All-2000’s: Gemini
I’ve noted often that the strength of Gemini is their starting pitching depth: Jacob deGrom, Shane Bieber, Zack Wheeler, Jose Berrios, Andrew Heaney, Aaron Civale, and the list goes on. But looking at the sign’s All-2000’s roster, it’s clear that this was a fairly recent development: for most of the previous decade, the “Twins” were known for their top tier power hitters. This group includes two Hall of Fame first basemen, but also a very strong crop of left fielders… in fact, in a mirror image of Aries, Gemini doesn’t have one primary right fielder who scored more than 9,000 career points. However, their top career All-2000’s batter spent time in both outfield corners: Manny Ramirez.
I can’t think of a player who embodies the famous Gemini concept of duality more than Ramirez. One minute, he’s an inveterate goofball, and the next, he’s a focused, professional hitter. Of course, the career of the 12-time All-Star was tainted by a positive test for a banned substance, even though human chorionic gonadotropin isn’t technically a steroid… and it’s even permitted in some circumstances, with a doctor’s permission. But it’s especially on brand for Manny to get busted for something because he just spaced out and forgot to go through the motions.
The numbers columns from left to right are: total career points, points-per-season, and points-per-game.
I mentioned the Gemini power hitters above, but the next-highest scoring career outfielder is speedy leadoff hitter Kenny Lofton, who played with Ramirez for many seasons in Cleveland. Carlos Lee and Raul Ibanez would form a nice platoon in whatever corner outfield spot isn’t occupied by Manny - you’ll see later why it doesn’t make sense for one of them to occupy the DH spot. It’s crazy that the top three Gemini All-2000’s catchers were all within 330 career fantasy points of each other as of 2021. Sandy Alomar Jr. was for sure the most impressive with the glove, which helped him stay in the bigs for a whopping 20 seasons, although it’s technically possible that Jonathan Lucroy could still pass him in career fantasy points.
The dates columns from left to right are: first year in MLB, last year in MLB, and total years in MLB.
The first base/designated hitter pairing of Frank Thomas and Jeff Bagwell is especially fascinating because both right-handed sluggers were born on the same day… not just the same date, but the same year as well! Thomas has the slight advantage in career fantasy points, having played for four more seasons, but Bagwell burned brighter, averaging significantly more points-per-season. Like Ramirez, Miguel Tejada has been implicated in performance enhancing drug use, while his fellow shortstop Jose Reyes was hit with a suspension for a different reason. Versatile second baseman Ben Zobrist could play anywhere on the diamond in a pinch, even taking over for Anthony Rendon at third base, who has the lowest career point total of any non-catcher positional leader.
A player needs at 20% career appearances at a position for me to include it in the POS2 column.
It’s definitely cool from a personal standpoint to see baseball’s most successful Andy (Pettitte) at the top of this Gemini rotation. Behind him by just a few hundred career fantasy points is the always-entertaining Bartolo Colon, whose 21 MLB seasons are the most by any All-2000’s Gemini player. However, the staff ace among the top-five point scorers is Jake Peavy, at least in terms of points-per-game. Peavy’s PPG average is just ahead of two-time Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum, but behind another two-time CYA winner Jacob deGrom, whose otherworldly averages will likely regress towards the mean as he advances in his career. Speaking of points-per-game, the time Derek Lowe spent as a closer causes his PPG to take a big hit, which is the opposite of Kerry Wood, who I was surprised to see had more career games as a reliever than a starter.
Craig Kimbrel has been a dominant closer from the very start of his career, but he’s the only dedicated reliever on the Gemini staff to average more than 20 PPG. The Twins do have some strong veteran presence, including two 19-year men in sometime closer Jose Mesa and lefty specialist Mike Stanton. Back to the starters for a minute, Chris R. Young (not to be confused with Virgo outfielder Chris B. Young) is currently working as the general manager of his longtime former team, the Rangers.
Next time, we’ll look at a top pitching sign in the Negative Polarity, the Pisces Fish.