1979 Fantasy Astrology Recap
View the 1979 FABL Lineups Here!
Baseball is happening! It’s been just over a week since Opening Day, and so far Taurus and Pisces have picked up right where they left off with strong first-matchup performances. But not even the start of the real life 2022 season can curb the progress of my reverse-chronological trip through Fantasy Astrology Baseball League history. So as the first season of a historic new collective bargaining agreement begins, here’s the beginning of a brand new decade: the 1970s!
Capricorn and Scorpio were the two highest-scoring signs in 1979, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at the yearly awards winners in the Negative Pol. (I’m going to start using this abbreviation instead of Polarity.) In fact, on face value, it would seem like Pisces was the team to beat in the Water Division. Slugging Red Sox outfielder Jim Rice (2,806 / 17.8) was co-winner of the NP MVP award (an honor he’d share with Cancer Crab Don Baylor (2,840 / 17.5) of the Angels).
Astros ace J.R. Richard (3,199 / 84.2) had 100 more strikeouts than his closest NL competitor in 1979, just one year before his career would end tragically due to a stroke. And Rangers closer Jim Kern (2,683 / 37.8) was far and away the best relief pitcher in the majors. But star power isn’t everything, and the Fish actually finished 11th out of the 12 signs in total fantasy points.
Capricorn’s top scorers were in the pitching department: #3 NP scoring starter Steve Carlton (2,314 / 66.1) (who was behind Richard and Ron Guidry (2,528 / 76.6) the Virgo ace), and #2 reliever Bruce Sutter (2,305 / 37.2). Offensively, catcher Darrell Porter (2,285 / 14.6) and first baseman Steve Garvey (2,228 / 13.8) provide a lefty-righty combo in the middle of the order.
We’ve already seen Tom Seaver (2,018 / 63.1) as the top new player added to my All-Time database in the 1980s, but he was outpitched on the 1979 Scorpio Stingers by Joe Niekro (2,257 / 59.4). SCO’s offensive leader was the leadoff hitter for the real life World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates, Omar Moreno (2,435 / 15.0). Both were #4 in the NP, for pitchers and position players, respectively.
Sagittarius was the clear winner of the Fire Division, thanks in large part to Positive Pol co-Cy Young Award winner Mike Flanagan (2,625 / 67.3) (shared with Phil Niekro (2,674 / 60.8), the Aries brother of Scorpio Joe). The Archers also had the home run leaders of both real-life leagues: Cubs left fielder Dave Kingman (2,345 / 16.2) and Brewers center fielder Gorman Thomas (2,283 / 14.6) – remember before the Brewers switched leagues in 1998?
Once again the Air Division has a split winner, depending on positional eligibility rules – this time it concerns relief pitchers with a handful of starts qualifying at the position. Ed Farmer (1,274 / 24.0) had five starts split between the Rangers and the White Sox (both AL West teams at the time), and Byron McLaughlin (1,152 / 24.5) started seven contests in his third of five seasons in the bigs. Without even these mediocre fantasy performers, only one reliever had more than 306 fantasy points: Pirates lefty co-closer Grant Jackson (1,152 / 16.0).
Each sign had an ace at the top of their rotations: Tommy John (2,398 / 64.8) for the Twins, Dennis Eckersley (2,225 / 67.4) for the Scales. On the offensive side, each has several MVP-level performances. Libra had the trio of Dave Winfield (2,616 / 16.5), Mike Schmidt (2,546 / 15.0), and Keith Hernandez (2,512 / 15.6), the number two, three, and four scorers in the Positive Pol (behind Aquarian batting leader Fred Lynn (2,703 / 18.4)). Gemini had Dave Parker (2,501 / 15.8), Ron LeFlore (2,431 / 16.4), and Ken Singleton (2,372 / 14.9), numbers five, six, and seven in the PP.
Rounding out the rest of the awards, Aries had the top two Positive relievers: Sid Monge (1,919 / 25.3) was the dedicated closer in Cleveland, while Tom Hume (1,885 / 33.1) split his time between closing and starting for the other Ohio team. They weren’t opener-style outings for Cincinnati either: according to Hume’s splits on baseball-reference, he averaged 6.9 innings per start in 12 starts.
One Rookie of the Year had a much more storied career than the other: Rick Sutcliffe (1,841 / 47.2) of the Cancer Crabs would pitch for 18 years and then become a broadcaster (currently at ESPN). After winning the PP RoY, John Fulgham (1,470 / 73.5) would pitch for only 14 more STARTS, due to a rotator cuff injury the following year.
Next time, I’ll explore some findings that came up while I was obsessively going through the rosters of MLB The Show 2022, namely some key players who were left out of the game’s player pool, and some possible reasons for that.