1976 Fantasy Astrology Recap
View the 1976 FABL Lineups Here!
I’ll spare you the whole sob story about how laptop trouble has precluded me from building the latest versions of my Fantasy Astrology Baseball lineups on MLB The Show 2022. But suffice it to say, I now have some time to continue my reverse-chronological trip through FABL history into the 24-team era. I was concerned going into 1976 that the loss of two teams (the Blue Jays and the Mariners) would reduce the player pool enough that it would be difficult to build out 12 fantasy astrology lineups. But aside from some difficulty in the shortstop market, 1976 proved a huge success: not only were there no changes to the playoff entrants due to positional eligibility shenanigans, but the top four scoring teams all played in different divisions!
Why are all the top Capricorn starters left-handed??
Capricorn took the top spot, thanks to an all-lefty starting rotation that included three of the top six scoring Negative Polarity pitchers. Randy Jones (2,879 / 72.0) of the Padres won the real-life NL Cy Young Award, but he fell well short of Cancer Crabs ace Frank Tanana (3,323 / 97.7) for the fantasy astrology’s NP honors. But Jones was joined by Steve Carlton (2,510 / 71.7) of the NL East leading Phillies and a pair of Mets – Jerry Koosman (2,695 / 79.3) and Jon Matlack (2,424 / 69.3) – to fill out a tremendous Goats starting staff. The offense was anchored by Roy White (2,120 / 13.6), a left fielder who thankfully played enough center field to qualify there. In an interesting note, White and his sign-mate Chris Chambliss (1,848 / 11.8) both played for real-life Yankees, who lost in the World Series to the Reds, who were led by Virgo NP MVP Joe Morgan (3,015 / 21.4).
In the Positive Polarity, Aries took the crown, despite also not having any yearly award winners. In the only rotation that could rival Capricorn’s, the Rams had FIVE 2,000-point scorers; although leaders Don Sutton (2,503 / 71.5) and Bert Blyleven (2,502 / 69.5) finished just fourth and fifth in the Pole, with Catfish Hunter (2,434 / 67.6) not far behind. Aries also enjoyed the services of the fourth and fifth scoring PP batters: Pete Rose (2,279 / 14.1) and Ken Griffey (2,223 / 15.0), who were also real-life teammates, batting 1st and 2nd on the Reds. The closest an Aries player came to any yearly hardware was closer John Hiller (1,676 / 29.9), who finished third behind a pair of Leo relief aces: Bill Campbell (2,300 / 29.5) and Skip Lockwood (1,744 / 31.1).
Much more impressive in terms of yearly awards were the Air Division winning Libra Scales, who had the Polarity’s co-MVP’s and CYA winner. Twins first baseman Rod Carew (2,459 / 15.8) had a slight edge over Phillies third sacker Mike Schmdit (2,440 / 15.3), but since they’re separated by less than 20 points, I thought it was appropriate to have them share the award. Incidentally, I once again shifted Carew back to second base (while also cheating third baseman Enos Cabell (1,497 / 10.4) at first base) in order to maximize fantasy points, but even with light hitting Braves second baseman Rod Gilbreath (913 / 7.9) at the keystone, the Scales still lead their division. On the pitching side, Jim Palmer (3,092 / 77.3) is the third 3,000-point scorer on the season, beating out Leo Vida Blue (2,883 / 77.9) and Aquarian Nolan Ryan (2,546 / 65.3) for the PP’s top pitching honors.
Scorpio took advantage of a weak Water Division to head back to the playoffs, but it’s not as though the Stingers were devoid of talent. Tom Seaver (2,805 / 80.1) was the number three scoring pitcher in the Negative Pole, and he got support from John Candelaria (2,184 / 68.3) and Wayne Garland (2,219 / 58.4) in the rotation (although Garland also had a fair number of relief appearances for the Orioles in ’76). Their top closer Rawly Eastwick (2,010 / 28.3) shared the NP’s Reliable Reliever Award with the similarly-named Rollie Fingers (2,024 / 28.9) of Virgo. SCO’s RP2 Ron Reed (1,813 / 30.7) was #3 in the Pole, behind Capricorn stopper Charlie Hough (1,918 / 24.9). And the Scorpions offense was led by the double leadoff attack of Mickey Rivers (2,062 / 15.1) of the Yankees and Rick Monday (1,946 / 14.2) of the Cubs.
While 1976 wasn’t a particularly strong year for rookies beyond the top two, it’s definitely worth mentioning Leo Mark Fidrych (2,481 / 80.0), who logged an astonishing 24 complete games out of 29 starts as a 21-year-old! Not surprisingly, he managed only 162 more innings over four years in the remainder of his career, possibly because of overuse in his debut season. The Negative Polarity’s top first-year was Taurus pitcher Pat Zachry (1,919 / 50.5), who won the World Series in Cincinnati as a freshman, one year before finding himself traded to the Mets in a package for the legendary Tom Seaver.