All-Time Since 1980: Water Division
With a new decade’s worth of stats added to my All-Time Caeer Fantasy Points database, it’s time to see how these new players impact each sign’s All-Time rosters. Since Scorpio players scored the most points out of any sign in my database, I’m starting my All-Time Since 1980 breakdowns with the Water signs. If you want to see a full list of the signs’ total points, players, and some fun averages, check out my ATS80 hub post!
It’s not often that a sign gets a player who eclipses the greatness of Pedro Martinez, but Scorpio got just that in the 80’s with Tom Seaver. In fact, the Mets and Reds legend becomes the fifth-highest scoring player on the entire All-Time Since 1980 database. No other player was added to the Stingers’ top five starters, but in terms of the B-Team, four of the next six scorers were added during the most recent update. Joe Niekro, brother of Phil (an Aries) and John Candelaria each had 20-50% of their career appearances out of the bullpen. Steve Rogers had a Cy-Young winning season, while Fernando Valenzuela dazzled the baseball world in his rookie season.
Only Seaver and Rogers join the top five in terms of career points-per-season averages, joining Pedro, Dwight Gooden, and Curt Schilling. Coincidentally, or not, these are the same top five starters in career points-per-game averages. Scorpio also gets a new top relief pitcher, although Ron Reed was a starter for 20-50% of his career games, including his lone All-Star season in 1968. That was with the Braves, but he basically split his career and moved to the bullpen upon joining the Phillies in 1976.
If you’re curious about the 20-50 designation, I basically have three different ways to list relief pitchers. If they have 0-9% career starts, they don’t get anything in the “Position 2” column – a dedicated reliever. For example, take the #2 reliever added in the 80’s, Gene Garber, who also played primarily for the Braves and Phillies. If they have between 10 and 19% starts, they still don’t qualify as a starter, but it’s worth mentioning – a spot starter, such as Boston stalwart Bob Stanley, the #3 new 80’s relief arm. If they reach the 20% threshold, they qualify for the starting rotation – a “swingman” they used to be called, but I prefer utility pitcher.
Then any pitcher above 50% gets labeled as a starter. They’re a dedicated starter as long as they haven’t appeared in relief in more than 19% of their appearances. If that pitcher reaches the 20% of their appearances in relief, I’ll note that as well. That last designation is really just for context, since it doesn’t affect their eligibility. For reference, Niekro had about 71% career starts, Candelaria was at a more relief-heavy 59%, while Ron Reed was at a reasonable 30%. Another dedicated reliever was Puerto Rican Willie Hernandez, who won a Cy Young Award and MVP as Detroit’s closer.
The only Scorpio position to get a new leader was third base, with the West Virginian Toby Harrah becoming their only 20,000 point player at the hot corner. Harrah was also versatile, playing between 20-50% of his games at shortstop, and another 10-20% at second base. Scorpio got another new versatile third bagger in Larry Parrish, who was also an outfielder. The highest scoring overall new addition was mustachioed Red Sox right fielder Dwight Evans, although he is only #3 on the RF depth chart, behind Gary Sheffield and Sammy Sosa. It’s also worth mentioning 20,000 point scoring Greg Luzinski, who finishes behind Ryan Braun and Dante Bichette in left field.
We do have one second place finisher in Bob Boone, who wasn’t quite able to catch Javy Lopez for the number one catcher. However, the middle man in a famous baseball dynasty has only about a 5,000 point lead over third placeman Yasmani Grandal, who is still active. If the Cuban that some people call the best hitting catcher in the league can play for five or six more seasons (he already has 10 under his belt), he has a shot at the top spot. Isn’t it fun how astrology baseball gives us these long-term storylines to keep track of?
In my last installment of this feature, Cancer got a new top relief pitcher in Doug Jones. Less than two months after I published that post in October, the 64-year-old Jones tragically passed away. In this new decade’s worth of additions, the Crabs get another new relief pitching leader, Hall of Famer Rich Gossage. Goose enters the database as the #5 overall relief pitcher - not as impressive as #5 overall player Tom Seaver, but it’s still nice to have one of the all-time great closers. Speaking of the number five, Cancer also gets a new #5 starting pitcher in Rudy May, but the fact that he made roughly 32% of his career appearances in relief keeps him off the top five in terms of points-per-game. Another new addition, Mario Soto, just barely missed the top five, as his 50.9 PPG falls slightly behind Ben Sheets’s 51.5. (Neither approaches Stephen Strasburg’s sign-leading 66.6.)
The only Cancer “position” to get a new leader in the 80’s was designated hitter, which in fact got two new leaders: Don Baylor and Hal McRae. Both of these sluggers also qualified in left field (at least when you combine McRae’s work in both corner outfield spots), and Baylor played enough first base in his career to justify me cheating him there in many of the Crabs’ fantasy astrology lineups. McRae is not the only father of a former player to join the database this decade, as Gary Matthews also joins the left field depth chart, behind Moises Alou and Garret Anderson. In an interesting twist, the MLB sons of these two players – Brian McRae and Gary Matthews Jr. – are both Virgos.
Cancer added two more 20,000 point scorers this decade, but none were able to take over the top spot at their positions. Centerfielder Willie Wilson finishes solidly behind Torii Hunter and Jim Edmonds, while Willie Randolph couldn’t supplant Ian Kinsler at second base. These two become the highest-scoring players named Willie on my database, narrowly surpassing Scorpio Willie McGee. No impactful new catchers were added to the database this decade, but it’s definitely worth keeping an eye on the top spot, where Yadier Molina trails Jason Kendall by just 1,014 points. This seems like a bridgeable gap, except that Yadi has announced that he will retire after 2022, meaning he’ll have only a potentially lockout-shortened season to make up the difference.
Not only were the 1980’s not a strong decade for Pisces starting pitching, they were also marked with tragedy. J.R. Richard enters the database as the #9 Fish starter, but who knows how high he could have climbed were his career not cut short by a stroke caused by a blood clot. Mike Norris and Steve McCatty had some impressive seasons with the A’s, but neither broke 8,000 career fantasy points. It’s a different story in the bullpen, where Kent Tekulve takes over as the top reliever… for now. With Aroldis Chapman just 111 points behind, it’s all but guaranteed that the Cuban Missile will regain the lead in the coming season.
The top Pisces additions came in the outfield, where Boston left fielder Jim Rice edges out the already strong Joe Carter. No new center field addition could supplant Steve Finley in center field, but Dale Murphy of the Braves and Cesar Cedeno of the Astros make for a very strong #2 and #3, as both surpassed 26,000 career points. The closest any other position players came to the top of their respective depth charts were third place (Johnny Ray at second base) and fourth place (Butch Wynegar behind the plate).
Next time, with Spring Training fully underway, I will likely return to filling out the 2022 Fantasy Astrology Baseball League projected depth charts, based on MLB.com’s fantasy player rankings. But tune in next Flashback Friday, as I continue this All-Time Since 1980 project with the Fire signs!