2012 Astrology Awards Recap
View the 2012 FABL Lineups Here!
As I’ve mentioned probably a dozen times already, Aries had a stranglehold on the top of the Fantasy Astrology Baseball League from 2013 to 2018, leading all teams in fantasy point totals in five out of those six years. The year before that run of excellence, the Rams were part of a four-team scrum at the top of the fantasy point leaderboard: Aries, Libra, Pisces, and Cancer were all separated by just 176 points. However, it was my home sign, the Cancer Crabs, who came out on top by the slimmest of margins, and their victory is even sweeter since I didn’t have to cheat on any positional eligibility requirement to get them there!
I engaged in plenty of positional shenanigans for the other three above-mentioned teams – check out their snapshots in the gallery, where an underlined entry in the Position 1 column indicates a player who didn’t technically qualify for that spot. That’s not something I would have been able to do in my actual fantasy baseball simulation league, a project that I started in 2012. On fantasy websites, eligibility rules are ironclad, although they do take into account holdover eligibility from the previous season. As you know, I prefer to play fast and loose with these requirements, because it makes things both more true to life and more interesting.
2012 was the first year where the real-life MLB playoffs expanded to include a second Wild Card entry for each league. However, it was also the end of an era in terms of fantasy baseball: 2012 marked the last year where a batter led the league in overall fantasy points. From 2013 to 2020, the leaders were Clayton Kershaw, Johnny Cueto, Jake Arrieta, Max Scherzer, Corey Kluber, Scherzer again, Justin Verlander, and Shane Bieber. The last batter to win the honors is Aries corner infielder Miguel Cabrera (2,843 points / 17.7 points-per-game), who would defend his Positive Polarity MVP award in 2013.
The MVP for the Negative Polarity goes to Scorpio outfielder Ryan Braun (2,799 / 18.2), although that award should come with an asterisk, given that Braun was suspended the following year for violating the league’s performance enhancing drug policy. The next-best NP batter that year was Capricorn first baseman Edwin Encarnacion (2,408 / 15.9). There were no corresponding PED allegations surrounding Negative Polarity Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey (2,765 / 81.3), a sign-mate of Braun.
Seeing the Scorpio knuckleballer take home this award is a nice break from the Pisces duo of Verlander (2,722 / 82.5) and Kershaw (2,582 / 78.2), one of whom would win the NP CYA in six of the next seven years. And even in 2015, Kershaw was a close second to another Pisces winner, Jake Arrieta. As if that Pisces dominance wasn’t enough, the Fish sported the 2012 winner of the Negative Polarity’s Reliable Reliever award, Fernando Rodney (2,478 / 32.6), who was newly acquired by the real-life Tampa Bay Rays in 2012. The Positive Polarity had a similar lack of diversity in their RR winners, as Geminian Craig Kimbrel (2,348 / 37.3) would take home the crown three years running (at least).
I skipped the Positive Polarity Cy Young Winner, since I got distracted by Pisces, but that award goes to Matt Cain (2,454 / 76.7), author of a perfect game in 2012. Interestingly enough, the top Positive pitcher still finished fifth overall in pitching points, behind Dickey, Verlander, Kershaw, and also real-life American League Cy Young Award winner David Price (2,545 / 82.1). But the PP would make up for trailing the opposite polarity in the pitching department with utter dominance when it comes to rookies. Only Cabrera and Braun scored more fantasy points in 2012 than the PP RoY, Mike Trout (2,785 / 20.0). And remember, this was also the year that Bryce Harper (1,864 / 13.4), Yu Darvish (1,823 / 62.9), and Yoenis Cespedes (1,812 / 14.0) made their MLB debuts, all under very different circumstances. Meanwhile, the best Negative rookie was yet another Scorpio, left-handed pitcher Wade Miley (1,797 / 56.2).
2012 was a momentous year in terms of both real-life postseason structure and fantasy points for batters. But it was also the final year as a Fantasy Astrology starter for arguably the most famous Cancer Crab of all time…