2012 Invitation:

With the NCAA basketball tournament in full swing and many of our brackets broken, it's time to start thinking about the 2012 Major League Baseball season. In fact, the first pitch of the 2012 regular season will be thrown on Wednesday, April 4th. So, with that in mind, it's time to organize my 7th annual MLB Over/Under pool.

Note: It has since been pointed out that the Mariners and Athletics are actually opening the MLB season in Japan the last week of March. So be it. I'm not going to say that baseball is starting until the first pitch is thrown on American soil.

In its inaugural year, we had 19 people play. Last year, we had 99 participants. Will we crack the century mark this year?

The rules are simple: For a $20 entry fee, you must predict OVER or UNDER the number of wins for any 10 MLB teams this upcoming season. You will select your 10 picks in order of confidence. You'll assign 10 points to the pick you're most confident with, 9 points for your second favorite pick, 8 points for your third choice, and so on. If you're selection proves accurate, you'll earn that many points. You can only pick each MLB team once.

The person who scores the most points wins the pool. A perfect bracket would score 55 points. Depending on the number of entries I receive, I'll probably pay out the top five spots, with the last place "loser" winning his $20 entry fee back. For a $20 investment, it seems well worth the 6 months of entertainment you'll accumulate this baseball season.

Remember - there are 30 teams in baseball - and you only need to render an opinion on 10 teams. This should be a snap, right?

A link to the excel sheet that should be used for making your picks is on the right side of this page.

If/when you have any questions, let me know. Otherwise, these sheets are due back to me exactly two weeks from today (April 3rd). Feel free to forward this invitation to anyone else you feel might be interested in joining - as long as they pay me the $20. You can use the email link on the right side of this page to send me your picks.

Shortly after the season starts, I'll start updating the website that will track all our picks and the standings. Similar to the past six years, I plan on updating this site every day or two, so it'll be easy to follow the results.

When you send me your bracket, let me know which method you'd like to use for payment and I'll send instructions.

Good luck, everyone!

Good luck! If you have any questions, just let me know.