The Beginning of Madness

Mad World

If you could, start by imagining Bud Selig falling all the way off his rocker one day and decides that there will no longer be a 162 game season. Instead, all 30 teams will be in a tournament played on neutral sites to determine the best of the best. That means every team plays, even the dregs of the world like Baltimore and Florida. Since it's an odd number for a tournament, the top two seeds will be given first round byes. To make it fair, the reigning World Series representatives will get the top seeds. That's Boston and Colorado for those who live in a closet, or downtown New York. Like a college tournament, teams will be broken up into four regions or brackets and play in neutral sites that really hold no homefield advantage for anyone. Yes, we're bringing baseball back to Montreal. And because college ball is King in Omaha, we're invading that city too.

Now your first question might be, could be, and even if it's not, I'm pretending it's the first and answering it. Even if they're the top of the class, isn't it unfair for teams to have a bye, especially if a series goes to 5? Certainly. It's a good question to bring up and we have decided that in the spare time for Boston and Colorado, they will play Asia's finest. No, not singular teams, but Japan and Chinese allstars in scrimmage like games. They owned in the Baseball Classic, let's just assume they offer up the same competition. Yes, injuries can happen and that's too bad if they do, but let's be honest, injuries could happen in any baseball game. Your next question might be how the seedings happened and how which region they were placed in happened. Ultimately, I was striving for some equality in terms of the number of AL and NL teams per region. As funny as it turns out, the brackets turned out that way without any modifications. For seedings, I took into account things such as last season results, pre rankings, what if X Y or Z was healthy, and above all, my own preference. Actually, my own preference factored in on just a couple of instances:
1. The Angels are Anaheim, not LAA. I don't care what you say.
2. Oddly enough I modified the 1-30 rankings several times, and then several times some more. Look, tournaments will never be perfect because seedings and matchups will never please everyone.
3. Bias did not play into my seeds, for example, I hate everything about New York but they fairly got #2 seeds. Likewise, Atlanta and Oakland are on down the pecking order.
4. Small case of bias actually, San Diego is prolly lower than what their fans would like. Originally, they were even lower, but something crazy happened.. I took out the PetCo factor.

You'll see the matchups for the first round, and the second round. You can obviously deduce what the third round matchups are going to be, hopefully. From there, the Rob Deere Regional winner plays the Kent Bottenfield Regional winner, and that leaves the Todd Hollandsworth Regional winner facing the Hideki Irabu Regional winner. Final Four meets in Peyton Manning's backyard. Winners meet on the moon. One day, they will.

Now the parameters for the tournament.

Special parameters for the tournament are the following:
-Up until the Final Four, each series is the best of 5.
-All major injuries are magically erased, i.e. Chris Carpenter, Eric Chavez, J.D. Drew, John Smoltz, Yovanni Gallardo, etc. etc. are geared up and ready to go.
-Roster sizes are increased to 30.
-The reason for 30 man rosters is that once the tourney begins, teams may not sign players or call up players from the farm system. Just because I magically healed everyone at the start of the event, doesn't mean someone blows out their elbow during the event. Read: Dusty Baker, Rich Harden, Mark Prior
-Also, no trading. Not that it would matter cause anyone you acquire you can't call up.
-Instant replay will be in play.
-FOX will not be covering, I repeat, will not be covering any of the games.
-Gus Johnson will be apart of every round and will do the World Series.
-George Steinbrenner will be kept on ice the entire tournament.
-Donald Fehr will be put into a drug induced coma for the entire tournament.
-Hank Steinbrenner will be told that aliens live in Antartica, he will spend the entire tournament searching for them.
-Tampa Bay drops Devil and picks up Eagle. Owner denies any coincidence in the recent death caused by an eagle ray.
-To be fair, DH's are in effect for every team.
-In the event a game goes more than 18 innings, pitchers and hitters used and were subsequently taken out of the game between innings 1-9, will become eligible to play after inning 18.
-No weather delays, it would take a hurricane or tornado, cause every game will be in a dome of sorts.
-Players and coaches that are ejected for whatever reason will be substantially fined, but not suspended. We're not having any Amare Stoudemire incidents.
-Finally, all those young and saucy prospects that are competing for a starting position, such as Luke Hochevar, Evan Longoria, Andy Laroche, etc. etc., we're assuming at the very least, they make the 30 man roster. Cause I'm not against the Youth of the Nation.

Some people..
Barry Bonds
Roger Clemens
Mike Piazza
Jeff Weaver
Freddy Garcia
Sammy Sosa
Preston Wilson
Kenny Lofton
Rodrigo Lopez
Corey Koskie

And then...
Craig Biggio
Shawn Green
Mike Lieberthal
Mike Matheny
Ryan Klesko

You ask, why did I list all of those names? Those 15 guys are currently unemployed, either by choice (last five retired) or not (first ten have yet to be signed). Now, hypothetically, several of the first ten will wind up on teams in real life during the course of the season. But in this maddening sense of reality, I'm putting those 15 players on teams because either A. teams decided it's less of a risk in a tournament format to burn a roster spot on them or B. in the case of Biggo, why the hell not try for glory one last time. Let's be honest, Biggio could be 70 and could still outplay Chris Burke. Now on to the mad dash results. Remember, teams can obviously spend what they have and players can sign wherever they want, no restrictions but obviously no guarantees. Because life is made of silly putty.

Starting with the retired folk, in the order players signed.
1. Craig Biggio pulls the first trump card, spurns Houston, and signs on with the Indians to show Josh Barfield how to play ball.
2. Klesko goes back home to Atlanta to backup Hot and Texy, and Mattrick Diaz.
3. Mike Matheny decides to sit back and let the goodness of San Diego pitching.. pitch, to, him.
4. Mike Leiberthal says hello.. again, to the Phillies. No surprise really, he left his talent there.
5. Shawn Green sees an opportunity when Oakland fields Emil Brown and Chris Denorfia. Billy Beane sees an opportunity to get the Jewish community on his side.

Now the free agent crop, in the order they signed.
1. Roger Clemens plays it safe and goes back to Houston. Andy Pettite quickly demands to be traded immediately following the press conference.
2. Jeff Weaver heads back to the last place and only place aside from Detroit in which he was good, St. Louis. Anthony Reyes puts his house up for sale.
3. Corey Koskie boringly goes back to Minnesota.
4. Sammy Sosa in a shocker does not accept the Cubs offer, and does not accept the White Sox offer. Instead, he signs with the New York Mets.
5. Rodrigo Lopez quickly becomes the ace in Baltimore again.
6. Kenny Lofton sees a chance to show Curtis Granderson the ways of being cocky, and heads to Detroit.
7. Mike Piazza sets off a media flurry when he inks with the New York Yankees to backup Posada and Giambi.
8. Barry Bonds puts the media into a heart attack by signing with the Seattle Mariners. Raul Ibanez contemplates baseball suicide.
9. Preston Wilson wonders aloud why he even bothered to follow up Piazza and Bonds, he signs with Florida. No one notices.
10. Freddy Garcia, finally healthy, spurns a chance to make Seattle the free agency darlings by giving pitching life to the Tampa Bay Eagle Rays.

Now for your brackets. Step back Joe Lunardi, there's a hurricane a comin'

Rob Deere Bracket (Neutral Site: Omaha City, Nebraska)
1. Detroit
2. New York A
3. Philadelphia
4. Atlanta
5. Chicago A
6. Kansas City
7. Washington
8. San Francisco

1 Detroit vs. 8 San Francisco
2 NYY vs. 7 Washington
3 Philadelphia vs. 6 Kansas City
4 Atlanta vs. 5 Chicago A

1/8 vs. 4/5
2/7 vs. 3/6

Todd Hollandsworth Bracket (Neutral Site: Mexico City, Mexico)
1. Boston - Bye
2. Arizona
3. Toronto
4. Milwaukee
5. Tampa Bay
6. Minnesota
7. Pittsburgh

2 Arizona vs. 7 Pittsburgh
3 Toronto vs. 6 Minnesota
4 Milwaukee vs. 5 Tampa Bay

Boston vs. 4-5 winner
2/7 vs. 3/6

Kent Bottenfield Bracket (Neutral Site: Washington D.C.)
1. Cleveland
2. New York N
3. Seattle
4. San Diego
5. Cincinnati
6. St. Louis
7. Texas
8. Baltimore

1 Cleveland vs. 8 Baltimore
2 NYM vs. 7 Texas
3 Seattle vs. 6 St. Louis
4 San Diego vs. 5 Cincinnati

1/8 vs. 4/5
2/7 vs. 3/6

Hideki Irabu Bracket (Neutral Site: Montreal, Canada)
1. Colorado - Bye
2. Chicago N
3. Anaheim
4. Los Angeles N
5. Houston
6. Oakland
7. Florida

2 Chicago N vs. 7 Florida
3 Anaheim vs. 6 Oakland
4 Los Angeles vs. Houston

Colorado vs. 4/5 winner
2/7 vs. 3/6


In the coming days, I will post the results with narratives and with each article will be links guiding from the beginning (here) and throughout, so you can keep in order. Stay tuned, my babies.

[Kingdom_of_Zito]

Ok guys, round 1 is up and look for the next rounds to go up soon. Enjoy.

[redsrbetter]

Looks really awesome bro! I can't wait to see how this turns out. You have to be one creative madman to pull this one off. I am intrigued how Clemens will do.

Here we go...

[redsrbetter]

Oh and Reds vs. Pads = epic yawnfest? Nice...

[Kingdom_of_Zito]

I blame Dusty Baker.

[redsrbetter]

Yeah well I would too. I just wish the Reds had a chance in this one. But I love how that series turned out. And Mark Prior beaning Dusty in the dome? Hilarious...

[Kingdom_of_Zito]

Originally Posted by redsrbetter Yeah well I would too. I just wish the Reds had a chance in this one. But I love how that series turned out. And Mark Prior beaning Dusty in the dome? Hilarious...

I think they would have under Narron, granted the lineup would be something out of a science fiction novel, but..

[redsrbetter]

Originally Posted by Kingdom_of_Zito I think they would have under Narron, granted the lineup would be something out of a science fiction novel, but..

Haha, nah Narron would have made it extra yawn esque.

[Kingdom_of_Zito]

Playing the padres is going to be a yawn no matter what.

[redsrbetter]

Oh man, Leo where are you at to defend yourself? PFF? Fresnan?

[Kingdom_of_Zito]

I'll take any readers, even padre fans.
>=)

I kid! They did win.

[browntown653]

Prod