The Next Round Begins With A Christmas Theme – Naughty Or Nice

Okay, we have made it through the blind audition stage of the contest for a coveted prize that looks something like this…

If you recall, we started with 27 eligible and deserving participants and have since dwindled that number to 14. 14 eligible, deserving participants who will now enter into the next phases of the contest, including one with a Christmas season theme. Were these players naughty or nice? Were there scandals that disqualify them or were they scandal-free for their careers? Before we get to the naughty and nice elimination phase, let’s have another participant purge to thin out the 14 remaining players.

For the 14 players, I have sectioned them off to six outfielders, three pitchers, and five infielders. To “thin out the herd,” I have ranked each player based on the competition’s field in each positional section and will eliminate the lowest ranked player in each section. This will get us to 11 players to move on. Here goes:

Outfielders:

MR – 1
CB – 2
AJ – 3
TH – 4
RB – 5
NM – 6

Infielders:

AR – 1
DW – 2
DP – 3
JR – 4
DM – 5

Pitchers:

AP – 1
FH – 2
MB – 3

So, in this elimination round – MB, DM, and NM will be sent home. Ok, now to the “Naughty or Nice” portion of the contest. Looking over the history of the 11 players remaining, were there any major team scandals, steroid allegations, drug allegations, MLB suspensions of any kind? Because if there are any, this would disqualify the participant from moving on to the final round. Based on media reports over the past few decades, the following participants will not be allowed to move on in the contest, despite their illustrious careers and all-time player statuses. Those players are:

So, after the “Naughty or Nice” round, we have 6 deserving candidates who had amazing careers, avoided major scandals, were one of the best at their position compared to their peers, and will now be judged in the final round of competition for the ultimate prize, that looks something like this…

And those 6 remaining are:

Stay tuned for the final round and who I would pick as the most deserving participant left. I look forward to crowning the champion of this competition in the next week or so, so stay tuned.