1992 Astrology Awards Recap
View the 1992 FABL Lineups Here!
1992 was one of those famous “Years of the Pitcher” we hear about every once in a while. The season saw 298 shutouts, or one in every seven games, according to Wikipedia. Two teams pitched at least 20 shutouts, and no National League team scored 700 runs. 1992 also saw a new team finish atop the Fantasy Astrology Baseball League rankings – or at least one that we haven’t seen yet in the scope of this project. And since we’re going reverse-chronologically, that means Capricorn hasn’t won a FABL points title SINCE 1992. Not even once in the years of Albert Pujols, Cole Hamels, Hanley Ramirez, and Victor Martinez…
The 1992 Sea-Goats were led by Orioles outfielder Brady Anderson (2,492 / 15.7), who somewhat surprisingly scored the most points in the Negative Polarity. Despite this accomplishment, it’s questionable whether Anderson was even the most “valuable” player on his own fantasy astrology team: that honor would probably go to then-third baseman Edgar Martinez (2,174 / 16.1) or Rickey Henderson (1,890 / 16.2) in short seasons. The runners-up for for NP MVP were such luminaries as Kirby Puckett (2,376 / 14.9) and Ryne Sandberg (2,340 / 14.8), two players we’ll be hearing about a lot as we head to the 80’s.
Capricorn also boasted the services of the Negative Polarity Cy Young Award winner David Cone (2,548 / 72.8), who split his real-life ’92 season between the Mets and the Blue Jays. He finished ahead of Scorpio Curt Schilling (2,441 / 58.1), who transitioned to starting after two full seasons of relief work. Of course, neither of the NP’s major award winners could compete with the Positive Polarity recipients, with Leo Barry Bonds (2,871 / 20.5) and Aries Greg Maddux (3,047 / 87.1) taking four-out-of-five MVP awards and five-out-of-five CYA’s, respectively. The one year Bonds didn’t take home the award, he lost out to Jeff Bagwell and Frank Thomas (2,585 / 16.2), the 1992 runner-up. Interestingly enough, Leo finished behind Sagittarius in total Positive Polarity points, despite their perennial MVP outfielder and both pitching runners-up: Roger Clemens (2,714 / 84.8) and Doug Drabek (2,516 / 74.0).
Sticking with the Positive Polarity, but moving to the Air Division, the highest scoring pitcher other than Maddux and Clemens was Libra closer Dennis Eckersley (2,669 / 38.7), who won both the real-life MVP and CYA for the AL in 1992. It’s too bad that he has to settle for the Reliable Reliever trophy in the FABL league, but they say you should never pay for saves. The Negative Polarity winner of that award was Cancer Crab Doug Jones (2,449 / 30.6), who rebounded after a tough 1991 to lead the league in games finished and pitch more than 100 innings out of the bullpen.
It’s no question the Positive Polarity Rookie of the Year had a stronger overall career than his negative counterpart. Traded to Cleveland after a 20-game cup of coffee with Houston, Gemini center fielder Kenny Lofton (2,078 / 14.0) played for 17 years, making six consecutive All-Star teams and winnings five Gold Gloves in a row. Meanwhile, after 1992, Scorpio starting pitcher Dave Fleming (1,836 / 55.6) would never have a season with 30 starts or and ERA under 4. In a fun twist, both RoY runners-up played for the Brewers: Pat Listach (1,790 / 12.0) may have pushed Cal Ripken off the Virgo shortstop spot for one year, but he also kind of flamed out soon afterwards. And Cal Eldred (1,296 / 92.6) had a decent career for Sagittarius, but he sure stormed out of the gates in his rookie season, with nearly 100 points-per-game over 14 starts.
Aquarians didn’t win any awards in 1992, but I included their lineup because it’s been a while since we’ve heard from them.
Next time, the FABL playoffs will ACTUALLY have started, so we’ll be breaking down one of two tw0-week-long matchups and examining how each team got to the final four.