Beat the Streak Report: Thursday, July 1
Let me preface everything I’m about to write with the fact that my
longest streak this season is a mere seven-gamer. I pick with my heart
more than my head 80 percent of the time. If Miguel Cabrera played
everyday, I’d never change my pick. I threw away a four-game streak
just to pick Pedro Alvarez on the day he got called up.
So, sure, criticism from me towards a guy who just completed a 41-game
streak would be like Danny DeVito chastising Yao Ming for not being
tall enough.
With that said, I just don’t get Kyle “kbarr9” Barr’s selection
of Denard Span yesterday which ultimately wrecked his chances at the
$3,000,000 grand prize.
Let’s get right to the steak and deal with the side dishes later:
Span was facing Tigers rookie southpaw Andy Oliver, a very
talented and highly touted 2009 second-round pick of the Tigers whose
average fastball hovers around 94 mph. Did I mention he’s left handed?
I did? OK, good.
Like everyone else in the Majors who does not play for the
Atlanta Braves, Span had never faced Oliver before. This is not a good
thing, especially when Span is batting only a respectable .284 vs.
southpaws this season.
At best, at the VERY best, choosing Span vs. a
hard-throwing lefty who he’s never seen before seems like a
below-average choice. And that’s being kind, actually, ya know,
considering we are allowed to select any Major League hitter in this
game — not just someone from the Minnesota Twins (and if this were a
Twins-only BTS game, Span at best would be the second-best choice
behind Justin Morneau and his .343 AVG against lefties).
With that said, again, my highest streak of the year is seven.
What do I know?
Time for Thursday’s picks
Oh, hello there …
- Josh Hamilton: 23-game hitting streak; .389 AVG (7-for-18) lifetime vs. Angels starter Jered Weaver
? Ichiro Suzuki: .396 AVG (19-for-48) lifetime vs. Yankees starter CC Sabathia
? David Wright: .414 AVG (12-for-29) since ’05 vs. Nationals starter Livan Hernandez
? Pat Burrell: .632 AVG (12-for-19) lifetime vs. Rockies starter Aaron Cook
? Orlando Cabrera: .389 AVG (14-for-36) lifetime vs. Cubs starter Carlos Silva
? Christian Guzman: .474 AVG (9-for-19) lifetime vs. Mets starter Johan Santana
Feeling kinda spicy?
? B.J. Upton: .455 AVG (5-for-11) lifetime vs. Twins starter Carl Pavano
What we know: Upton is batting .226 this year and Pavano and his ‘stache have been nearly unhittable as of late.
What we don’t know: If Upton will even be in the lineup.
Verdict: Check, please!
You’ll thank me later …
? Carlos Lee: .071 AVG (1-for-14) lifetime vs. Padres starter Jon Garland.
? Evan Longoria: .125 AVG (1-for-8) lifetime vs. Twins starter Carl Pavano
? Erick Aybar: .091 AVG (1-for-11) lifetime vs. Rangers starter C.J. Wilson
Leaderboard time!
With Barr no longer in the equation, we have a new fearsome threesome atop the leaderboard, each with 30-game streaks:
? JohnWillson
? ignaciometcalf
? wolfenstein35
Only 27 more games to go. Call me in four weeks, k?
Top MLB streakers
? Josh Hamilton: 23 games
? Corey Hart: 15 games
? Jose Lopez: 13 games
? Miguel Cabrera : 11 games
? Cody Ross: 11 games
? Mark Teixeira: 11 games
Beat the Streak Report 
What’s up everybody. It’s been a while but just wanted to say thank god June is over. My worst month ever. Thank god July is here. New month and time to start a nice long streak. I have Hamilton in BTS, Rolen in HR BTS, Yanks in Survivor. Good luck to all.
Below are the only BTS leaders to reach 40+ before the All-Star break.
Dick George is immortalized in the BTS world with his inclusion in the All-Time Streak Leader List
Expect Kyle Barr to be added to the list this week.
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/fantasy/bts/y2010/index.jsp?content=charts
BTS User, Streak Breaker, Date Ended, Streak
Dick George, Ichiro Suzuki, 6/27/2010, 43
Kyle Barr, Denard Span, 6/30/2010, 41
Tanner Nielsen, Joe Mauer, 6/23/2009, 45
Bob Paradise, Ichiro Suzuki, 7/4/2008, 48
Reid Choroszy, Matt Holliday, 6/24/2007, 40
Note: We have 3 leaders tied at 30 today. 10 days left before the All-Star break, maybe more will make it to 40 on that date.
More and more jumping on the Wright train. Yeah baby…..
I feel all right with Wright…… LOL
In kbarr’s defense, Span bats crazy (Cano #s) against lefties @ home. He has done this last year too @ the old stadium. He is a homely person or something about the state of MN.
Botched the formatting; here’s the list & a bit more readable
BTS User, Streak Breaker, Date Ended, Streak
Dick George, Ichiro Suzuki, 6/27/2010, 43
Kyle Barr, Denard Span, 6/30/2010, 41
Tanner Nielsen, Joe Mauer, 6/23/2009, 45
Bob Paradise, Ichiro Suzuki, 7/4/2008, 48
Reid Choroszy, Matt Holliday, 6/24/2007, 40
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/fantasy/bts/y2010/index.jsp?content=charts
Well, I went with Wright again, for the fourth straight day.
Was not sure if I wanted to pick against Hernandez, but he seems to have given up enough hits lately for me to take a shot and Wright’s numbers against Hernandez are right in the sweet spot.
Besides, most of the hitters doing well lately are off today.
The next strongest today was probably Ricke Weeks and he already lucked out yesterday, so I did not want to test it.
Went with Jeter today. And his leadoff single in the 1st extended my streak to a decent 15 games.
Span was batting .403 lifetime against the Tigers and coming off a hott 3 triples game…tried catching lightning in a bottle.
David Ardsma of Seattle really should consider a job working for Starbucks. Maybe he will be good @ handling hot coffee. This guy blows every game he comes in. I am a Yankee fan but I root for underdogs like Seattle. So Seattle barely muster 2 runs and this moron comes in and blows it. He is 0-4 going on 0-5 now.
How will this guy show his face when he heads back to the dugout? He basically zapped little joy Seattle had this week.
I went with Wright as well. I hope he hits! Happy almost 4th all!! 🙂
No self-respecting Yankee fan ever roots for the other team. EVER. Who cares about Seattle’s joy. Hurl some beer, give ’em a Bronx cheer and a few finger gestures next time. 🙂 What’s next, cheering on the crazy idiots??????????? Heaven forbid!!!
Hey everyone vote for Miguel Cabrera for the all star game. Theres no reason why he shouldn’t have the most votes.
@nardberg: I have a love & hate relationship with the Yanks. I really despise and hate the way they buy championship. The way they overpay for everyone. I sometimes take joy in their failure. Especailly, when it involves a righteous cheater like A-Roid. I am presuming you’re a Yankee fan too. And I really do not like AJ. He was overrated with Toronto but Yanks threw tons of dinero his way. This guy blows like ever 2 out 5 games to the point of no return. It was the same last year. I actually don’t even like most of the players on the team except for Swisher, Cano and CC.
I forgot another failed project. Curtis Granderson. That was seen coming miles away. Not that I cared about Damon that much but Granderson is highly overrated. Even when he is hot, he simply cannot hit lefties. And they gave away Austin Jackson who gets min. salary. In the meantime, the Yankees expect us to continue shell out outrageous amount of money for everything. It was such a joy seeing empty seats at the stadium last year.
Granderson is way overrated, i’m a tigers fan and when he played for them I hated him, Jackson is incredible, way better than Grandy all round.
Today’s Top Picks of the current Top2500. “No Selections” & resets from early 3 games not included as BTS updated before data pulled. Only 87 batters picked overall
Batter, Times Picked, Percentage
Robinson Cano, 506, 20.24%
Josh Hamilton, 435, 17.4
Ichiro Suzuki, 259, 10.36
Albert Pujols, 171, 6.84
Derek Jeter, 170, 6.8 (Leader #1)
Adrian Gonzalez, 114, 4.56
Ryan Braun, 97, 3.88 (Leaders #2 & #3)
David Wright, 91, 3.64
Ryan Howard, 48, 1.92
Vladimir Guerrero, 43, 1.72
Luke Scott, 42, 1.68
Highest “No Selection”: Page #3 with streak of 20 now back to zero
Yesterday another average day with 21% being reset.
Bloggers Group Top2500
UserName, Streak, Page#, Pick
blanco21, 23, pg#1, David Wright
backrubs62, 9, pg#90, Josh Hamilton
tomfootball17, 9, pg#97, Placido Polanco (DL)
abk1087, streak was 9 reset by Cano
When Vaz wasn’t pitching well the first month, their was talk of Yankees going out to get another starter. I am sure if that was just press talking or the management’s thinking but doesn’t this sound preposterous?
So you take almost Cy Young winner from last year and a #1 starter for the Braves. He strikes out tons. You make him the #4/5 starter. Then you give him one month and you’re already getting antsy? I actually hoped they traded Vaz to Houston for Oswalt and see Vaz pitch as well as they did last year. This kind of thing bothers me about the Yankees. They make the games lot less interesting for small market teams like Pirates.
I don’t know about David Wright for today. Something about Livan this year that puts kinks in the stats. I went against him like 3 times with hitters who hit him well & all 3 times they came out 0-fers. I vowed never to diss his Mickey Mouse curveball that goes even slower than Wakefield’s knuckler.
“abk1087, streak was 9 reset by Cano” Cano got a hit today. HR.
Hmmm. How does Cincinnate get 16 hits and score 3 runs? How many double or quadraple plays you have to get into to achieve this?
btsplayer: streak ended yesterday with Cano’s 0-fer.
btsplayer: Agree with you about Wright for diff reasons. For me, it was a strong gut feeling. Avoided him as my pick though he was my formula’s best pick.
@btsplayer: Cano didn’t get a hit yesterday, which was why abk1087’s streak was reset.
Yeah that’s the spirit spear716! Your fellow Tigers fan here agrees whole heartedly! VOTE CABRERA!
spear716, that’s the spirit! Your fellow Tigers fan here agrees whole heartedly! VOTE CABRERA!!! And while you’re at it, write in Brennan Boesch too!
Oops sorry about the double post! Please disregard the 1st one!
Hey, you said your best streak was 7 games. Since you work for mlb.com, are you allowed to play this game?
Final Days BTS Deadlines
The last day you can start a streak at 1 and still win some big money
$3MIL, streak of 57: August 8th
$10K, streak of 44: August 21st
I know…. it was a tough decision to take him 4th time in a row. I focused more on Livan coming down to earth during his last few starts. I was down to 3 choices Wright, Jeter and Pujols. Oh well a couple more at bats to go………. COMMON WRIGHT LOL…..
VINNY LOOK UP…. WHATS UP WITH THIS BLOG
AM I IN THE TWILITEZONE???? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THIS BLOG??
whats the official number of how many people play this game? this is my first season and i cant get enough
“Final Days BTS Deadlines
The last day you can start a streak at 1 and still win some big money
$3MIL, streak of 57: August 8th
$10K, streak of 44: August 21st”
You will need at least 3 days of cushion. All kinds of stuff happen at the end of year making your player not being in the line-up. And when it rains, it rains.
Blanco, u should of chose somebody else as u can’t go to the well too often. U had Wright for 3 days and got hits each day. I would of went a different route. He looks good on paper but did u check Livan’s home stays. He pitches way better at home compared to the road. His ERA is 1.81 at home this year and he gives up far fewer hits but we will see what happens.
Hoping for extras now………..
blanco21, it would have been so cool if went with Henry Blanco.
ha ha lol…… can you believe it? Blanco with 2 hits and Wright an 0fer…..baseball is a funny game
Nice run Blanco but time came to raise the bandera blanca
I agree with vinny1979. You went to well little too long with Wright. Wright is not that type of hitter. He normally has many 0fer days between 2 to 3 days of hitting. I think you can do that with is Ichiro and M. Cab. But even those guys can burn you though because they go on minor slumps of 2 to 3 days in a row of 0-fers. Good run though! I think you have longest streak this year for the messagers here.
Today is shaping out to be an uneventful day if you didn’t pick Cano. Not many screaming picks today. And I still don’t think Cano was a great pick. It was contest between who is worst. Cano’s inability to hit lefties this month v. Rowland-Smith’s inability to get leffties out. Cano won!
One thing I am 100% clear on is that you can’t get to 57 picking only the premier players. Sometimes you got to step really outside the plate. I mean guys who are scrubs but who happen to shine that day. I will put it to this way. The blooger’s “you will thank me later picks” have a pretty good track record of getting hits. I stopped counting it while back but if you take out guys who are not gonna play, I wouldn’t be surprised to see if they have a better track record than the MLB pick of the day.
Uneventful day? Depends on one’s view. With Wright & McC 0-fer and appears Braun also, leaderboard will be quite different tomorrow. Moreso depending on how TEX & A.Gonzalez do. Quality vs Quantity of resets.
Friday
BTS – RSox Beltre
What I meant was there wasn’t anyone that stood out to pick. All of the picks were somewhat iffy @ best including Cano. I am worried about wolfenstein a bit. He made 2 trips to front page last year. This guy is a good picker. I think he will be our next Dick/kbarr.
dragbunt: BoSox for me too
btsplayer: We’ll see. At least we’ll be playing after All-Star break 🙂
“Narveson simulated the first two batters he would face in the bullpen before his last start to shake the struggles that accounted for a 12.27 first-frame ERA this season.”
Just got this from probably pitcher page. This game really can turn on a dime. This could have been the difference between Ichiro lacing a cheap hit for Dick in his first AB vs. going 0fer.
btsPlayer wrote: “This guy is a good picker. I think he will be our next Dick/kbarr.”
FYI: Looking back at Top2500 data, Wolfy entered it on 9 June with streak of 8. Dick was tied for 4th & Barr was tied for 24th on that day
The day started out promising for the leader board but ended with a slaughter of sorts: 36% reset among the Top2500.
Beltre looks like a standout pick this weekend. I have him penned in for BTS & HRBTS but going with Brandon Phillips tomorrow.
Well it finally happened……
Joey “The Black Cat” Votto – Called out on strikes in the first inning on a low pitch, argues with Plate Umpire Angel Campos, throws his helmet and gets tossed from the game.
Officialy 0-1 and how many streaks end?