2021 Astrology Awards Recap
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Even though MLB’s yearly awards do not take postseason performance into account, the league waits to announce the winners until well after the World Series. This strategy is doubtless designed to keep fan attention firmly focused on the biggest games of the year, while also injecting some baseball-related news into the early part of the offseason. But since it benefits me to post about baseball-adjacent content while excitement about the sport is at a fever pitch, here’s a recap of the Fantasy Astrology Baseball League award winners in advance of tonight’s World Series Game 3.
Normally, when doing my yearly recaps, I talk about the awards in the context of which signs performed the best over the course of the given season. But since 2021 is the most recent season, I will be going over each sign in their own individual posts, examining depth charts and roster composition at length. So while these awards winners might seem to exist in a vacuum for now, there will be more context coming later. As a reminder, my awards loosely mirror the real-life “big four” awards: Most Valuable Player (MVP), Cy Young Award (CYA), Rookie of the Year (RoY), and what I call Reliable Reliever (because the real-life Reliever of the Year has the same acronym as the prize for the top rookies).
I’ll start with the Negative Polarity MVP, since the top-scoring player in all of fantasy is a member of an NP sign. At first glance, you might think I’m referring to Pisces first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (2,752 / 17.1), and you would be right… if I was considering either batting or pitching points exclusively. The calculation changes when you look at the combined points of Cancer Crabs two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani, who put up 2,515 points as a DH, and 1,493 points on the mound, for a grand total of 4,008 points! This represents the first 4,000-fantasy point season since Steve Carlton scored 4,305 in 1972, and maybe the first ever for a two-way player. While it might be a little controversial to include both pitching and hitting points in this award consideration, I don’t see how we don’t have Vlad Jr. and Shohei share the award, at the very least.
One of the clearest patterns that emerged while analyzing the data for 2021 is the stark contrast between the Positive and Negative signs when it comes to pitching and batting. Including Guerrero and Ohtani, players with Negative signs make up the seven top scoring batters, and 13 of the top 15. Numbers two and three are Virgo infielders Marcus Semien (2,558 / 15.8) and Jose Ramirez (2,529 / 16.6). After Ohtani in fifth place is Guerrero’s real-life AND astrological teammate Bo Bichette (2,444 / 15.4). Then six and seven are former Nationals teammates Cancer Trea Turner (2,423 / 16.4) and Scorpio Juan Soto (2,422 / 16.0). It’s not until the eighth batter that we get a Positive sign: Libra right fielder Bryce Harper (2,369 / 16.8). He’s a clear favorite for the PP MVP award – Matt Olson (2,359 / 15.1) is right on his heels in terms of overall points, but the Aries first baseman lagged a bit in per-game production.
In a polar opposite of the 2021 batting landscape, the top five scoring pitchers (and eight of the top 15) are Positive Polarity signs. The gap between Leos Walker Buehler (2,596 / 78.7) and Max Scherzer (2,523 / 84.1) at the very top is so close – plus they not only share a sign, but also a real-life team – that it makes sense for them to share the PP Cy Young Award. And what’s crazy is that a third Leo/Dodger pairing, Julio Urias (2,370 / 74.1), finishes fourth overall; right behind Gemini Zack Wheeler (2,476 / 77.4), who led MLB in innings pitched. Real-life AL CYA favorite Robbie Ray (2,309 / 72.2), representing Libra, rounds out the top five. The top Negative Polarity pitcher is Capricorn ace Kevin Gausman (2,291 / 69.4), who was a big part of helping the Giants to a stellar 107-win regular season. The NP runner-up is the ageless Virgo Adam Wainwright (2,232 / 69.8), who led his real-life Cardinals to a Wild Card berth at age 40.
The split between Positive and Negative pitchers continues into the relief pitching realm, with four of the top six relievers representing PP signs. The clear choice for Reliable Reliever is Aquarius closer Liam Hendriks (2,279 / 33.0), who somewhat surprisingly hung onto his full-time ninth inning job with the White Sox following their trade deadline acquisition of the legendary Craig Kimbrel (1,540 /24.4), a Gemini. Behind him in the PP, we have a pair of Arieses – Josh Hader (1,971 / 32.9) and Mark Melancon (1,837 / 28.7) – sandwiched around another legendary figure in the closing community: Kenley Jansen (1,963 / 28.4), a Libra who was eliminated from his real-life postseason journey in the last round. The closer for the hapless Angels – Capricorn Goat Raisel Iglesias (1,989 / 30.6) – has the most points out of any Negative Polarity reliever. He finished ahead of the Cancer closer Will (M.) Smith (1,731 / 24.4) - however, if Virgo Alex Reyes (1,670 / 24.2) had maintained his hot start to the season, things might have gone quite differently.
As far as 2021 rookies are concerned, two signs stood out in particular. Sagittarius can claim the top-scoring rookie batter and starting pitcher: Jonathan India (1,843 / 12.3) the Reds second baseman, and Luis (H.) Garcia (1,561 / 52.0) of the Astros (not to be confused with Luis (A.) Garcia, the Cardinals reliever, or Luis (V.) Garcia, the Nationals infield prospect). In the Negative Polarity, Pisces rookies reigned supreme. While none reached the point total of PP RoY India, the Fish have an entire outfield – Randy Arozarena (1,794 / 12.7), Adolis Garcia (1,752 / 11.8) and Ryan Mountcastle (1,719 / 11.9) – plus the top rookie reliever Emmanuel Clase (1,597 / 22.5).
I’m hopeful that the World Series will still be going on by the time of my next post (the scheduled day for Game 6), where I will be discussing the astrological signs of past playoff series MVPs!