Once again, thank you all for continuing to follow along with our Baltimore Drought Bracketology tournament.
We have narrowed the field to eight players and we remain split up between ESR and Orioles Uncensored, with the Perlozzo and Trembley regions right here and the Mazzilli and Hargrove regions over there at OU.
The time has come to unveil the Elite 8 and determine our regional champions. All four #1 seeds (Mora, Tejada, Guthrie, Roberts) remain. Our lowest seeded player still alive is #6 B.J. Ryan, who we said from the beginning may have been seeded a bit too low.
Please continue to share via Facebook and Twitter. The more people are aware of the tournament, the more votes we get and the more exciting each matchup will be.
Here we go! Winners advance to the Final Four, which will be held in the Annapolis.
Perlozzo Region
(1) Melvin Mora
Over the last two rounds, #1 overall seed Melvin Mora has defeated his opponents (Corey Patterson and Ramon Hernandez) by a combined score of 192-10. That’s pretty good. He remains the clear favorite to bring home the title of “Most Beloved Oriole from the Dark Days,” but he will have to go through Jay Gibbons and, potentially, Miguel Tejada.
vs. (2) Jay Gibbons
Gibbons has snuck his way into the Elite 8 after narrowly avoiding a second round upset to 7-seed Javy Lopez and a good fight from 6-seed Luis Matos last round. He has a tough draw this week, as he will go up against the powerhouse of the tournament in Mora with a trip to the Final Four on the line.
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Trembley Region
(1) Miguel Tejada
Tejada defeated 4-seed Kevin Millar by 18 votes in what I thought would be a much closer Sweet 16 matchup. The former AL MVP’s next challenger will be a relief pitcher who, although seeded as a #6, has the potential to put up a fight.
vs. (6) B.J. Ryan
I mentioned in the first round of the tournament that B.J. Ryan was one of my favorite players growing up. In fact, I believe the exact words I used were: “I freaking loved [him].” As a result, I am thrilled that he has made it this far in the tournament and he has my vote to advance to the Final Four. However, defeating Miguel Tejada is certainly a daunting task.
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Over at Orioles Uncensored, our Elite 8 matchups feature Brian Roberts vs. Luke Scott and Jeremy Guthrie vs. Koji Uehara. Please head over there and vote!
