2021 Fire Signs Preview
This post will primarily serve as a preview to the 2021 Fire Signs, including the sign that we’re currently in: Aries. But I want to lead with an announcement about the structure of the Fantasy Astrology Baseball League itself – by which I mean the website that actually tracks the fantasy points and weekly matchups. Since I started this project in 2012, I set the positional requirements in the infield to reflect the positions on an actual MLB field: teams needed a player who qualified at first base, second base, third base, and shortstop. However, that led to some eligibility questionable hoops to jump through regarding eligibility, which I’ve gone through great pains to explain away in the past.
This issue is most egregiously reflected in the projected lineup for the 2021 Scorpio Stingers: the past setup would see Trevor Story (ranked #10 by MLB.com) at shortstop, with fellow shortstop Francisco Lindor (#15) relegated to DH, because the top qualifier at second base is Freddy Galvis (#367)… which means slugger Giancarlo Stanton (#70) would have to languish on the bench. To rectify this situation, I replaced the “2B” slot with a more inclusive “middle infield,” allowing teams to use their excess shortstop depth. This not only benefits Scorpio, but also Cancer, Sagittarius, and Aquarius, making for more exciting lineups all around.
I also did away with “1B” in favor of a general “infield” position, which isn’t perfect, but still more true to life than requiring each team to have a player who qualifies at the least-demanding defensive position. The only team that benefits from this particular change as of now is Libra, but who knows what the ramifications will be as the season progresses. And now, on to collages for the three fire signs: Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius.
One situation that my fantasy lineup restructure does NOT solve is the Aries third base logjam between Nolan Arenado (#30) and Alex Bregman (#25, not pictured in my collage built from photos from Lindy’s 2021 Baseball Preview magazine). I know from context and history that Bregman can handle shortstop, but it opens up too much of a can of worms not to require a shortstop-eligible player in each lineup. If Bregman were allowed to captain the infield, the DH would likely be a timeshare between Christian Walker (#191), Carlos Santana (#196), and Austin Riley (#202), who was called out in a recent MLB.com article about baseball and astrology. (We’re becoming mainstream, folks!) Rounding out the collage is defensively-minded centerfielder Lorenzo Cain (#236), who is the second-lowest ranked Aries starter, behind shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa (#323).
If Aries hopes to return to the dominance they showed in the 2010’s (where they scored the most fantasy points in the league six times), they’ll need to rely on their pitching staff. This year, the Rams will be led by two of the top three East Asian pitchers in MLB: Kenta Maeda (#55) from Japan, who found a new gear with the Twins last season, and Hyun-Jin Ryu (#74) from South Korea, who took over as the ace of the Blue Jays in 2020. (For reference, the top pitcher from the above list is Yu Darvish (#19), but since I don’t have a photo of him for the Leo collage, I might as well mention him here.) The other pitcher pictured above is Pirates ace Mitch Keller, who dropped in the rankings from #284 to #309 between the start of Spring Training and the start of Aries season. Keller is strictly depth material for Aries, even after the injury to Carlos Carrasco, which caused him to drop from #69 to #158.
For many years, “Mike Trout” and “consensus best player in baseball” went together like hot dogs and mustard. But his rank of #4 this year indicates that the ketchup crowd has emerged with a different opinion. Trout still leads the Leo attack, but this year he has help in the outfield in the form of Luis Robert (#41), who missed out on American League Rookie of the Year honors, but did win the award in the Positive Polarity. Another 2020 rookie who will help solidify the lineup is third baseman Alec Bohm (#106), who missed inclusion in the collage because he was hard to identify in his Lindy’s photo.
Most of the photos we have here are from the Lions’ very strong pitching staff, although the top two ranked starters are noticeably missing: the above mentioned Yu Darvish (#19) and Dodgers’ ace Walker Buehler (#22). Max Scherzer (#24) shows no signs of slowing down (or at least of tuning down his trademark intensity) even at age 36. Zac Gallen (#45) was slated to headline Arizona’s rotation, but now he’s down with a hairline fracture in his forearm – at least the dreaded “forearm soreness” wasn’t a precursor to Tommy John surgery. Sixto Sanchez (#120) might see his rank drop with yesterday’s news that he won’t make the MLB roster to start the season. And Mike Soroka (#185) is recovering from a torn Achilles tendon, and he might not even make the rotation when he returns in mid-April.
The heir apparent to Mike Trout’s perennial #1 ranking also plays for a Fire sign: Ronald Acuna Jr. of Sagittarius. There’s no doubt about Acuna’s power-speed potential, as he came within spitting distance of a 40-40 season the last time MLB played a full slate of games. Before last season, Acuna and Christian Yelich gave the Archers a coveted 1-2 punch in terms of rankings, but the latter fell to a still-impressive #12 this year. Javier Baez (#87) is one of the players who benefits from my new eligibility rules, as he had been pushed to DH in deference to Gleyber Torres (#56). This would have opened up DH for Byron Buxton (#107), but due to the recent injury to Eloy Jimenez (formerly ranked #33), both Buxton and Wil Myers (#119) will be in the lineup.
The Sagittarius collage features photos of the team’s top two ranked pitchers: Reds ace Luis Castillo (#27) and new Padres lefty Blake Snell (#51). The image of Snell from the magazine was actually part of an article lamenting how he was pulled from a World Series game in which he was pitching well, because analytics dictated that he shouldn’t face the opposing lineup three times in a game. That move obviously didn’t break right for the Rays, since reliever Nick Anderson gave up some runs and the Dodgers went on to win the game and the series, but who’s to say it wasn’t statistically correct? Despite getting a full page spread in the Twins scouting report, Taylor Rogers (#250) actually won’t even make the Archers starting lineup, as he’s stuck behind Ryan Pressly (#116) and Drew Pomeranz (#201).
Next time, we flash back to 2008, the inaugural season of the new name of the Tampa Bay Rays. And then after that, sticking with the subject matter, I’ll explore possible new names for the FABL teams - some of which you may have seen if you checked the league homepage this year.