2020 Cancer Crabs
All the research I’ve done into the Cancer astrology sign agrees on two things: Cancerians are introverts and they have unresolved mommy issues. As someone whose birthday falls between June 21st and July 23rd myself, I can confirm at least one of those things are true. What’s funny though, is that two of the most consistently excellent members of the Cancer Crabs over the last decade – recently retired starting pitcher CC Sabathia and still-seeking-another-contract catcher Yadier Molina – have the fiery team-leading personalities that you would not expect from a water sign. As far as the mommy issues go, I don’t know enough about their personal lives to comment on that.
When I did my first preliminary versions of these lineups, my calculations put Cancer in second place by just a handful of points ahead of Virgo. I reached this conclusion by using the ESPN Fantasy Baseball client, which lets you sort every player in descending order of fantasy points. I then go down the list and plug the highest scorers into their respective lineups at the proper (or at least marginally acceptable) positions.
However, whether because of COVID-related issues, or because the transfer of stats from MLB to ESPN is not perfect, I noticed some discrepancies between the official stats and the raw numbers that ESPN uses to calculate fantasy points. So I went through the 2020 season a second time, this time sorting the baseball-reference 2020 MLB page in descending order of service time (plate appearances for hitters, innings pitched for pitchers) and plugging their numbers into my homemade fantasy point calculator. That’s the method I use for any season for which I didn’t do a fantasy simulation (i.e. every year before 2012).
In addition to a few players having some minor points discrepancies here and there, Cancer had a wholesale change in their starting pitching staff. Patrick Corbin, of the former defending World Champion Nationals, pitched 65 innings, but he wasn’t particularly good, racking up just a 4.66 ERA. Meanwhile, Red Sox prospect Tanner Houck made his debut in 2020, where he went 3-0 with a 0.53 ERA in just three starts (and 17 innings). The brilliant start to Houck’s career means that he actually outscored Corbin (323 points to Corbin’s 265) in just about a quarter the amount of innings.
Naturally, ESPN, sorting by fantasy points, got to Houck before it got to Corbin, but it would be a flagrant misrepresentation of the players who actually spent the most time in the majors last year to allow that to happen. So I suppressed my home-sign bias, used the more responsible method, and sadly watched the Crabs fall to third place behind the Maidens due to a technicality.
Switching to the positive, remember that only 13 players surpassed 1,000 fantasy points in 2020, and Cancer had two of them on the left side of their infield: Corbin’s Nationals teammate Trea Turner at shortstop (1,095 points / 18.6 points per game) and third baseman of the up-and-coming Padres Manny Machado (1,035 / 17.3). Turner’s double play partner in this lineup, shortstop Tim Anderson (759 / 15.5), actually didn’t qualify at second base, but if you remember from Aquarius, I go by the principle that anyone who qualifies at shortstop could easily handle second base.
Cancer’s color scheme is silver, so Machado’s custom MLB The Show 20 jersey just looks like road grays.
You might look down the lineup and wonder why I’m bending the rules here when we have two perfectly capable second base options in DJ LeMahieu (854 / 17.1) and Brandon Lowe (806 / 14.4). It turns out that LeMahieu is needed at first base, since Cody Bellinger (741 / 13.2) is the top centerfielder in the Cancer player pool, while Lowe had enough games combined across the two corner outfield spots to qualify there. If you’re a positional purist, Lowe would move back to 2B, and Mariners rookie Kyle Lewis (699 / 12.1) would come off the bench to take the corner outfield spot opposite Charlie Blackmon (734 / 12.4). Or alternatively, LeMahieu could shift to second, Bellinger could come in to play first, and Lewis could handle center field. There’s a lot of moving parts here. Except of course for DH, which is occupied by ageless slugger Nelson Cruz (768 / 14.5).
Cancer actually has a fairly strong top end of the starting rotation, with Dinelson Lamet (934 / 77.8), who was unfortunately injured for the 2020 playoffs, and Lucas Giolito (796 / 66.3), who pitched brilliantly against the A’s in his only postseason appearance. Korean Baseball Organization import Kwang Hyun Kim (507 / 63.4) had a nice rookie season for the Cardinals, and his inclusion really does a lot to soften the sting of bad/lost seasons from the above-mentioned Corbin and last year’s World Series MVP Stephen Strasburg, who only managed two games (and five innings) due to carpal tunnel syndrome.
The Crabs bullpen is led by lights-out yet nontraditional closer Nick Anderson (498 / 26.2), the primary reliever for the AL Champion Tampa Bay Rays. Behind him, we have a veteran returning from a seven-year absence from MLB (surprise Rockies closer Daniel Bard – 461 / 20.0 – who last pitched in 2013 for the Red Sox), and a fresh-faced rookie (23-year-old Jonathan Hernandez – 433 / 16.0 – who didn’t get any saves, but did a nice job setting up Rafael Montero in Texas).
Next in line, we have Cancer’s water division mates, the Scorpio Scorpions. Using my new and improved method of calculating points detailed above, the gap between Cancer and Scorpio (less than 40 points) is actually less than the gap between Virgo and Cancer (just over 90), but either way the Crabs come away as champs of their division.