FABL Year to Year Graphs
When I first started by reverse-chronological trip through Fantasy Astrology Baseball League history, I included a graph with each installment that plotted how the point totals of each sign changed year after year. Or rather, year BEFORE year, since I’m going backwards. I abandoned that practice after 2009, which actually marked 11 full years, a somewhat less-than-ideal stopping point. But now that I’m taking a break from this once-weekly feature, this is a good time to return to these graphs and take a big-picture look at how the FABL landscape has evolved over the last two decades.
I’m starting regular-chronologically this time, since the year 2000 was the last season I covered before my hiatus. Scorpio took the points crown this year, and I happen to know (SPOILER ALERT) that they would maintain their lead going back at least a few years into the late ‘90’s. The Scorpions would again finish on top in 2004, but by and large the early 00’s were dominated by Leo. In fact, the 2001 Lions scored the most fantasy points of any FABL sign since, and it’s not particularly close… unless you count the 2002 and 2003 Lions. Let’s just say it’s easy to rack up points when you have Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, and Todd Helton each with multiple 3,000-point seasons in the first half of this decade.
The next half-decade was a transitional period where no sign led the league in points twice in a row. Of course, starting with 2005 is quite an arbitrary sample, since Leo was in the midst of a stretch where they won four out of five years. And then on the other side of the chart, Libra would be the top scorer for the next two years after 2009. But it’s nevertheless fun to see some new blood get in on the action. In 2006, Taurus was led by Carlos Beltran and a rotation of five 2,000-point scorers. The Bulls came THIS close to repeating the following year, but they were no match for Curtis Granderson, Bobby Abreu, Johan Santana, and J.J. Putz on the 2007 Pisces squad. And Sagittarius practically ran away with the league in 2008, behind David Wright, Chase Utley, Ervin Santana, and Mariano Rivera.
The Libra mini-dynasty that spanned the beginning of the 2010’s coincided with the rise of Jose Bautista, Jered Weaver, and Robinson Cano, with a couple of otherworldly seasons by Matt Kemp, Zack Greinke, and Carlos Gonzalez mixed in. It’s also worth noting the exemplary performances by Andrew McCutchen, Troy Tulowitzki, and Heath Bell during that time period. The Scales would win once again in 2015, interrupting Aries’s run of dominance that would reach into the next half-decade. 2012 was the closest grouping at the top of the FABL points ladder, and also the only year so far that my home sign Cancer Crabs wound up victorious.
I’ve written a lot about how Aries stood atop the standings for five out of the six seasons from 2013 to 2018. But this is a good time to examine the overall trend of one sign standing out for a number of years, followed by a period of instability (ranging from 1 to 3 years), before another sign takes over at the top. Obviously the instability was unprecedented after 2019, what with Major League Baseball, nay, the entire world, shutting down due to COVID-19. For an even clearer indication that the Fantasy Astrology Baseball world was hitting the reset button, the lowly Aquarius scored the most points of any sign in 2020, after finishing in last place a full 50% of the last two decades.
The above snapshot shows you the cyclical nature of FABL points leaders. Going backwards – in time, as well as number of wins – these signs were Aries (five), Libra, Leo (four each), and then Scorpio (two, but with more on the reverse-horizon). You can also count up Aquarius’s whopping ten last-place finishes – Cancer and Taurus are next in that ignominious category with three each. I’m looking forward to seeing what trends emerge as the curve continues in both directions.
Next time, I’ll start going sign-by-sign in an all-2000’s look at the Fantasy Astrology Baseball League, which means it will probably be quite some time before I return to my yearly recaps. But of course I’m open to feedback on how to proceed based on popular demand.