Thank you Chipper Jones!

To play: http://www.mlb.com/mlb/fantasy/bts/y2009/

Third at bat, and Chipper Jones got a hit, which extends my streak to 6.

As a matter of fact, it extends several people's streaks. He was the "featured pick" of the day. He's hitting well now, and he was going up against a pitcher whom he'd hit well. First ab was a walk, second was a strike out, but he came through with the third try.

When you're playing Beat the Streak, your choices are locked an hour before the first game of the day starts. Up until then, you can change your choices as much as you want - and you can't see what anyone else is doing.

There's a button where you can check the standings. Severasl hundred people have 6 hits already - now 7 thanks to Chipper, I'll be at 6 tomorrow, since I got started a day late.

It's kind of fun to go into the standings - you can see who people chose for that day, and who they chose for the previous day. To my surprise, at least one percent of people lose their streak because they forget to choose a player for the following day! Silly! It's $100,000 and you're being careless?

So...who shall I choose for Monday, April 13?

My original pick (when I chose my original 10 a few days ago...) was Akinori Iwamura against the Yankees.

However, I confess it, part of my choice is that I don't like waiting hours and hours to find out if I'm going to get a hit. So I try to choose a game that's being played as early as possible. This is actually foolish, I know... the real way to play is to follow one team, and keep track of all its hitters, and choose one of them each day. That way, you know who's healthy, who's not, etc.

Just by going by the numbers presented by the Beat the Streak info machine, you can make mistakes. For example, a couple of days ago I'd originally chosen Marlon Byrd as my hitter of the day, because he had a great average against the pitcher Byrd's team was facing. But when I came to do my research - Byrd wasn't even scheduled to play that day! So if I'd chosen him...I wouldn't have lost my streak, since if a player doens't play there's no penalty, but I wouldn't have have added to it either, and that would have been annouing.

Anyway...let us check CBS Sportsline for tomorrow to see whe the earliest games are being played...

Detroit goes against Chicago at 1.05 pm, or Houston goes against Pittsburgh at 1.35 pm. I know nothing about the Pirates or the Astros...but I'll take a look at the players records at the Beat the Streak site...

Adam LaRouche and Nate McLouth look like they bat exceptionally well against the Astros pitcher Brian Moehler, but on the year they each have averages below the Mendoza line! Therefore, I do not think so!

Alternatively, for the Astros, Hunter Pence is hitting at a torrid pace so far this young season, but he's 2 for 6 againsst Zack Duke of the Pirates for a .333 average..but not good enough. Carlos Lee hits Duke well at .318 (7 for 22), but he's only .263 on the season. Geoff Blum is hitting exceptionally well for the Astros, and he's 0-1 against Duke.

So, I just don't know enough about these players to really choose this early in the year.

Let's check out Detroit vs the White Sox instead. I like leadoff man Granderson of Detroit.... I trust him!

And according to the stats, Granderson does hit well against White Sox pitcher Gavid Floyd. 8-25, or .320. On the young year though he's only at .280 right now. Miguel Cabrera is batting .500 right now, 11 for 22, and against Floyd he's 5 for 17, or a .294 average. I'm leaning towards Cabrera, just because he's so hot...

BUt...where does he bat in the batting order? To be safe, it's the lead-off man that should be chosen, because he typically gets more at bats than any other player... back to CBS Sportsline...

And there I see that Cabrera is the cleanup hitter, batting 4th. (And today, he's already 2 for 2!) Well, that seals the deal. He's so torrid right now, I'm going with him.

On the other hand...Placido Polanco also hits Floyd well....381, and although before today his season average was only .273, he has 3 hits today which has brought his average up to .346!!!! And since Polanco bats 2nd... chances are he'll get more at bats than Cabrera...

I've chosen Cabrera for now, but I'll revisit the choice throughout the day...