2020 Gemini Twins
The sign of Gemini is all about duality. Their “mascot” is the Twins, which would seem to make them analogous to the MLB franchise that plays in Minnesota, if not for the yellow color associated with people born between May 21st and June 20th. This duality is perhaps best manifested in 2020 by the stark difference in talent between their pitching staff (stellar) and offense (mediocre). But Gemini hitters as a whole are also known for some drastic cycles: less thant wo decades ago their offense was a powerhouse, led by the likes of Jeff Bagwell, Manny Ramirez, and Miguel Tejada.
The Astro Poets put a lot of focus on Gemini’s easy communication skills. “They concoct entire universes in their heads and they like to tell everyone about them with gorgeous words. Anyone who is willing to listen to them is their new best friend.” I haven’t listened to a lot of postgame interviews, but I guess I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the best and most eloquent ones were by Geminians. As far as clubhouse chemistry, I could see this going either way: it could be nice to have a talkative presence in the locker room to keep things loose, but there’s also nothing worse than someone yapping their head off when you just want to stew in your feelings after a tough loss.
I’m starting the Gemini analysis off with the pitching staff, since I feel like it’s always important to put your best foot forward. Who in this case is Shane Bieber (1,276 points / 106.3 points per game), the best fantasy pitcher (i.e. top point scorer) in 2020. And Jacob deGrom (917 / 74.6), who won the real life NL Cy Young award two years in a row. Aaron Nola (788 / 65.7) has come back to earth a bit after a stellar 2018, but he’s still an ace-caliber pitcher for the Phillies. His new teammate Zack Wheeler (669 / 60.8) has lived up to the promise he showed as a top prospect, and is now one of the highest-paid pitchers in the league as a result. That’s a pretty strong top four for the FABL Twins, and that’s before considering solid-yet-oft-injured lefty Andrew Heaney (545 / 45.4) and MLB Twins ace in the making Jose Berrios (544 / 45.3), the two of whom were separated by just one fantasy point in 2020.
I re-created the official Gemini symbol for Bieber’s custom MLB The Show 20 uniform.
Leading the bullpen is Trevor Rosenthal (679 / 29.5), a former star closer with the Cardinals who is returning to prominence after a long injury-related absence. Behind him, Matt Barnes (423 / 17.6) is a hard thrower who took over as Boston’s closer last year, but the most intriguing Gemini reliever of the last decade is the guy he replaced: Craig Kimbrel, who didn’t even pitch enough to make my database in his first “full” season with the Cubs. When you consider the likewise-fading Andrew Miller (268 / 16.8) and former closer Steve Cishek (93 / 4.2), you can see that GEM is entering a decline phase in what was once a stellar bullpen group.
This Gemini offense was once Anthony Rendon (718 / 13.8) and pray for rain, but the emergence of another former top prospect Dominic Smith (766 / 15.3) for the Mets has given the Twins another legit offensive threat. While Rendon’s new Angels teammate David Fletcher (594 / 12.1) settled in as an infielder last year, his ability (if not eligibility) to play the outfield brings to mind another Gemini luminary Ben Zobrist, and it’s interesting to note that Fletch came to prominence just as Zorilla’s career was coming to a close. But aside from those three and White Sox time-share catcher James McCann (365 / 11.8), this offense is nothing to write home about.
I actually only got to this relatively modest point total by playing fast and loose with positional eligibility at two positions: first base and center field. Yuli Gurriel (492 / 8.6) has had a lock on the former position for the last three years, but he didn’t even break 500 points in the short 2020, so I moved Rio Ruiz (541 / 10.0) across the diamond to inject a little more offense. Dominic Smith could have played first instead, but his points are more efficiently allocated in a corner outfield role, which pushes defensively gifted left fielder Corey Dickerson (471 / 9.1) into center field, where none of the top actual qualifiers at the position (Avisail Garcia and Harrison Bader) even cracked 340 points (338 and 337, respectively).
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Capricorn is the Greatest (sign) Of All Time… but their mascot is a Goat. We’ll take a look at their 2020 season in the next post!