2021 Top 100 Negative Polarity
In my last post, I took a break from my reverse chronological trip through Fantasy Astrology Baseball League history to look ahead to the 2021 season. I analyzed roughly half of the players included in the newly-released list of MLB Network’s top 100 - specifically, the players who were born under Positive astrological signs. I will now continue on the same path, looking at the players in the top 100 who play for Negative Polarity signs.
Virgo is the second sign so far that has too many players in the top 100 to fit into a traditional lineup (see Sagittarius from the last post). Actually… if you squint hard enough and play fast and loose with positional eligibility rules, I think I see a way to make this work. Freddie Freeman (ranked #4 overall) gets to stay at first base, even though there was that one year where he played 10+ games at third base, because the hot corner is already crowded. In fact, my plan involves moving Jose Ramirez to left field (citing his 2016 season as precedent) and shifting Max Muncy from second to third. That allows Marcus Semien to come off the bench and play the keystone, the position he will be occupying in 2021 with the Blue Jays (alongside new teammate and old sign-mate George Springer), in deference to young phenom Bo Bichette (see Pisces below). I guess I could have just re-done that screenshot, but I wanted to have something to write about.
This impressive offensive core is bolstered by a rotation that contains the #2 ranked pitcher (Gerrit Cole, #11 overall) and the lowest-ranked pitcher in the top-100 (Tyler Glasnow, at #96). Between those two, there’s Devin Williams, both the reigning National League Rookie of the Year and Trevor Hoffman Outstanding Relief Pitcher Award. I feel like #59 might be a little high for a non-closer reliever who came out of nowhere, especially considering the volatility of relief pitching, but I certainly hope he has a good season.
Even with some positional shenanigans already in place (i.e. moving shortstop Tim Anderson to second base to make room for Trea Turner), Cancer still has TWO top 100 batters that don’t fit into a traditional lineup. Third baseman Eugenio Suarez finishes behind both Manny Machado at his natural position and Nelson Cruz at the backup spot of DH. AL Rookie of the Year Kyle Lewis is technically the sign’s third-ranked outfielder, but second baseman Brandon Lowe had enough games split between both corner outfield spots to technically qualify. In a shocking twist, the Crabs actually have some pretty strong topline pitching, meaning that my home sign could be the team to beat heading into 2021.
For Scorpio, I employed the tried and true strategy of using shortstop depth to fill out the middle infield, this time with recently traded Francisco Lindor and the surprisingly not-traded Trevor Story. I also ignored eligibility rules by putting Joey Gallo in center field, which to me is totally reasonable since he had nearly 40 games there as recently as 2019. I’m actually not sure how online fantasy baseball clients will handle eligibility rules coming off a 60-game season. If I were in charge, I’d probably just have 2019 eligibility carry over for another year, but I guess we’ll find out when I bother to reactivate my league for 2021. I haven’t done that yet, since I’ve been mostly busy doing research for my FABL retrospective project.
The top two ranked Capricorns have been in the news lately due to the contracts they’ve signed. Superstar shortstop in the making Fernando Tatis Jr. inked a record-setting pre-arbitration extension with the Padres. Several days before that, NL Cy Young Award winner Trevor Bauer went back on his promise to sign only one-year deals when he agreed to a multi-year pact with the World Champion Dodgers (albeit with a series of opt-out clauses, but that’s not the same thing). These two are solid building blocks, to be sure, but the supporting cast remains lacking.
From a purely personal interest angle, I’m rooting for outfielder/first baseman Trey Mancini to make a triumphant return to baseball after missing last season due to surgery for testicular cancer. The top end for Pisces doesn’t get higher than the low/mid 30’s, but there is a concentration in that area: consensus best catcher in the game J.T. Realmuto (despite his recently fractured thumb), Mets outfielder Michael Conforto (who I feel might be ranked a little too high), and legendary left-handed starter Clayton Kershaw (who has made some noise about retiring after 2021, which I really hope is not the case).
Its kind of strange for a sign that finished dead last in fantasy points last year (the last two years, in fact) to be the only sign with a full starting lineup ranked within the top 100. Of course, that distinction requires bending the rules by putting catcher Willson Contreras at first base and corner outfielder Alex Verdugo in center field. But nevertheless, this is definitely a sign that either a) Taurus is due for a dramatic turnaround, or b) preseason rankings don’t mean as much as we’d like them to. Either way, you could do a lot worse than an offensive core built around Aaron Judge, Matt Chapman, and Corey Seager.
Running the numbers shows that Negative signs have a slightly larger share of top 100 players than their Positive sign counterparts, by a tune of 54 to 46. The signs with the most ranked players are as follows: Cancer (with 13), Sagittarius (12), Virgo (11), and Aries/Taurus (each with 10). As we get closer to Spring Training games actually starting (on February 28th), I’ll work on building out this database to include all players on MLB rosters, plus Non-Roster Invitees, which should provide a more complete picture of how the Astrology Baseball landscape shapes out in terms of current players.
Next time, before returning to my regularly scheduled programming of going backwards in time through FABL history, I’m going to focus more on the astrology side of Astrology Baseball by examining the concept of Ruling Planets.