2010 Astrology Awards Recap
View the 2010 FABL Lineups Here!
2010 marks the tenth anniversary of the last completed Major League season. But the 2010 season was the eleventh season since the last completed MLB campaign. Don’t ask me how that works, I never quite got a full grasp of subtraction. Either way, since my database only counts FULL seasons, we now have ten data points from which to draw conclusions about the Fantasy Astrology Baseball League from the last decade.
We all know that the 2010’s was dominated by Aries, which led the league in fantasy points five times. Libra followed with three points titles, which means that a Positive sign had the most points in the league 80% of the time in this decade. (And that’s not even counting the out-of-nowhere ascension of Aquarius in the COVID-shortened 2020 season.) The other two points leaders were both Negative Water signs: one each for Pisces and Cancer.
This was my most ambitious Photoshop journey yet: it KIND of convincingly says “Bulls,” right?
Another trend for this decade was pitchers leading the league in individual fantasy points: the only time a position player earned the top spot was Miguel Cabrera’s Triple Crown-winning 2012. In 2010, the honor goes to the late Roy Halladay (2,912 / 88.2), who won the real-life National League Cy Young Award, to go with the FABL version for the Negative Polarity. The Taurus ace also pitched two no-hitters in the 2010 calendar year, the first being a perfect game, and the second taking place in the postseason (for the first time since Don Larsen’s World Series perfect game in 1956). The 2010 Positive Polarity Cy Young recipient also mirrors the winner in real life, with King Felix Hernandez (2,710 / 78.4) taking home both the American League and the FABL CYA.
The number two spot in overall 2010 fantasy points goes to Albert Pujols (2,864 / 18.0), who became the first player in MLB history to start his career with 10 straight 30-plus home run seasons. The “plus” there does a lot of work, since the Capricorn first baseman also reached his 400th career homer in 2010, meaning he averaged more than 40 HR’s per season. The PP MVP race was much closer, with Jose Bautista (2,764 / 17.2) and his Major League-leading 54 home runs earning the honors. However the versatile Libra slugger (he also qualified at third base) eclipsed his sign-mate Carlos Gonzalez (2,710 / 18.7) by just over 50 points, with the above-mentioned Aries first baseman Miguel Cabrera (2,709 / 18.1) LITERALLY on his heels.
Both winners of the FABL’s Reliable Reliever award played for National League west teams, so only one of them could win the corresponding real-life Rolaids Reliever award. The winner took over for the man after whom that award was later named: Heath Bell (2,313 / 34.5) was not only Trevor Hoffman’s heir apparent for the San Diego Padres, but also for the Libra Scales. The transfer of power actually happened in the previous year, but since we’re going reverse-chronologically, we won’t know that until two posts from now. The Negative Polarity’s top reliever also served as the closer for the real-life World Series Champions. Brian Wilson (2,294 / 32.8) didn’t yet have his trademark huge beard, but his National League-leading 48 saves helped jump start the San Francisco Giants’ famed Even Year Dynasty.
2010 marked the highest fantasy point total for Taurus of the decade, which is not surprising given that they had both the top pitcher and the top rookie in the game. Neftali Feliz (2,013 / 28.8) bounced between starter and reliever throughout his career, but he thrived in the latter role in ’10, becoming the first rookie ever to save 40 games, and handily winning Rookie of the Year for both the Negative Polarity and the American League. The PP RoY goes to Leo outfielder Jason Heyward (1,809 / 11.3), who was one of the first high profile cases involving service time manipulation that I can remember.
Since I can’t resist a good recap, next time we’ll look at the most consistent players for each sign over the last decade.