Batting Around: How many games does it take for you to care about a hitting streak?

Joe DiMaggio still holds the record at 56

Throughout the season, the CBS Sports MLB experts will bring you a weekly Batting Around roundtable breaking down pretty much anything. The latest news, a historical question, thoughts about the future of baseball, all sorts of stuff. Last week we debated whether the Pirates should trade Paul Skenes. This week we're going to tackle hitting streaks.

After how many games do you start to care about a hitting streak?

R.J. Anderson: I think we have to specify what we mean by "care." A hit streak of any real length (say 15-plus games) is impressive upon itself. If we're talking about in relation to Joe DiMaggio's record, or something along those lines, then I would say I don't start clocking matters until a batter gets past 30 games. To wit, there've been only 17 occasions of a 30-plus-game hitting streak in the wild-card era. None of those have occurred since 2018. So, yeah, if you get beyond 30 games, I'm paying attention, I'm caring. Otherwise? I tip my cap, I'm just not making the same level of effort to check in on your progress on any given night.

Matt Snyder: An old friend once told me a good rule of thumb is halfway to Joe DiMaggio's record, which means 28 (as the record is 56). I wouldn't start religiously following until probably 40 games, but once a player gets to 28, I'll perk up a little. I will fully admit this isn't the type of stat that really excites me in general, but I'd also be a good soldier for the people who were interested if we saw one get up into the 40s. 

Mike Axisa: I've really softened on this over the years. I used to not really care until 25-28 games or so. Now, if a player gets to 15 games, I'm like hey, good job. A 20-game hitting streak has my full attention. It is so hard to hit now. Pitchers and defenses are so good that every base hit is a like a tiny little miracle. To answer the question -- which I phrased poorly, "care" is not really what I was going for -- I begin paying attention around 10 games, then pay attention a little more around 15 games. Once you get to 20 games, I'm all-in, and keeping tabs every night.

Dayn Perry: I think I mostly align with Matt on this issue, but I'll raise the bar just a bit. I like "more than halfway to DiMaggio" as the standard, so that would lead me to 29 games. However, 29 is too close to the nice round number of 30, so 30 it is. That's when I start paying Serious Attention to a hit streak. In practice, though, I'll probably take notice around 24 or 25. Thirty, though, would be my "check the box score every day" standard.