All-2000’s: Cancer
With today’s post, we have reached the one-third mark in our examination of the All-2000’s Fantasy Astrology Baseball League lineups. This project is a look at the career stats of every player who has appeared in a FABL lineup/rotation in the last two decades. And today, we’re looking at my home sign, the Cancer Crabs. Cancer is actually in the bottom half of the league in terms of the aggregate point totals of all their All-2000’s starters, but I’m allowed to show some blatant bias on my own blog.
The numbers columns from left to right are: total career points, points-per-season, and points-per-game.
Cancer’s top point scorer, Derek Jeter, could very well be the best shortstop in the sign’s history. Going back to the 1960’s, Tony Fernandez is the closest in terms of production, and I find it hard to believe that a more standout infield captain would show up in the first half of the 20th century. The only other 30,000 point-scoring Cancer batter is first baseman Carlos Delgado, who actually has the highest offensive points-per-game average on the squad, a full 1.1 higher than Jeter. However, Deglado has a lower points-per-SEASON average than Jeter, which is likely skewed by Delgado’s two cups of coffee he had to start his career.
Just behind Cap’n Jeets in PPS is his former Yankees middle infield partner Chuck Knoblauch, both of whom started their careers off with Rookie of the Year awards. But Knobby wasn’t Cancer’s All-2000’s leading second baseman, as he finished about 2,500 points behind power hitting Ian Kinsler… and just about 1,500 points above hitter with power Brandon Phillips. Second base was especially deep for the Crabs, with Mark Grudzielanek and Howie Kendrick also on the depth chart. Aramis Ramirez was the leader at the hot corner, with Robin Ventura and Vinny Castilla forming a lefty/righty backup platoon. It’s possible that Yadier Molina will catch Jason Kendall, but the former will probably have to play into his 40’s to make that happen.
The dates columns from left to right are: first year in MLB, last year in MLB, and total years in MLB.
Cancer had two of the top the defensive center fielders of their generations headlining their All-2000’s outfield mix: Torii Hunter, before he moved to right field with the Angels, and Jim Edmonds, who started with the Angels, but then played most of his career with the Cardinals. An outfield alignment of those two next to Moises Alou in left field and a Garret Anderson/Nelson Cruz platoon at DH would be a force to be reckoned with. The top active Crabs outfielder (among those who still play in the outfield) Charlie Blackmon was in the news recently, speaking out against the rampant practice of pitchers using “sticky stuff” to increase their spin rate. Shin-Soo Choo played in the majors through last season, but he’s returned to his native South Korea for 2021. This is more trivia than substance, but the Cancer/Leo cuspy Mike Sweeney played more games at DH than 1B in his career by a slim margin.
Among Cancer pitchers, it’s basically CC Sabathia and pray for rain. Tim Hudson had a fine career, and a nearly identical points-per-game average to Sabathia, but there’s something about that 30,000-point threshold that screams “fantasy ace.” After Huddy, there’s a gap of more than 10,000 points before we hit the next Crabs pitcher – active but injured Stephen Strasburg – which helps explain why Cancer is middle of the road overall despite so many strong hitters. Strasburg’s Nationals teammate Patrick Corbin ranks fifth overall in points-per-season, but his career total currently leaves him in the second string. With Chan Ho Park joining Shin-Soo Choo, Cancer has the top two fantasy players born in South Korea, and the only two South Koreans to eclipse 10,000 career points.
A player needs at 20% career appearances at a position for me to include it in the POS2 column.
Cancer’s top two bullpen options, Jeff Shaw and Dave Burba, were born on the very same day (July 7, 1966), both in the great state of Ohio. Shaw only ascended to the closer’s role in the second half of his career, and I always think of Burba as primarily a starting pitcher (he started just over 45% of his career games), but the numbers don’t lie. The only reliever other than Shaw to average more than 1,000 PPS was Chris Perez, although he only lasted seven seasons in the bigs. That’s half as many as Tommy Hunter, who is in the midst of his 14th year, currently with the surprisingly competitive Mets.
Next time, we’ll return to the Positive Polarity. Even though it will still be Gemini season, we’re going with another air sign, the one that had the most recent success before Aries: the Libra Scales.