2020 Aquarius Water Carriers
If you’ve followed my writings on Astrology Baseball, you’ll know that Aquarius hasn’t finished anywhere near the top of the league in overall fantasy points at any point in the last 50 years… until 2020! It’s true that the small sample size inherent in a 60-game season plays total havoc with fantasy point totals over a full year. In fact, it might be the case that Aquarius teams frequently do get off to hot starts, but fade as the season goes on. That would make a certain amount of sense, given that Aquarians are born between January 20th and February 18th, and thus it’s logical that they wouldn’t be as comfortable during the spring and summer months. But that’s also just a hypothesis: I haven’t done any analysis of stats as they develop over the course of a season.
Before showing a representative Aquarius lineup for 2020, I’d like to talk a little about Aquarius in general. In the book Astro Poets by Alex Dimitrov and Dorothea Lasky, the only book I’ve read about Astrology (I’ve definitely put more time into the Baseball side of Astrology Baseball), it says that “Aquarians fall somewhere closer to dreamer than rationalist.” I don’t know exactly how much that applies to how they approach their work on the field, or off it: Luke Voit’s offseason plan to lose weight, improve his conditioning, and work on his pull-side power seems to be a pretty rational way to become the league’s home run champ, while Jose Abreu accepted a qualifying offer from the White Sox, which is about the safest bet you can take in the sport. Granted, the south siders did turn around and sign Abreu to an additional extension right after that… possibly one he was dreaming about?
One quote from the book that does apply to one famous moment on the baseball diamond is that Aquarians “are the most vicious in a bar fight (or any fight really).” Remember when Aquarius second baseman Rougned Odor hauled off and slugged Libra outfielder Jose Bautista in the face because the former took issue with a slide by the latter? That was back in 2016, the best fantasy season of Odor’s career (1,991 points), while Bautista didn’t even make the Libra starting lineup (1,484) after holding a spot five out of the previous six years, so maybe there was some career decline-related tension going on. According to Dimitrov and Lasky, AQU and LIB are 9 out of 10 on the compatibility chart, but that’s obviously not the case with these two.
And now finally we can get in the weeds about baseball and go through how I put those lineups together. It all starts with the creation of a comprehensive database, which includes every player who reaches a yearly service time threshold: 200 plate appearances for hitters, 40 innings pitched (or appearances) for pitchers. Of course, a 60-game season is roughly 37.037% of a regular 162-game season, so I adjusted the threshold to 80 PA and 20 IP (with some exceptions). With the database complete, I can sort it in various ways, including by astrological sign and fantasy points, the Aquarius version of which you see below.
I first look at the database organized by points rather than by position because that helps me ensure that I’m getting the top players in the lineup. And right off the bat, you see that the Water Carriers have their first base and designated hitter spots locked up with their top two scorers: Jose Abreu (1,086 points / 18.1 points per game) and Luke Voit (958 / 17.1), both first basemen by trade. Before you lament this sign’s inability to use the DH spot to mix and match players, consider that only 11 players broke 1,000 fantasy points in 2020, so to have one who reached that milestone and another who came darn close is pretty impressive.
Aquarius gets its positional versatility in other ways, such as speedster Whit Merrifield (815 / 13.6), who qualifies for both second base and the outfield. The lineup that maximizes fantasy points puts Whitley in center field, while populating second base using shortstop depth. Next in point totals after the 1B double threat is Dansby Swanson (843 / 14.1), followed by fellow shortstop Didi Gregorius (778 / 13.0), new to the Phillies in 2020 (and also to Aquarius, since I mistakenly thought he was a Pisces for years). But one of the cardinal rules I follow in terms of positional ability vs. eligibility is: if you can play shortstop, you can play second base, and it helps that actually has 11 games of MLB experience at the hot corner (although they were all in 2014).
If you’re a positional eligibility purist, Merrifield stays in the outfield, while Padres rookie sensation Jake Cronenworth (566 / 10.5) takes over at second. You might also take issue with third base belonging to Tommy La Stella (658 / 12.0, although he got 302 of those points after being traded to the A’s to help down the stretch, where he was teammates with fellow Aquarian Mark Canha (668 / 11.3).) But with such a short season, it’s important to bend the rules in favor of inclusivity.
The story of the Aquarius pitching staff has to start with another Oakland Athletic, star closer Liam Hendriks (851 / 35.5), by far the most productive fantasy reliever on the year. Hopefully the fiery Aussie (honestly, his demeanor reminds me more of an Aries than an Aquarius) bucks the recent A’s trend of one-year wonders at closer (cf. Blake Treinen, a Cancerian) and goes back to the longevity of a Dennis Eckersley, a Libra, which is also an Air sign… is that a good omen? In terms of longevity, Tyler Clippard (318 / 12.2, he didn’t make the top three relievers, but did crack the top five) is the longest-tenured Aquarius player, first getting Fantasy Astrology consideration in 2009, when Chone Figgins was the sign’s top scorer.
Hendriks in his custom Aquarius uniform, courtesy of MLB The Show 20.
The Water Carriers’ top starter was Mariners lefty Marco Gonzales (847 / 77.0), although his performance on a middling team could be buried under those of playoff contenders. The Padres used Zach Davies (799 / 66.6), the Brewers leaned on Brandon Woodruff (778 / 59.8), but the Indians didn’t call on Zach Plesac (731 / 91.4), even though he had the third-largest points-per-game average of any pitcher with more than three starts. Interesting fact: the only pitchers who eclipsed the nephew of Dan were his teammate Shane Bieber (106.3) and his ex-teammate Trevor Bauer (95.9), who was traded just two months after Plesac made his big league debut.
So that is Aquarius, the Fantasy Astrology Baseball League’s top scorer in 2020. Going by fantasy points, the next sign is a virtual dead heat between Virgo (Earth) and Cancer (Water).