In conjunction with the ‘Out of the Park Baseball’ video game series, Major League Baseball (MLB) has officially unveiled the MLB Dream Bracket presented by DraftKings, which is set to begin next week on April 20.
Featuring all-time teams for each of the 30 current Major League franchises, as well as teams consisting of Negro Leagues Stars and 25 & Under Stars, the MLB Dream Bracket is a 32-team best-of-seven simulation game.
As of now, fans will be able to use the DraftKings mobile app to register and compete in free-to-play pools based on the upcoming ‘Out of the Park Baseball’ produced game simulations.
MLB Network’s Scott Braun and Jon Morosi will provide play-by-play and analysis of the games, with simulations set to begin with eight round-of-32 matchups being played on April 20 and 21, with select games as well as the analysis being made available via live stream on the MLB Network’s Twitch channel and within the DraftKings mobile app.
Ezra Kucharz, Chief Business Officer, DraftKings, stated: “Baseball fans have passionately debated about the best players and teams across the 150-plus years of the sport. Now DraftKings and Major League Baseball are partnering to bring the discussions to life by collaborating on the innovative gamification of simulated MLB matchups.
“Our longstanding partnership with Major League Baseball has always been focused on enhancing the fan experience and we are proud to offer fans everywhere yet another way to engage with our products and the great game of baseball.”
Each team will have a 26-man roster that has been compiled by reporters from MLB.com. These squads will consist of 15 hitters and 11 pitchers, with player ratings being calculated using the average of their three best seasons on a single team for the simulations.
A statement released by the MLB read: “Rosters were constructed with balanced depth to specifically compete in a simulated regulation game. The full rosters for each of the 32 competing teams, which include a combined 185 Hall of Famers, 115 Most Valuable Players, 61 Cy Young Award winners and 67 Rookie of the Year Award winners, can be viewed at www.mlb.com/news/mlb-dream-bracket-rosters.”
The 32-team bracket is split by league, with teams seeded hierarchically based on World Series titles won, pennants won, postseason appearances and regular-season winning percentage.
The Negro Leagues Stars and 25 & Under Stars are No. 8 seeds in the American League and National League, respectively.
