1980 Fantasy Astrology Recap
View the 1980 FABL Lineups Here!
Since we’re going reverse-chronologically through Fantasy Astrology Baseball League history, 1980 represents the end of the decade that goes from 1980 to 1989. And I’m very pleased to mark this milestone with a victory by the Cancer Crabs! This is the first time my home sign has won a fantasy points title since 2012 (reverse-chronologically speaking), and they accomplished this feat even when we account for any positional eligibility shenanigans. And there were plenty of these to be had, especially in the pitching department.
I talked last time about how it’s a stupid rule to disqualify a pitcher from a team’s starting rotation simply because they had more relief appearances than starts, as long as they also had at least 10 games started. But it’s more reasonable to disqualify such a pitcher from a bullpen, since the innings accrued from starting provide an inordinate boost to fantasy point totals. And either way you arrange the Cancer rotation, the Crabs need one of these pitchers in each of these two roles. The top starter is Steve Stone (2,327 / 62.9), the real-life AL Cy Young Award winner and starter of the All-Star Game. The top reliever is Hall of Famer Rich Gossage (2,129 / 33.3), the co-winner of the Negative Polarity’s Reliable Reliever award. But the #2 in each category is a “swingman” or utility pitcher: Rudy May (2,099 / 51.2) of the Yankees and Mario Soto (2,001 / 37.8) of the Reds.
But even leaving those two pitchers completely off the roster and using alternates at each spot, Cancer still finishes above Scorpio in the Water Division, despite the fact that the Stingers had the NP’s best rookie AND relief pitcher: Doug Corbett (2,132 / 29.2). However, just like the following year, the Earth Division leading Capricorn Goats look like they might be favored in a semifinal matchup, thanks to both the Negative MVP Rickey Henderson (2,755 / 17.4) AND CYA winner Steve Carlton (3,548 / 93.4). Cancer did have the NP MVP runner up Willie Wilson (2,663 / 16.5), who in 1980 became the first player in history to reach 700 at-bats in a season. But Steve Stone finished fourth among Negative Polarity pitchers, behind Carlton, Pisces Mike Norris (3,040 / 92.1), and Scorpio Steve Rogers (2,381 / 64.4).
Just like in the next three years, we had a disputed winner of the Air Division, depending on how strictly you want to stick to positional eligibility rules. And just like in 1981, the battle was between Gemini and Libra. Gemini enjoyed the most egregious positional shenanigans, as I cheated right fielder Dave Parker (1,641 / 11.8) at first base and real-life AL Rookie of the Year Joe Charboneau (1,675 / 12.8) into center field. But the Twins had much stronger pitching, led by Positive Polarity Cy Young Award winner Jerry Reuss (2,508 / 67.8) and PP RoY Britt Burns (2,094 / 61.6). Libra had the edge in offensive firepower, with PP MVP Mike Schmidt (2,687 / 17.9), but they were not without shenanigans of their own, as I cheated first baseman Rod Carew (1,778 / 12.3) at his early career position of second base.
The Fire Division-leading Aries Rams finished in the second half of the league in terms of fantasy points, thanks mostly to a lackluster offense, which was forced to move another first baseman to one of his early career positions: non-Hall of Famer Pete Rose (1,730 / 10.7) moving from first to third. But the Rams pitching staff enjoyed a fine season from the runners-up of both Positive Polarity pitching awards: Don Sutton (2,344 / 73.3) finished second in the Cy Young race, while Tom Hume (1,944 / 24.9) had to play second fiddle to Aquarian Dan Quisenberry (2,061 / 27.5) in Reliable Reliever balloting.
Taurus wasn’t involved in any of the divisional races in 1980, but George Brett came the closest to batting .400 in a full season since the 1940’s.
Next time, since there will be no Spring Training games until at least the following week, I’m going to start diving into my newly-updated All-Time Career Fantasy Points Database!