All-2000’s Aries
The first All-2000’s sign I profiled (Leo) had the highest scoring player (the top two players, actually) to have appeared in a Fantasy Astrology Baseball League lineup in the last two decades. The second sign (Scorpio) had the most aggregate points when adding up the totals of all players who started for them in the same time period. Today’s sign (Aries) has had the most recent sustained success of any sign, scoring the most points in the FABL league five times in the 2010’s, all between 2013 and 2018. Here’s how the Rams’ All-2000’s roster stacks up.
The numbers columns from left to right are: total career points, points-per-season, and points-per-game.
Aries’s offensive attack is built around the corner infield, as the top four scoring batters play either first base or third base. The top overall batter (when including stats from the partially completed 2021 season), Miguel Cabrera, qualifies at both spots, and narrowly misses having left field listed as a secondary position. (Miggy’s 347 games in the outfield make up just over 13% of his career appearances.) While Cabrera just passed Adrian Beltre’s career fantasy point total in mid-May, he already had a sizable lead in terms of both points-per-season and points-per-game.
The only Aries batter approaching Cabrera in the PPG category is switch-hitting first baseman Mark Teixeira (14.8 to 14.0), whose defensive prowess would likely push Cabrera to DH in a simulation setting. This configuration doesn’t leave a spot for fellow defensive whiz Scott Rolen, but I’ll say it each time if I have to, this project is more about historical accuracy than maximizing fantasy points in the lineup. The Aries middle infield is decidedly uninspiring overall: Bret Boone had some good power seasons, and Daniel Murphy had a similar career PPG average, but Juan Uribe served as a backup/utility option for most of his career.
The dates columns from left to right are: first year in MLB, last year in MLB, and total years in MLB.
The top scoring Aries outfielder, Marquis Grissom, occupies two important roles for the club: center fielder and leadoff hitter. After Grissom, there’s a sizable gap before a very large contingent of right fielders, led by David Justice, fellow 14-year man Jeromy Burnitz, and the recently retired Hunter Pence and Jay Bruce. Meanwhile, I didn’t even list a left fielder on the depth chart, since Aries doesn’t have a player with more than 8,000 career fantasy points whose primary position was left field. Joe Mauer is one of the top five all-2000’s catchers, with Buster Posey just having vaulted over Jason Varitek for second place during the 2021 season.
No All-2000’s pitcher other than Roger Clemens scored more career points than Greg Maddux, the Aries ace. His number two, Tom Glavine, brings up an interesting point about the strategy of having multiple members of the same sign on the same real-life team, as Maddux and Glavine famously headlined the Braves dynasty of the 1990’s. My gut tells me that it’s different for the various signs, but based on this anecdotal evidence, it would seem that Arieses tend to work well together. I decided to bold Felix Hernandez’s name on the above list, since he came THIS close to earning a spot on with the 2021 Orioles – in fact, he’s listed as a starting pitcher in the default rosters for MLB The Show 21.
A player needs at 20% career appearances at a position for me to include it in the POS2 column.
Three of the other four “active” pitchers are dealing with injury troubles at the time of this writing. Red Sox lefty Chris Sale is recovering from Tommy John surgery – he recently progressed to throwing off a mound. Corey Kluber is dealing with a shoulder strain, after having pitched a no-hitter for his new team, the Yankees. The cross-town Mets have yet to see Carlos Carrasco pitch in their uniform thanks to a hamstring strain. And David Robertson was cut loose by the Phillies while dealing with his own Tommy John rehab. Only Mark Melancon is going strong, but he’s going VERY strong as the closer for the upstart Padres. But overall, the Rams are not known for their shutdown relief pitchers, with Kelvim Escobar’s career stats being goosed by his time as a starter. That being said, Jose Valverde has exactly the personality you would expect to see with an Aries on the mound.
Next time, I’ll return to the Negative Polarity with a look at my home sign Cancer Crabs. They don’t have a player among the top 10 point scorers, or a particularly impressive overall points total, but I’m allowed to show some blatant bias on my own blog.