All-2000’s: Virgo
If you look at the top players in Major League history, I mean the top 50 in Wins Above Replacement (according to baseball-reference.com), you’ll find that the relative majority of them are Virgos. They only have nine total players, but they’ve amassed 931.2 bWAR between them, compared to the second place Aries, with seven players and 782.9 bWAR. However, in the last 20 years, we haven’t seen a Virgo team lead the league in fantasy points. Here are the top players in their somewhat underperforming All-2000’s roster:
The numbers columns from left to right are: total career points, points-per-season, and points-per-game.
I’m starting with pitching because Randy Johnson had the most career points of any Virgo who made the starting roster at any point in the 2000’s. While the towering left-handed starter is the only pitcher on the roster to break 40,000 points (or even 30,000 points, for that matter), the rotation he leads is the only one we’ve seen so far with five 20,000 career point-scorers. Roy Oswalt and Dan Haren had remarkably similar career numbers – they each played for 13 years, and they’re separated by just seven (7!) career fantasy points and 0.5 points-per-season. The last two pitchers in the rotation are still going strong: Adam Wainwright is still starting for the Cardinals at age 39, while David Price has transitioned into a mostly bullpen role with the Dodgers.
The Virgo bullpen is pretty weak overall, despite the presence of Jason Isringhausen and his famous knuckle-curveball. Wade Davis is back with the Royals, after a detour to Chicago and Colorado. If I took 2021 stats into account, Carlos Martinez would have been listed as a starter: as of this writing, he has an even 50%-50% spit between starts and relief appearances. I chose to list an additional starting pitcher in my depth chart, not just due to lack of relief depth, but also to point out that both of the Rockies’ ill-fated 2001 free agent signings were Virgo lefties: Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle. As of the end of 2020, they flank noted sticky-stuff user Gerrit Cole on the career points list, but Cole will move up several places before all is said and done from him.
The dates columns from left to right are: first year in MLB, last year in MLB, and total years in MLB.
Virgo was known for first base depth, even before the current Joey Votto/Paul Goldschmidt/Freddie Freeman trifecta. Not only does Hall of Famer Jim Thome have the most offensive All-2000’s fantasy points, but Derrek Lee had a very fine career, and third baseman Todd Zeile spent a significant amount of time across the diamond as well. I included a middle initial for second baseman Luis A. Castillo in order to differentiate him from the active Sagittarius pitcher with the same first and last names. Elvis Andrus is in the twilight of his career for sure, but the Venezuelan had a long and solid run as the captain of the Virgo infield… although as we move into the previous decade, he’ll quickly get supplanted by baseball’s most famous iron man.
A player needs at 20% career appearances at a position for me to include it in the POS2 column.
Top Virgo all-2000’s outfielder Luis Gonzalez is perhaps best known for his hit that won the 2001 World Series for the Diamondbacks. One of his opponents in that World Series, Bernie Williams, would play next to him in the Virgo outfield, with Ellis Burks sliding over to right field. As far as primary right fielders, lifelong Angel Tim Salmon leads the way, although current Angel Justin Upton has already surpassed him in career points. I wonder if Virgo somehow spent all its fantasy astrology catching karma: Mike Piazza was the best catcher in the game for a long time, but after he retired, the position has been a veritable loss… all due respect to Rod Barajas and Mike Matheny.
At the time of the next post, we will be entering Cancer season, my favorite of the zodiac signs. I’ll use this opportunity to talk about All-Star voting, which is now in full swing.