If you are a baseball fan (or even a sports fan in general) you more than likely possess the BEAT THE STREAK app on your smartphone. BEAT THE STREAK is an app that challenges you to reach the nearly impossible record that Joe DiMaggio accomplished in 1941 by hitting into a 56 game hitting streak. This app allows you to choose any Major Leaguer with a game scheduled to record a hit on that particular day.
“So you’re telling me that I can choose any player I want to get one hit, on any day? Sounds easy.” Wrong. In fact, it’s very difficult – in my opinion. You must keep in mind that the best hitters fail 70% of the time. Or, if you would prefer to look at it from a different perspective; the best hitters in the game average 1 1/2 hits per game. Meaning that some games they will obtain four hits, some games two, and (believe it or not) some games concluding with zero hits. Which is why I would like to pass along some helpful advice that might assist you when making your daily picks.
First: instead of focusing all of our attention on the hitters, we must pay some token attention, at the very least, to the starting pitcher of the game. Obviously the batter and his trends/statistics are the more important culprit for our final pick to help us get closer to “beating the streak.” Not only are we wanting to take into account the history between the hitter and pitcher, but also how the pitcher has performed in recent starts or historically between that specific team he is facing.
Second: The number of the at bats that a hitter gets in any given game may be the difference between ending or continuing your streak. How often do you see a team that is winning or losing by a lot and they throw out their “scrub” pitchers to finish off the game, or in baseball terms – “inning eaters.” Point being, if a hitter at the top of the line-up is still hit-less towards the end of the game, he is more likely to get one more at bat than say the 8-hole hitter. This could easily be the difference between getting that much needed hit or not. One other factor to keep in mind that relates to the number of at bats relates to being either the home or visiting team. You see, it might be more advantageous to lean towards choosing road teams’ batters while trying to “beat the streak.” Why is that? In every single MLB game, the road team is always guaranteed to bat for at least 9 innings. Whereas, if the home team is winning after 8 1/2 innings, there is no bottom of the 9th inning recorded for that particular game.
Third: Have some feel for the game. If you notice that a hitter is “slumping,” stay away from him. Do not confuse “slumping” with going 0-4 with a walk in the previous game as being in a slump. Often times, when hitters (or even teams) perform poorly offensively in their previous games; they are more inclined to have a big game or score lots of runs in their next game of competition. Good luck the rest of this Major League Baseball season and don’t hesitate to comment on this post your current and highest streaks achieved!
Current MLB World Series Winner Odds…
DODGERS (+240)
YANKEES (+330)
ASTROS (+400)
BRAVES (+800)
TWINS (+800)
CUBS (+1600)
RAYS (+2200)
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