FABL 2023 Playoff Preview
If you plot the number of posts here at Astrology Baseball dot com on a calendar, you’ll notice that the frequency fell off significantly around the middle of 2023. Well, life comes at you fast, as they say; and while I’ve still been compulsively doing research and building lists, I haven’t had the time or energy to comment on those lists in blog form. Plus, the stuff I’ve been researching is not at all relevant to the current season - who asked for a graphic of the 1976 Yankees lineup, where each player is highlighted with a color based on their sign? No one!
But with September almost upon us, I found myself (somewhat shockingly) taking an interest in 2023 baseball. When I set up my Fantasy Astrology Baseball League for this year, I changed the scoring from weekly matchups to full season point totals. I thought this method would provide a better picture of the strongest signs throughout the season, and so it does… but it had the unintended consequence of doing away with the playoffs at the end of the season. So I guess I’ll just have to keep track of the FABL postseason manually!
These playoffs would start in one week’s time, with a two-week semifinal round followed by two weeks for the championship matchup. The obvious question is, which signs would make it to the final four? This year, because of the whole “life comes at you fast” thing, I haven’t been making changes to the FABL rosters during the season. But as it happens, the “set them and forget them” lineup strategy has resulted in three of the same four division winners as if I had retroactively calculated fantasy points as of this point in the season. The results might shock you…
The best sign so far in 2023 has been the Virgo Flowers, the only sign to pass 20,000 points in the official scoring. Their excellence has been in large part due to Freddie Freeman at first base, who is joined by a top-tier infield mix: Jose Ramirez at third, Marcus Semien at second, and a Paul Goldschmidt/Max Muncy platoon at DH. In a world where starting pitchers throw fewer innings than ever, Gerrit Cole is one of the few remaining workhorse aces, and he’s got a strong option to close games behind him in Devin Williams.
Virgo’s semifinal opponent would be the Water Division champions, the Cancer Crabs. The biggest story for this sign is obviously Shohei Ohtani’s elbow ligament damage, but he has had a good enough season as a hitter to win the AL MVP award as a DH. Also, Cubs ace Justin Steele has recently overtaken Ohtani as the sign’s top starting pitcher, although Giants closer Camilo Doval has the highest point total among pitchers.
Over in the Positive League, Libra has a stranglehold on the Air Division, with Mookie Betts leading the charge. Ironically, the Scales don’t even need to make use of Betts’s new infield eligibility: Ketel Marte, Bryson Stott, and Ha-Seong Kim have all outperformed the rest of the outfielders. Corbin Burnes leads a middling starting staff, while Alexis Diaz, David Bednar, and Kenley Jansen give Libra three legit star closers.
The Fire Division has less clarity at the top. Aries has the most points on my Fantasy Baseball site, but Sagittarius would win, given retroactively calculating point totals. I think the Archers are more deserving, with NL MVP front runner Ronald Acuna Jr. and Seattle ace pitcher Luis Castillo. Meanwhile, while Aries first baseman Matt Olson is no slouch, his sign doesn’t have the same level of star power.
While there is still one week left to go in the regular season, it’s unlikely that the standings will change too much going forward. Tune in next week for a preview of the semifinal matchups!