Johnstown vs Johnstown

[knowitall]

This should confuse the home fans. Who will they vote for?

I think the winner will play a few more games.

Johnstown-New Orleans for the championship Sunday afternoon?

[Brian Varmecky]

I think that confusion will hurt the energy of the game. Fans like cheering for Johnstown, but cheering against Johnstown?

The championship, and even the finalists, are far from decided. Who knows, we might see New Orleans going home today. (BTW, congrats to Toledo for making it this far in their first year) This has been a wide-open tournament since the start and after 4 days, I still don't think there's a favorite to win it.

Brian_V

[knowalittle]

I think either Jtwn team can win tonight. Beyond that, I think Delweld would have a much better shot of getting to the title game because of the pitching depth, especially if Martella's would win tonight on another long outing by Wahl. But I agree with your thinking.
I have:
NB over Brooklyn
NOLA over Toledo
Delweld over Martella's
NOLA over NB
Delweld over Brooklyn
Delweld over NB
Delweld vs. NOLA, winner take all

[jimb]

Brian, or someone that may know: What kind of brackets do they have for this tournament? They kind of make no sense to me, you have 2 undefeated teams left Brooklyn and New Brunswick that are playing today the winner of that game will be 4-0, it would seem to me that in most double elimination tournaments that would put the winner in the championsip and they would have to be beaten twice by whoever comes out on top out of the loser's bracket. Maybe you can shed some light on it for me. Thank You.

[Brian Varmecky]

AAABA brackets are perfect. You have to win 6 games no matter what and you don't have teams playing different amounts of games. 4-0 and would put you in the championship if you needed 5 wins, but you need 6, so 4-0 just gets you to the semi-finals. More importantly, if the 4-0 team goes directly to the finals, then you'd have severals teams at 3-1 or 4-1 that would have to battle amongst themselves, resulting in the 4-0 team potentially playing a 4-1 or 5-1 team in the final.

[jimb]

Thank you Brian for clearing that up. One more question if a team goes into the championship undefeated does their opponent have to beat them twice? It is double elimination right?

[Brian Varmecky]

Yup. It'd be 5-0 vs 4-1.

Brian_V

[jimb]

Brian, It looks like the two best teams in the tournament will play for the second time...New Brunswick and New Orleans. Also if I am reading the bracket right(please correct me if I'm wrong here) If New Brunswick were to lose to New Orleans, they would have to play them again? That makes absolutely no sense to me.

[Brian Varmecky]

Schedule tomorrow will be:

New Brunswick (4-0) vs New Orleans (4-1)
Johnstown (3-1) vs Brooklyn (3-1)

The JTN / BRK winner will play New Brunswick for the first game on Sunday guarenteed. If New Brunswick wins tonight, then that game will be for the championship. If New Brunswick loses tonight, then the winner of the Sunday game will play New Orleans for the championship.

If New Brunswick loses to New Orleans, they might not even make the championship. They have to win 1 more game yet to make the championship. If New Orleans wins against New Brunswick, that's 5 wins for NORD and they'll be in the final.

Brian_V

[jimb]

Ok still confused about the brackets and how the teams matchup but, you say New Brunswick plays the winner of JTN/BRK no matter what first game Sunday, ok, if New Brunswick beats New Orleans for the 2nd time tomorrow, then would the winner of the JTN/BRK game have to beat New Brunswick twice to win the championship? Thanks Brian, maybe I am thick but you seem to know whats going on, do you know the scheduled times for tomorrow's and Sunday's games?

[AmyV]

After 3, the game is tied at 1.

UPDATE: Delweld leads 3-1 at stretch time. They scored their 2 runs in the 5th. Martella's is still hitless. (I believe the run they have they walked in with the bases loaded in the beginning....how the bases got loaded, I am not sure)

[Brian Varmecky]

Correct. The winner of the JTN/BRK game will either have to beat New Brunswick twice or New Brunswick and New Orleans, depending on how the NB / NO game turns out.

SATURDAY (The Day of Rematches)

New Brunswick vs New Orleans @ 3:00PM
Johnstown vs Brooklyn @ 7:30PM

Last time, New Brunswick defeated New Orleans 5-4
Last time, Brooklyn defeated Johnstown 6-5 (12 innings)

Gonna be a great day of baseball.

Brian_V

[knowalittle]

With all due respect, Brian, no brackets are perfect. The AAABA bracket keeps teams on an even keel gamewise, but it really provides no advantage to winner's bracket teams who deserve an advantage because they're beating other teams that have no losses. Every team New Brunswick has beaten has been undefeated and every team New Orleans has beaten has had at least one loss yet those two teams meet today on basically even footing. I have a problem with that. And I'm not necessarily saying there's a better solution, just that this bracket has pluses and minuses.

[Brian Varmecky]

Keeping the games played even is the most important part of the brackets. There's only one game where teams with different game-totals play (today's NB/NO game) and even then it still works out in the end.

I don't see why there should be an advantage given to a team just because they win on the first day. The pairings aren't based on regular season records or any seeding system; it's random. Just because a team is undefeated, or just because they win their first or first two games doesn't mean they're a good team. They might have just gotten a lucky draw. Youngstown started 1-0 and now they're out, and with loses to Zanesville and Lansing.

Meanwhile, the 1-loss Altoona and Philadelphia teams were better teams that Youngstown. They were probably better teams than Buffalo, too, which was also 1-0. Everybody has to win 6 games no matter what, and that's what makes the brackets perfect. You can't cheat out of wins just by drawing well on the opening day.

Brian_V

[jimb]

That is exactly what I was thinking about the brackets, have seen many tournaments and the way they usually work is staying in the winners bracket gives you an advantage. In this tournament the only advantage you would get by staying in the winners bracket is making the championship undefeated.

Also usually in a tournament when you get this far, to the semi finals, previous opponents are avoided if possible, in this case Johnstown should be playing New Brunswick and Brooklyn should be playing New Orleans.

To me obviously nobody wants to play New Orleans, but I think New Brunswick has a good chance of beating them, they have been hitting the ball well, they have their # 1 pitcher available, and New Orleans used their # 1.