Beat the Streak Report: Tuesday, June 15
Sometimes there’s just nothing like good old fashioned home cooking.
After weeks of consistently getting burned by former Beat the Streak stalwarts, Ichiro Suzuki and Albert Pujols, streakers worldwide went back to the hand that used to feed them for Monday’s Interleague, four-game schedule of doom.
Pujols (26.0 percent) and Suzuki(13.9 percent) were far and away the two most popular selections for the dreaded slate, and rewarded their old faithful by each lacing hits in spades, combining to go 5-for-7 for the evening.
Albert, Ichiro, it’s just so nice to have you two back and playing nice with the others. We’ve missed you both just so, so much.
But now, things get more interesting. Our two leaders entering the night, “BsblGeenus” and “ecurryjmp2”, each put their hopes and dreams in the hands of …Aubrey Huff, who was who we thought he was, and went 0-for-2 to snap both of our leaders’ streaks.
How each of our two leaders put their $3 million meal tickets in the hands of a guy who hit .241 last season and was slated to bat against a pitcher (Chris Tillman) who he had never faced before is absolutely, positively beyond me.
I know Ichiro and Pujols have burned streakers all season long, but I know I’d sleep better at night knowing that one of those two future Hall of Famers snapped my multi-million-dollar hopes, and not Aubrey Huff.
Sorry, I just couldn’t resist.
Time for Tuesday’s picks
Oh, hello there …
? Manny Ramirez: .545 AVG (6-for-11) lifetime vs. Reds starter Aaron Harang
? Russell Martin: .545 AVG (6-for-11) lifetime vs. Reds starter Aaron Harang
? Marlon Byrd: .400 AVG (4-for-10) lifetime vs. Athletics starter Trevor Cahill
? Curtis Granderson: .417 AVG (5-for-12) lifetime vs. Phillies starter Roy Halladay
? Placido Polanco: .326 AVG (14-for-43) lifetime vs. Yankees starter CC Sabathia
Feeling kinda spicy?
? Rafael Furcal: .467 AVG (7-for-15) lifetime vs. Reds starter Aaron Harang. The moral of the story is, I like picking against Aaron Harang.
You’ll thank me later …
? Torii Hunter: .091 AVG (1-for-11) lifetime vs. Brewers starter Dave Bush
? Austin Kearns: .167 AVG (2-for-12) lifetime vs. Mets starter Johan Santana
? Robinson Cano: .208 AVG (10-for-48) lifetime vs. Phillies starter Roy Halladay
Leaderboard time!
Our new leaders are “Raysball8445” and “fromomma”, who each have 32-game streaks and are 56.1 percent on their way to buying enough Silly Bandz to cover the entire state of Texas.
Just because they can.
Moving on to Survivor, “brentandcam” are/is now at 27 games thanks to Adam Wainwright and the Cardinals.
And with Roy Halladay and CC Sabathia facing off against each other, basically squashing the chances of a Yankees or Phillies selection, and David Price facing a Braves squad that sits 10 games over .500, tonight’s choice will not be easy. I’m thinking Red Sox (Clay Buchholz) vs. D-backs (Ian Kennedy) might be the top choice.
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 
So who does everyone have?
i found a computer in south africa. im taking brandon phillips tonight against kuroda to get me to 8. hopefully he can bring his hitting streak to 16 against a hittable kuroda. i see alot of the bloggers were hurt yesterday. never easy to get through the days with minimal games
I’m going to go with Ichiro to try and get my streak to 8. I know he hasn’t necessarily been the best pick so far this year but Jeff Suppan is pitching and I have a feeling every single Mariner will get at least one hit tonight. Opponents are batting almost .400 against him (.388)!!! You could also go with any Cardinal as Rowland-Smith is allowing hitters to hit .325 against him. I have a feeling a lot of people are going to pick either Mariners or Cardinals tonight. GL to everyone and hopefully today will be better than yesterday.
Heavy storms just blew thru here at STL but forecast has very little chance of rain during the game. The STL-SEA could-be-slugfest should go on without any hitches.
i got mags ordonez against a john lannan who has an oppnents BA as over .300
I went with Ichiro today. I feel very confidant about it but someone said earlier in the week that Ichiro’s 0-fer days often come against a easy pitcher like Suppan. We will see.
Its interesting that one of the leaders went with Michael Young against a tough pitcher. Watch Young come throw and the rest of us eat soot.
i wouldnt take maggs today. hes just coming back from an injury and has sat out for a week and he may be rusty. also if the tigers are up in the late innings he may be taken out to keep him from reinjuring himself
Justin Morneau is my guy today.
switched to kevin kouzmanoff against zambrano hes 1-8 against big z but hes on a 14 game hit streak and zambrano doesnt go deep into games anymore.
Raining in Chicago – Cub game in doubt.
Going Crawford tonight. GL to all.
I wouldn’t doubt Ich gets a hit but they only show past 5 years. Career he’s 2-for-12 against Suppan.
Today’s Top Picks of the current Top2500. All games included, 147 different batters picked. Top 2 picks – no surprise
Player, Times Picked, Percentage
Ichiro Suzuki, 458, 18.32%
Albert Pujols, 217, 8.68
Miguel Cabrera, 177, 7.08
Justin Morneau, 103, 4.12
Robinson Cano, 89, 3.56
Joe Mauer, 81, 3.24
Michael Young, 77, 3.08
Alex Rios, 66, 2.64
Rafael Furcal, 61, 2.44
Evan Longoria, 59, 2.36
Derek Jeter, 58, 2.32
J.J. Hardy, 50, 2 (safe no-pick?)
No Selection, 45, 1.8
Jeff Clement, 44, 1.76 (safe no-pick?)
Ryan Zimmerman, 42, 1.68
Adrian Beltre, 40, 1.6
Andre Ethier, 39, 1.56
Matt Holliday, 39, 1.56
Josh Hamilton, 37, 1.48
Highest “No Selection”: Page #3 with a streak of 19 now reset to zero.
Yesterday cause the Top2500 some pain with 29.9% starting over.
well maggs got a 1st inning single. i hope kouzmanoff can get you a hit
“I’m going to go with Ichiro to try and get my streak to 8. I know he hasn’t necessarily been the best pick so far this year but Jeff Suppan is pitching and I have a feeling every single Mariner will get at least one hit tonight. Opponents are batting almost .400 against him (.388)!!! You could also go with any Cardinal as Rowland-Smith is allowing hitters to hit .325 against him. I have a feeling a lot of people are going to pick either Mariners or Cardinals tonight. GL to everyone and hopefully today will be better than yesterday.”
I went with Ichiro too, because even with a full slate of games, it seems like all the hot hitters were going up against great pitchers today.
Ichiro is not cold right now, more like neutral, so going against a terrible pitcher in a probable slugfest seemed like a good pick.
He already gave out the royal screwover recently, so it seems unlikely to happen again so soon.
We only have about 100 games left now. I wonder if anyone is gonna win it this year. This year has been a lot tougher. I think the teams have focused on pitching as a top priority. Exception being Orioles. There seems to be almost nohitter/perfect game every week now.
Anyone following World Cup? North Korea lost 2 to 1 to Brazil. That is not that bad at all.
“i wouldnt take maggs today. hes just coming back from an injury and has sat out for a week and he may be rusty. also if the tigers are up in the late innings he may be taken out to keep him from reinjuring himself”
haha, maggs already has a hit.
“switched to kevin kouzmanoff against zambrano hes 1-8 against big z but hes on a 14 game hit streak and zambrano doesnt go deep into games anymore.”
I think that is just a function of big z not having that many consective turns through the rotation this year.
I looked at Kouzmanoff, but he is not really that great of a hitter anyway, so he seems ready to run out of steam.
@champion_88: I think you’re 100% right. Ichiro definitely is not hot now. If this was same Ichiro from last year, he would have teared through hits off some of the pitchers he went 0-fer against in the last 2 weeks.
Only thing I am worried with Suppan is he NEVER does what I want him to do. He screwed me last year with Pujols. Then he gives up hits when you don’t want him to. I really don’t like him. He took huge salary from a low revenue team that is trying to compete and gives them nothing. I think he really left Brewers in ruins. They don’t have the money to sign a pitcher or Big Fatty Jr. because of this.
“Going Crawford tonight. GL to all.”
Crawford’s only hitting .209 in June.
Not sure if you are just guessing that he is going to bounce back tonight, but Kawakami has been good lately.
“I wouldn’t doubt Ich gets a hit but they only show past 5 years. Career he’s 2-for-12 against Suppan.”
I think Suppan has declined signficantly over the past few years.
I remember in 2006, he single-handedly pitched the Cardinals into the postseason and through the postseason.
Not sure he is that pitcher anymore, considering the probables today read, “If Suppan can give the Cards 6 decent innings on a semi regular basis, they would be very pleased.”
“Crawford’s only hitting .209 in June.
Not sure if you are just guessing that he is going to bounce back tonight, but Kawakami has been good lately.”
I thought Zobriest would be a better choice than Crawford from the Rays. I almost went with him but the Kawakami seems to be turning it around a bit so I didn’t want to risk it.
If Michael Young comes through tonight and Ichiro vomits, I think the new leader is for real. He seems to be mixing well between popular picks and non-popular picks. My streak is not even 10 yet but I have hard time picking outside the box. I will cry if Zobriest comes through and Ichiro bombs.
“I think Suppan has declined signficantly over the past few years.
I remember in 2006, he single-handedly pitched the Cardinals into the postseason and through the postseason.
”
Yup. Those 2 for 12 numbers off Suppan must be before he signed the big contract. Probably with St. Louis back then.
Now, he can sit back and relax while millions come through his checking account each week. He still refuses to spend money on a pillow though.
Michael Young strikes out.
Rain delay in Atlanta.
Has anyone seen Shin Soo Choo lately? He has a decent streak going. I didn’t even notice this until just now. I bet I can win this if I can keep track of more players. Who would thought?
Darn. Just found out that I lost Conor Jackson in a trade to American League in my rotisserie baseball. What a disappointment he turned out to be. He screwed me so many times last year in BTS and now this. great gift.
Michael Young strikes out again.
Pujols just grounded into double play.
Young is 0 for 4 with 3 strikeouts.
Not a guarantee that he will bat again, unless the Rangers tie the game.
those with Brandon Phillips might get some saving grace from the rain delay; if it lasts another 30 minutes or so, it should knock Kuroda out of the game and still have a chance for a full rainout.
Ichiro gets a single; slow chopper over pitcher and then nearly dies before 2B can field it and throw to 1st. We’ll see how well he is picked & plays tomorrow against a better pitcher.
Well he grounded out hard the first time up, so the bloop hit sort of cancels out the hard out.
I doubt so many good pitchers will be going tomorrow as well though.
Pujols homers. Hope LAD-CIN game continues, my guy has 3 hits in that game!
Help – Is there a hittable pitcher going on Wed?
What’s happening to ppl who picked Morneau is worse than having Huff on-deck for another potential at-bat in the 8th. Everybody in the Twins lineup has a hit but Morneau (& Tolbert?).
Well, radio broadcasters say heavy rain in CIN has passed and only drizzle remains. Fingers-crossed game will continue at least for one more inning!
@rip2thecompetition : Regarding Morneau; history repeating itself, sort of, though last time it was Mauer not Morneau.
Wow. This game is like trying to balance a ball on a blade of grass. Only one cheap “hit” against Suppan. Not hitting Ichiro tomorrow against a lefty.
Baseball “analysts” on ESPN have been stating that pitching is taking over the game. Seems to be true as streaks are getting harder and harder to put together.
Check of Monday 6/21 – 3 games only – fortunately one is AZ v. NYY.
Kuzmanoff singles at off Zambrano in the 4th
Kouzmanoff just singled for whomever had him here.
Regarding 6/21 – Holy Cow! Probably 99% Survivor will pick NYY that day and 80-90% BTS will pick NYY batters: Cano, Jeter & A-Rod. Probably see quite a few backup catcher picks too from the timid.
“Check of Monday 6/21 – 3 games only – fortunately one is AZ v. NYY.”
ugh…did you have to bring that up now…now I have to dread that day.
What are they waiting for in Cincinnati?
2-hour rain delay so far and more rain coming up from the south?
Are they going to pull a Detroit and resume the game at 130 in the morning and not finish until 330?
YES!!!! Just in – game will resume in CIN. Gotta remove some standing water on the warning track and “play ball”
Glad to see the Rays are doing well.
damn…I sort of was hoping for that game to get rained out.
I know someone on here has Brandon Phillips and he is already 0 for 2.
Big Z drives in a run in Chicago. So why can’t we pick pitchers 😉 ?? Go Cubs Go!
FYI: Typical day for Top2500. With the big picks done for the night, reset rate looks to be between 20-25%. Will post actual results & tomorrow’s Top2500 picks around 7th inning of the early game.
Anyone know how good the Dodgers’ bullpen is?
They pinch-hit foir Kuroda, so Phillips has 4 innings to get it done to keep his 15-game hit streak alive.
“Anyone know how good the Dodgers’ bullpen is?
They pinch-hit foir Kuroda, so Phillips has 4 innings to get it done to keep his 15-game hit streak alive.”
Troncosco and Belisario are both hit and miss, and if need be Brox is one of the best although he sometimes gives up a hit or two in the 9th. Should be a good finish.
Off to bed. Tall at y’all tomorrow.
Shocked they pinch-hit for Phillips, even though his slot in the order came around 2 more times, which would have been 2 more chances to keep his hitting streak!
Was he hurt?
@champ88: Probably not. I’ve been reset that way too, Morneau the last time got only 3 ABs and was pinched hit leading off the inning. When a game gets out of hand: 11-0 at that point, managers may rest their most valued players and give bench players a chance to hit and/or play the field for an inning or two.
wow thanks for making me switch from mags whoever told me to do that. he went 4-5! its alrite tho kouz went 3-4