Beat the Streak Report: Wednesday, July 21
It isn’t often when I put on my sagacious sweater vest and dole out
some advice. But you know what? I’m riding a nine-game streak right and
feeling cocky, so why not?
Two of Tuesday’s most popular selections — Mark Teixeira and Derek
Jeter — went a combined 0-for-5 to give a proverbial wedgie to 12.9
percent of streakers in the galaxy.
The opposing starter Tex and Jeter were facing last night was the
seemingly innocuous Sean O’Sullivan, a 22-year-old right-hander who was
making his first start of the ’10 campaign in place of the Artist
Formerly Known as Scott Kazmir.
Why such a high percentage of streakers would take a swim in the
O’Sullivan pool is insane to me. Yes, I recognize that Sully has a
lifetime 5.15 ERA. But more importantly, I also recognize that these two
Yankees teammates had never, ever in the history of the whole wide
world stepped in batter’s box to face Sully.
Not to get too Robin Williams from “Good Will Hunting” on you but, Tex
and Jete might have known that Sully throws a curveball, but they
definitively had never seen his curveball spin in the flesh. They likely
knew that he throws a 77 miles-per-hour changeup, but they definitively
have never seen how he disguises it. And they may have flipped through a
picture book of Michaelangelo laying around Jorge Posada’s coffee
table, but I’ll bet they can’t tell me what it smells like in the
Sistine Chapel.
What I’m getting at is that it’s rarely a bad move to veer away from
batters facing pitcher’s whom they’ve never faced before. You just never
know how certain hitters see certain pitchers.
This game allows you to select any Major League player your angelic
hearts desire — there’s no need to put your fork in the mystery meat
when a filet is sitting their for the taking.
Time for Wednesday’s picks
Oh, hello there …
? Derrek Lee:
.469 AVG (15-for-32) lifetime vs. Astros starter Brett Myers
? Robinson
Cano: .615 AVG (8-for-13) lifetime vs. Angels starter Joel
Pineiro
? Matt Kemp:
.457 AVG (16-for-35) lifetime vs. Giants starter Barry Zito
? Ichiro
Suzuki: .474 AVG (9-for-19) lifetime vs. White Sox starter Gavin
Floyd
? Adam Jones:.474
AVG (9-for-19) lifetime vs. Rays starter James Shields
? Ryan Braun:
.429 AVG (6-for-14) lifetime vs. Pirates starter Zach Duke
? Omar
Infante: .425 AVG (17-for-40) lifetime vs. Padres starter Jon
Garland
? Hanley
Ramirez: .833 AVG (5-for-6) lifetime vs. Rockies starter Jason
Hammel
Feeling kinda spicy?
? Ronny
Cedeno: .533 AVG (8-for-15) lifetime vs. Brewers starter Randy
Wolf
? Mark
Kotsay: .438 AVG (7-for-16) lifetime vs. Mariners starter Felix
Hernandez
You’ll thank me later …
? James
Loney: .050 AVG (1-for-20) lifetime vs. Giants starter Barry
Zito
? Delmon
Young: .133 AVG (2-for-15) lifetime vs. Indians starter Jake
Westbrook
? Albert
Pujols: .167 AVG (2-for-12) lifetime vs. Phillies starter Joe
Blanton
Leaderboard time!
Joe Mauer’s 1-for-5 evening upped “cwlarson”‘s streak to a robust 32
games. That sounds incredible until you realize that 13 other streakers
have reached the 32-game plateu and fell flat on their faces.
Too grim?
Top MLB streakers
? Buster
Posey: 14 games
? Ian
Kinsler: 13 games
? Adam Lind:
13 games
? Placido
Polanco: 12 games
? Nelson
Cruz: 9 games
? Orlando
Hudson: 9 games
Had Swisher last night. Taking a big risk, he homered his first AB so I’m up to two now.
BTS: R.Cano
HR: M.Texiera
Surv: Rays
Cano is slumping now a bit but I think it will take a miracle for him to not get a hit in this situation. That is Pinero pitching a 2 hitter or so.
Vinny1979, that was a real bad luck. But after this, I am writing off Crawford if I get any meaningful streak going again. He is like a little kid who always get hurt because he has too much energy. This happens often with him.
Hanleny might not be playing today. Read a news about the mgr. may want to give him a rest with Murphy hitting HRs. I posted this more than 2 hrs ago just to give everyone heads up. Mauer is out with PH likely.
Yesterday I made two great changes by changing my BTS pick from Mark Teixeira to Miguel Cabrera and my survivor pick from the Yankees to the Cardinals. Both streaks are at 3.
I failed to announce that the highest no selection in home run was at 4 (forgot the user name) and that user is now back at 0.
Today
Beat the Streak: Robinson Cano
Survivor: Cardinals
Home Run: Justin Morneau
Highest no selctions
Beat the Streak:ksh060606 (page 7) streak of 17
Survivor: briansparx (page 1) streak of 9
Home run:velcroisaok (page 1) streak of 4
All of these users are going back to 0.
I’m moving on from the Crawford debacle last night. I will be back at 12 by the end of the month or the first day of August but I will be there again. I have chosen Herrera today as he is facing Nolasco and he hits righties well and Nolasco has given up the most hits on the year so yeah. My pick and keeping it. A Gone in HR BTS and Cards in Survivor.
Here’s my first go with LaV’s List hopefully it shows up properly.
Today’s Top Picks of the current Top2500, 133 batters picked overall
Batter, Times Picked, Percentage
Pick Times Picked Percentage
Robinson Cano 360 14.4 (1rst & 2nd)
Carl Crawford 241 9.64 (Pinch Hit??)
Ichiro Suzuki 229 9.16
Ryan Braun 204 8.16
Josh Hamilton 101 4.04 (3rd & 4th)
Evan Longoria 101 4.04 (Already Good)
Matt Holliday 94 3.76
Hanley Ramirez 79 3.16
Albert Pujols 71 2.84
V. Guerrero 58 2.32
Joe Mauer 55 2.2
No Selection 51 2.04
Highest “No Selection”: Pg#7 with streak of 17 back to zero.
Bloggers Group Top2500
UserName, Streak, Page#, Pick
RIP2TheCompetition, 17, pg8, R. Cano
baseballgirlie13, 15, pg16, J. Hamilton
_Em_, 13, pg41, E. Longoria (already good with HR)
iheartstrazzy, 9, pg89, D. Lee
I will say the highest no selection is page 7 with a streak of 17 reset to 0.
Gotta go with Robby Cano. He has came through for me 8 out of 9 times…I’ve only picked him once during my 17 game streak though.
to get my streak to 14 i have chosen hanley and my brother has chosen longoria to get his to 10!!
@bts I don’t think he’s slumping too bad. He had 2 hits Sunday & I looked back at yesterday’s game & he had at least two line outs so he’s hitting the ball hard at least just came up with an 0-for. Hopefully he comes through for at least one hit today.
Why is Miranda batting DH? This guy blows. At least put Thames. Cano protection @ the bottom has fallen off.
Hmmm…the only thing I was worried about was Miranda hitting behind Cano for today’s game & already it’s having an effect. Intentional walk to Cano to get to Miranda.
@bts all u need is one hit though & Cano is still very good at getting u that.
They intent walked him first AB yesterday too. I hate Angels. They always play girlie baseball.
This sort of thing always happens @ a pivotal time. I remember last year, the last guy with the chance @ 57 got screwed on Mauer. Tigers intent walked plus another walk which was just a intent walk in disguise.
This is why I am sticking with non-important player for my new approach. Either lead off guys or those batting @ the bottom. The popular picks got me nowhere. Today I am going with Thome.
LOL. They just walked Jim Thome. I tell you this game is hilarious.
Haha. Pinero. What a moron. He thought he can get away with pitching Cano outside. The first pitch down the middle & blast off. LOL!
2 run home run by Robinson Cano! All of us Cano pickers are safe!
Haha. Thome just walked again
Can’t stand that they have Miranda even on the team. Absolutely terrible, and batting behind your best hitter so far in Cano, they’re just going to walk Cano to get to Miranda, like they’ve done a second time.
Having trouble posting, finally got this through…Pineiro has won like 8 games in-a-row, he was definitely due for a beating.
Hmmm…I’ve only had 6 out of 18 days where my player had a multi-hit game.
Went with Brauney to try and ride me to 4.
I’m sick of these umpires thinking they’re bigger than the game. No one comes to see the damn umpires call the game .
Thome walks 4 times. Becuase I am @ zero, its same as no hit. LOL! Why would anyone walk Thome. He is old with back problems.
@rip2, you’re busting out to the top. You’re moving on up to penthouse… Play the Jeffersons theme for yourself.
Pick of the day Infante OOL. Surprising given he is the hottest hitter on the team now w/ awesome #s against the pitcher. They rather squeeze in a room for broken Chip.
Dave – Congrats on the streak and for actually being able to pick Cubs Derrek Lee on days when he gets a hit. Send me an email the next time you like him so I can get in on the action. I need all the help I can get 🙂
vinny1979- Good luck on restarting your streak. 🙂
That sure was a weird debacle with Crawford.
“I remember last year, the last guy with the chance @ 57 got screwed on Mauer. Tigers intent walked plus another walk which was just a intent walk in disguise.”
Maybe I am remembering wrong, but I thought Mauer was 0 for 5 in that game?
And Braun brings me to 4.
“Maybe I am remembering wrong, but I thought Mauer was 0 for 5 in that game?”
0 for 2 with 2 walks. I remember that Tawainse pitcher who got sent back down Tye or something intent walked him second time. One more caveat, stay away from big hitters in important games.
Sep 18 DET W 3-0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 .442 .608 1.050 .373
@Jew. Will do.
I am actually shocked Max Sch. is manhandling the TX hitters. All those guys are excellent fastball hitters. I guess Max got extra juice or something in his.
Under the radar guy: Neil Walker. Either he is eating his Wheaties with special potion this week or he maybe a good use for BTS in the future.
If you want a real under the radar pick, look at Omar Vizquel for the White Sox. The man has had 6 multi-hit games in his current 7-game hit streak. And Gordon Beckham has also had a really nice streak of 8 days in a row (5 multi-hit games) until his 0-fer last night. I wouldn’t have picked against King Felix tonight, but those of you who don’t want to pick the popular guy should look at some of these guys. You could have a 7-game hitting streak right now without the need of Mauer or Hamilton. 🙂
yes sir..hanley singles and scores in 1st..14 game hit streak for me!! yay..u should put me on that list 2morrow 00liber..joined group late so it will only say i have 4 but i rly have 14!! and my bros at 10
My Survivor Streaks have been too short and I always look for an easy pick – Like Johnson of Marlins, Wainwright in a St. Louis home game and ditto for Sabathia. Well tomorrow all three of them are on the mound. Now what do I do?
My 12 game streak is a distant memory and my recent 3 game o-fer is like a festering wound. So I’m warning everyone that I going with Teixeira on Thursday in BTS and HR BTS. carolann223 remember what I said. Teixeira is 7 for 11 v. Chen of KC which includes 6 HR’s. Can he get a hit even with me picking him?
I’m having trouble getting a streak going. Going into the All-Star break, I had a streak of 5. The first game back and it’s back to 0. Then I can’t get one the next day and it’s still 0. Then I get to 1 and then to 2, and today I pick Carlos Pena (What was I thinking?), and now I’m back to 0 again. Soooooo, I’m going to pick random hitters, some without even knowing the pitcher and see where this goes. If I do get who I have picked now, I’ll be up to 9. If I can hit 20 then I’ll start to make better choices.
Herrera did get a hit and my streak has restarted. Back up I go.
The Cardinals won 5-1, both my streaks are at 4.
“Hmmm…I’ve only had 6 out of 18 days where my player had a multi-hit game.”
That is good though, because otherwise you flash out quickly.
“0 for 2 with 2 walks. I remember that Tawainse pitcher who got sent back down Tye or something intent walked him second time. One more caveat, stay away from big hitters in important games.
Sep 18 DET W 3-0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 .442 .608 1.050 .373”
Oh, my fault, I looked at it quickly.
I thought you meant the overall leader cause his streak was also snapped with Mauer.
“If you want a real under the radar pick, look at Omar Vizquel for the White Sox. The man has had 6 multi-hit games in his current 7-game hit streak.”
The only problem with him is you never know if he is going to start. Isn’t Alexei Ramirez normally the starting shortstop?
“Teixeira is 7 for 11 v. Chen of KC which includes 6 HR’s.”
omg, I wish I would have seen that.
That is insane.
although, he might get walked because of those numbers though.