayer: I thought so, but right now everyone in the Top2500 are ahead of me, so all are of interest & probably for the majority also. Hurts to say that!
Last note: Pinch hitters took out about 20 of the Top2500 that thought they were playing it safe. Just goes to show you, best pick someone to ride ’cause you never know. The worse example was Padres’ Cunningham with a .133 AVG picked by one Top2500 player. The most taken out at once was 9 by Orioles’ Montanez. The Orioles’ Tatum never came in having more than a page of picks with 28 picks.
Good night, until tomorrow.
“@lavolpe: Have you thought about just tallying top 500 or maybe 1000 instead of 2500 for your list. I am more interested in what people with good streaks are picking. You know the people who are at least in double digits. My suspicion is generally there will be even more concenration of “hot bats” towards the top.”
Mostly everyone in the top 2500 is in double digits.
Following big elimination days, a handful of 9’s sneak in, but other than that, it is all double digits.
“@rip2thecompetition: Yup. I was thinking the same. I don’t know why I get so emotionally involved in this. Its not like what I am thinking, yelling or cursing will change a thing. ”
I always try to watch, because watching lots of games gives you a better feel for who is hot, than having to do a lot of research before the games start.