2013 MLB Tournament Seeding and Contest Rules

I am excited to announce that the Uncle Doc’s Card Closet 2013 MLB Tournament is going to be held this year!  Since the contest was not held last year, some changes are being made to make the seeding and Blogger selection process much more interesting.

Format:

The tournament seeds are based on the final 2012 regular season records for each of the 30 teams.  2012 Postseason play has no effect (i.e., the Giants are not automatically the #1 seed in the NL).  Since Houston is moving to the American League this year, their 2012 NL Central standings are being moved over to the American League (Don’t blame me, blame Selig).  Also, if two teams had identical records, head to head matchups were used to determine who had the higher seed.

The final 2012 regular season standings and tiebreakers reveal the seeds as:

Seed		W	L	PCT		Seed		W	L	PCT
1	New York Yankees	95	67	.586		1	Washington Nationals	98	64	.605
2	Oakland Athletics	94	68	.580		2	Cincinnati Reds	97	65	.599
3	Texas Rangers	93	69	.574		3	San Francisco Giants	94	68	.580
4	Baltimore Orioles	93	69	.574		4	Atlanta Braves	94	68	.580
5	Tampa Bay Rays	90	72	.556		5	St. Louis Cardinals	88	74	.543
6	Los Angeles Angels	89	73	.549		6	Los Angeles Dodgers	86	76	.531
7	Detroit Tigers	88	74	.543		7	Milwaukee Brewers	83	79	.512
8	Chicago White Sox	85	77	.525		8	Philadelphia Phillies	81	81	.500
9	Seattle Mariners	75	87	.463		9	Arizona Diamondbacks	81	81	.500
10	Toronto Blue Jays	73	89	.451		10	Pittsburgh Pirates	79	83	.488
11	Kansas City Royals	72	90	.444		11	San Diego Padres	76	86	.469
12	Boston Red Sox	69	93	.426		12	New York Mets	74	88	.457
13	Cleveland Indians	68	94	.420		13	Miami Marlins	69	93	.426
14	Minnesota Twins	66	96	.407		14	Colorado Rockies	64	98	.395
15	Houston Astros	55	107	.340		15	Chicago Cubs	61	101	.377

The #1 seed in each league (Nationals & Yankees) are awarded a first round bye because there are 15 teams in each league.  Seeds #2 through #15 will play each other in the same format at the NCAA Basketball tournament (i.e., #2 plays #15, #3 plays #14, etc.)

Each round of the tournament is broken into 32 games, except for the final or championship round which will be 34 games.    Therefore, Round 1 consists of Games 1 through 32; Round 2 consists of Games 33 through 64; Round 3 consists of Games 65 through 96; Round 4 consists of Games 97 through 128; and Round 5 consists of Games 129 through 162.

Whichever team in each two-team matchup has the best record during each round will advance.  Records are reset at the beginning of each round and therefore are not cumulative.  If both teams in a matchup have the same record when the round is over, then tie breakers are declared.  The first tie breaker will be best record based on Head to Head play.  If the two teams did not play each other during the round or if they split their series, then the tie breaker will be decided based on the team that had the best run differential over the entire round (i.e., Runs Scored minus Runs Allowed).

Selecting a Team:

This contest is open to any and all bloggers.  Once I have opened the seeds for selection, the first person to comment and select a team based on the blog’s timestamp will earn the spot.  Teams will not be available for claiming until after all 30 of the prizes have been announced.  Only one blogger will be allowed per team, and no individual may select more than one team. 

Entry Fee:

None.  I only request that once you have selected and been approved for a team, or advance a round in the tournament, that you mention the Uncle Doc’s Card Closet 2013 MLB Tournament Contest and/or this blog (www.uncledocscardcloset.com) in a post on your blog.  That’s it.

Prizes:

This year there will be 30 prizes available, however, only the tournament winner will receive a prize.  I have personally selected one card from my collection for each franchise.  Prizes will be announced in batches of five between now and when seeds will be available for selecting.

The Catch:

In previous incarnations of this tournament, bloggers have snatched up their favorite teams without a moment’s hesitation.  This resulted in some of the less popular or poorer performing franchises in never being selected.  Because of this, the “quality” or “value” of the 30 franchise cards will be on a sliding scale.  Those teams with a higher chance to win the tournament will have a lesser “valued” card, and those teams with a Cinderella’s chance of winning will have a much, much, much higher “valued” card.  I hope this tempting bait will make some of you have second thoughts about picking your favorite team in lieu of a sweet, sweet card.  Please note that seed number is not a reflection of the sliding scale...

Prize Teasers:

Almost every card is a Hall of Famer; there are 1950s Topps cards included; and there are Hall of Famer ROOKIES.

Bracket: