2002 World Series Teams
With the completion of both the 2022 MLB season and my in-depth looks at all 12 Fantasy Astrology Baseball teams, I have put this blog on the backburner in favor of other projects… such as my Let’s Play of God of War: Ragnarok over on the my YouTube channel! As my day job moves further and further into crunch time, even that project has had to take a backseat to the realities of living in a capitalist society. But after only managing two posts over the last month I was able to carve out some time to continue my decade-by-decade look back at the World Series teams of years ending in 2.
2002 was the first year when two Wild Card teams would meet in the Fall Classic, with the Anaheim Angels emerging victorious over the San Francisco Giants. As you might remember from my last post, the Giants would return to the Series a decade later in 2012, and win it, as part of their even year dynasty.
Rather than go down the Angels’ batting order, I’d like to start by pointing out that they had a key Leo performer in all three categories: offense, starting pitching, and relief pitching. Slugging third baseman Troy Glaus barely led the team in home runs with 30, while reaching 40 in each of the two previous years. Jarrod Washburn led the pitching staff in wins, ERA, and fantasy points, although he was just second in innings pitched and strikeouts. And Troy Percival saved 40 games with an ERA under 2, in his seventh consecutive year as the Halos’ primary closer. This was clearly a good strategy, as Leo would win the FABL crown in ’02 with a whopping total of 36,464 points.
While Leo was the main character in both the FABL league and the Angels lineup, it was Cancer Crabs left fielder Garret Anderson who led the World Series winners in fantasy points. The Silver Slugger winner was one HR shy of Glaus for the team lead, but crushed 56 doubles led the team with a .539 slugging percentage. Non-Taurus Earth signs were also well-represented in Anaheim’s lineup: the Negative Polarity-leading Virgo featured right fielder Tim Salmon and corner infielder Scott Spiezio, while Capricorn boasted primary DH Brad Fullmer (the team OPS leader) and second baseman Adam Kennedy (the team batting leader).
At the top of the order were two Air signs: David Eckstein served as the Aquarius starting shortstop, while Darin Erstad actually didn’t make the Gemini outfield, despite leading the real-life Angels in bWAR. Erstad’s Gemini sign-mate Ramon Ortiz led the team in innings, but trailed Washburn in fantasy points. This next bit could have been more situational than judgmental, but Ortiz was also dropped behind Sagittarius veteran Kevin Appier in the World Series rotation. In the bullpen, Percival’s top setup option Ben Weber also technically didn’t make the Scorpio top three relief pitchers, but a 1,000-point scoring non-closer reliever is a rare enough occurrence for me to give him a pity highlight here.
A big reason why Leo scored the most fantasy points in the 2002 Fantasy Astrology Baseball League was because of the real-life National League MVP Barry Bonds. Even at the height of the steroid era, a 3,000-point season and a 20+ points-per-game average is an impressive feat. One year removed from breaking Mark McGwire’s single season home run record, Bonds led the league in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, AND OPS, not to mention finishing two walks shy of 200. When looking at seasons like this, it almost makes me feel bad that his wanton disregard for the unenforced rules against performance-enhancing drugs is going to keep him out of the Hall of Fame…
What Leo was to the Angels, Sagittarius was to the Giants, as they had an Archer in each of the three categories. Right fielder Reggie Sanders came to the Giants during the 2001-02 offsesason and was their number three offensive producer. Speaking of the number three, left-handed pitcher Kirk Reuter finished third among San Francisco starters in fantasy points – although he was the fourth starter in their World Series rotation. But no Giants relief pitcher could reach the heights of Robb Nen, who saved 43 games (the third year in a row reaching that milestone) in what would be his final season in the Major Leagues.
Like Sagittarius, the Giants also had three Pisces players: Jeff Kent was the main protection for Bonds in the lineup, Benito Santiago had a really strong season for a catcher, and Livan Hernandez was the workhorse of the pitching staff, leading the team in innings, despite middling fantasy numbers. For most of the season, San Francisco stacked two Virgos at the top of their lineup: third baseman David Bell and shortstop Rich Aurilia. However, after the trade deadline, Bell ceded the leadoff spot to midseason acquisition Kenny Lofton.
Check out this parallel between the two World Series participants: not only did both have a speedy Gemini center fielder who didn’t make the Siblings’ starting outfield (Erstad and Lofton), but both also had a starting pitcher named Ortiz – Ramon for Anaheim, Russ for San Francisco. Russ pitched Game 2 of the World Series, behind Aquarius ace Jason Schmidt, who was also the only Water Bearers’ starting pitcher to break 1,000 fantasy points. Behind Nen in the bullpen, setup man Tim Worrell was the number three scoring pitcher in a very weak Cancer Crabs relief corps.