[rockford]

With the field reduced to 96 teams after the Play-In Round, assignments are being made for Quarterfinal pool play.


There will be six 16-team pools. Each will be put through 10 154-game seasons, after which the 48 teams with the highest winning percentages will advance to the Semifinals.


This round will go a long way toward separating the contenders from the pretenders. The top 72 seeds all made it this far by simply performing extremely well in the initial qualifier. They haven’t been tested since, whereas the lower seeds have already survived two or three qualifiers to get this far.


Pool 1 has some intriguing matchups. League 1 features not only the current highest seed – the surprising 1933 Yankees, originally seeded 233rd – but three strong Dead Ball-era contenders, including the two teams who were originally seeded 1-2 at the start of the GTOAT Tournament, the 1906 Cubs and 1902 Pirates.


League 2 features three teams of recent vintage (2019 Nationals, 2017 Indians and 2017 Astros). The Nationals will be trying to prove they really belong, after beginning the tournament seeded 349th.


League 2 also includes the unfortunate pairing of the 1971 and 1972 Pirates.


Here are Pool 1's league assignments, listed by each team’s current seeding, with original seeding in parentheses:



League 1
1 1933 Yankees (233)
13 1902 Pirates (2)
25 1986 Mets (36)
37 1976 Reds (111)
49 1906 Cubs (1)
61 1909 A’s (163)
73 2019 Twins (146)
85 1951 Yankees (91)


League 2
7 1937 Yankees (43)
19 1951 Giants (137)
31 2019 Nationals (349)
43 1972 Pirates (164)
55 1955 Yankees (142)
67 1971 Pirates (278)
79 2017 Indians (121)
91 2017 Astros (139)