Friday, January 4, 2013

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:


8 comments:

Rod (Padrographs) said...

I will take the Padres

AdamE said...

Red Sox Please!!

The Diamond King said...

Dodgers me!

Doc said...

Sorry guys, the seeds are not open for selection until after the prizes are named. I will underline and bold that part of the post.

BrerSkwerl said...

I'm confused about one thing (and, not to harsh the buzz of the other commenters, it is not over the fact that you haven't yet opened your selection process yet, correct...?), are you saying that you are giving each selector a 'franchise' card representing the team they choose, to encourage all thirty teams being chosen? Are the seeds being chosen in groups of five, where the first batch of prizes [(e.g.) Nyjer Morgan, Brien Taylor (East Carteret represent!), Sean Doolittle (OK... If this happens, I will take the A's...), Pete Rose (Jr.!), & A-Fraud (TX fathead version...)} are followed by five more appealing choices, then five EVEN more appealing, on and on...?

BrerSkwerl said...

Sorry, that comment took me like, fifteen minutes to produce using my phone... ;)

Doc said...

I have selected 30 cards, one for each team. There is one Dodger, one Yankee, etc. The winner of the tourney gets the card for their team. I will release the prizes in batches of 5 over 6 posts.

Unknown said...

Wow! What a cool vintage contest! When does it start? How do I get signed up?

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