2010 Ten Year Astrology Recap
Traditionalists might count 2010 as the end of a decade. We normally count from one to ten, so it does make a certain amount of sense that the 2000’s would consist of 2001 thru 2010. However, there is another way to envision how decades work, and it goes back to the fifth century CE when the numerical concept of zero was developed in India. All this to say that, for the purposes of my baseball databases, I choose to count decades from years zero to nine, rather than from one to ten.
There are several reasons behind this decision. The first is historical: I first started compiling baseball lists during the 2001 season, when the most recent full-season stats available were from 2000. Secondly, since I’m going reverse-chronologically through Fantasy Astrology Baseball League history, and 2019 was the last full season of baseball, going 0 to 9 is the only way to compare like with like. And lastly, it’s just nice to look at a ten-year period where the numbers in the tens column are the same.
Either way, now that we have ten FULL FABL seasons under our belt, I thought this would be a good time to break out my year-by-year spreadsheet and do some analysis. The results might shock you:
Only four players made their respective signs’ starting lineups all ten years in question, and two of them were Pisces pitchers. Clayton Kershaw has the distinction of scoring the most fantasy points in this time period with 25,507. For what it’s worth, Kershaw also extended his streak into 2020, with all eleven seasons in questions coming with the Dodgers. It’s unlikely that Justin Verlander (23,520) would have caught him even if he didn’t miss time in 2015 with a triceps injury. Between those two, we have Leo ace Max Scherzer (23,901), who was also teammates with Verlander for the first five years of this decade in question.
Kershaw had the more impressive decade overall, but Verlander’s 2011 was the highest scoring season of any player in this time period.
The only batter who made his sign’s lineup all ten years is Cancer slugger Nelson Cruz (19,519), whose inclusion is all the more impressive because he maintained his starter status even after he lost his outfield eligibility. (That’s not to say I wouldn’t have cheated eligibility rules to put him in the outfield if it would have led to a better overall team, but in Nellie’s case, I didn’t have to.) After Cruz, we have three players who served as Fantasy Astrology starters for nine out of ten years: Zack Greinke (19,657) missed qualifying in 2016, Edwin Encarnacion (18,467) bounced around from third base to first base to DH, and Jon Lester (16,999) was a steady left-handed presence on the mount.
A full 13 players qualified for starter status in eight seasons, with 21 more following with seven, and 35 with six, so it would be folly to try and cover everyone here. A few highlights: Mike Trout (20,619) made the Leo starting lineup for all eight years where he got more than 135 plate appearances in the majors, and his points total checks in fourth overall (between Verlander and Greinke). But Trout’s average of 2,577.4 points-per-season comes in second to Miguel Cabrera’s 2,611.0 – even though he only scored 15,666 total points in six seasons as a starter for Aries. Very close behind Trout in PPS, we have yet another Aries, Corey Kluber (12,874), who averaged 2,574.8 points in the five seasons he made the Rams rotation.
While retrospectives are fun (and indeed the main focus of this blog), next time I’ll return to the 2021 preseason and look at the outlook for the Water Signs.