All-2000’s: Scorpio
On Sunday, I began a deep dive into what I’ve called the All-2000’s teams: the players with the best career numbers who appeared in a Fantasy Astrology starting lineup any time from 2000 through 2020. I started with Leo, since they have the player with the highest career fantasy point total that I’ve measured so far: Barry Bonds, with 54,653. This time, I’m looking at Scorpio, since they have the highest aggregate point total of all players who started for them in the last two decades: more than 1.4 million.
Granted, this is not a very reliable method to determine overall value. If a sign has had a lot of year over year lineup consistency, they would have fewer players to choose from, and thus a lower overall point total. But since I’m going to get to all 12 signs eventually, it’s a fine starting point of reference.
The numbers columns from left to right are: total career points, points-per-season, and points-per-game.
Scorpio is led by Ken Griffey Jr., the only centerfielder in the elusive 40,000-point club. Interestingly enough, membership in said club more than quadrupled when I extended the start date of my sample size from 2010 to 2000, jumping from just two players (Alex Rodriguez and Albert Pujols) to nine. Just missing inclusion is Scorpio’s number two point-scorer Gary Sheffield, who also just missed having third base listed as an official secondary position in my database. Sheffield played just over 18% of his career games at the hot corner, before moving to the outfield about a quarter of the way through his career – but if you count only defensive appearances, as opposed to total games, he does reach the 20% threshold.
Sammy Sosa would round out the other corner outfield spot if I was building a projected lineup, but since this project is more about historical accuracy than maximizing fantasy points, he sits behind Sheffield in right field. I mentioned David Ortiz in my earlier post about the top All-2010’s players, and his presence at DH means that Scorpio’s considerable outfield depth – led by Johnny Damon – will have to remain on the bench.
The dates columns from left to right are: first year in MLB, last year in MLB, and total years in MLB.
Scorpio’s top non-outfield, non-DH batter is Fred McGriff, with a sizable gap between the Crime Dog and fellow lefty power hitter Ryan Howard. The gap is basically the same between McGriff and the next top-scoring infielder, Orlando Cabrera. He and Rafael Furcal lead a deep cast of shortstops, but there’s not really a fantasy superstar in the bunch. The only active Scorpio batters are Asdrubal Cabrera, who could technically sit at the top of the sign’s second base depth chart, and Kyle Seager, who has a good chance of catching Edgardo Alfonzo before the former’s career is over.
A player needs at 20% career appearances at a position for me to include it in the POS2 column.
The Scorpions had one of the top ten most dynamic starters in the game leading their rotation in Pedro Martinez, if you go by fantasy points per game. Pedro checks in at number ten overall, but his career total is actually fairly close to SP2 Curt Schilling, which is a shame, because the latter has turned out to be a generally reprehensible person. No player from the 2000’s had more years in the majors than Jamie Moyer, and only Capricorn Rickey Henderson equaled his total of 25. He leads an all-lefty back half of the top five, along with former Mets teammates (?) Kenny Rogers and Al Leiter.
It’s fair to say that Scorpio is not known for its top tier relievers. Tom Gordon and C.J. Wilson spent their early/late careers as a starters, respectively, and neither Roberto Hernandez nor Armando Benitez broke 20,000 career points. However, the only active Scorpio pitcher is a reliever: longtime Royals southpaw Greg Holland, who leads active Scorpion relievers in points-per-game. Perhaps I should have bolded Francisco Liriano and Mike Leake as well as Holland, as neither is technically retired… but neither do they have contracts for 2021.
Next time, we’ll return to the Positive Polarity (and to the Fire Division, no less) with a look at the points leaders for the majority of the most recent decade: the Aries Rams.