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How On Earth Did the Dream Bracket Baltimore Orioles Lose?

ByKristen Bentley|
BALTIMORE, MD - SEPTEMBER 7: Baltimore Oriole Eddie Murray is is all smiles sitting on the bench after hitting his 500th career home run off Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Felipe Lira in Baltimore 6 September. At right is Cal Ripken. AFP Photo by Ted Mathias. (Photo credit should read TED MATHIAS/AFP via Getty Images)
BALTIMORE, MD - SEPTEMBER 7: Baltimore Oriole Eddie Murray is is all smiles sitting on the bench after hitting his 500th career home run off Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Felipe Lira in Baltimore 6 September. At right is Cal Ripken. AFP Photo by Ted Mathias. (Photo credit should read TED MATHIAS/AFP via Getty Images)

The MLB: The Show Tournament isn’t the only place that virtual Baltimore Orioles are playing. Or were playing.

Online sports-betting giant DraftKings had to get into the mix by creating a Dream Bracket and their virtual Baltimore Orioles were already knocked out of the mix.

The Dream Brackets are made up of the best ever to play on a team. So, the Orioles team included Hall of Famers like Eddie Murray, Roberto Alomar, Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, Cal Ripken Jr., Mike Mussina, and Jim Palmer. Modern players like Adam Jones and Zach Britton, too.

This team, with some of the best players to ever put on their cleats, were defeated in four consecutive games by the Houston Astros. Their team has more modern players like Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, Carlos Correa, and Brad Ausmus. Their top pitchers are Nolan Ryan and Dallas Keuchel. Granted, they are good players, but only Ryan is in the Hall of Fame.

In the FOUR simulated games, here are the unlikely things that happened:

Jim Palmer’s line in the first game: 4.2 innings pitched with 5 earned runs, and 7 hits. (His career ERA was 2.86).

Error by Eddie Murray (He had 167 errors in his 21 years of play)

Error by Brooks Robinson (He has 16 Gold Glove Awards)

  • Error by Chris Hoiles (He had 29 errors in 10 seasons. His career FP was .994)

    • Not one error committed by an Astros player

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    According to the rules established by DraftKings: “For the simulation, players are rated using the average of their three best seasons on a single team. Rosters were constructed with balanced depth to specifically compete in a simulated regulation game.”

    It appears that the DraftKings may have pulled the three best seasons of the Astros players, but it is highly unlikely that in four games, the Orioles Hall of Famers would have performed this way.

    What is likely is that DraftKings is attempting to make money off of the Astros Dream Team moving forward. While the Orioles have a dedicated fan base, it is smaller than the Astros. The Astros are controversial, especially the two players that DraftKings put on the team: Altuve and Bregman. Yes, they are good, but are they Brooks Robinson good? Or Roberto Alomar good?

    Both teams are good, but it’s tough to imagine that the Orioles wouldn’t be able to get at least ONE win against the Astros. It seems like DraftKings is up to something fishy.

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