Taurus Season Injury Report
Anyone who has played fantasy baseball knows the rigors involved with keeping your starting lineup optimized every day over the course of a 162-game season. It’s a lot of work keeping track of the starting pitching schedules for each team that employs a hurler on your roster, checking in on nagging injuries that might keep one of your regulars out of the lineup on any given day, and scouring the waiver wire for players who happen to be on a hot streak. So imagine doing that for 12 fantasy teams, while also trying to maintain some degree of neutrality. It’s a mess!
That’s why I’ve limited the Fantasy Astrology Baseball League to a schedule of weekly lineup changes. It obviously sucks for a sign that has a star player go down with an injury on Monday or Tuesday of a weeklong matchup. But I have to set some boundaries, or this unique (and fun and informative) hobby will quickly become a resentment-inducing chore.
So now that the zodiacal wheel has turned into Taurus season, I’d like to use this moment of transition to detail some of the players who have transitioned in or out of their team’s lineup over the first two weeks of the season. I’ll focus primarily on injuries, but I won’t ignore any particularly eye-popping hot streaks that could elevate a player from bench role to starter over the long haul.
I’m starting with my home sign of Cancer, since they had key first-week injuries in all three areas: infield, outfield, and pitching. Starting with the hardest to replace, two-way player Shohei Ohtani had exactly one (1) stellar pitching outing before he was officially limited to batting due to blister issues. The notoriously pitching-poor Crabs are currently leaning on comeback candidate Aaron Sanchez, but Kwang-Hyun Kim returned over the weekend, and Chris Flexen should gain SP eligibility soon. Tim Anderson is now back from his hamstring injury, but in his absence, Eugenio Suarez slid over from DH to 2B (he’s eligible as a middle infielder thanks to his time at shortstop in 2021), with the red-hot Nelson Cruz coming off the bench. Speaking of red-hot, Ramon Laureano came off the bench to replace Cody Bellinger in a one-for-one swap at center field.
Aries made it through Week 1 without any significant injuries, but Week 2 will see them down their regular third baseman (Alex Bregman, COVID protocols) and an outfielder (Lorenzo Cain, quad). Luckily Nolan Arenado can slide over from DH to fill in for the former, but David Dahl is the best choice to take over for the latter. In a bit of good injury news for the Rams, Eduardo Rodriguez is now back on his feet, and he’ll take over for the struggling Corey Kluber in the rotation.
Taurus had just one Week 1 injury, with John Means replacing Elieser Hernandez in the rotation – a change I probably should have made before the season started. Week 2 sees Jose Altuve out for COVID protocols (Joey Wendle / Tommy Edman to fill in) and Jordan Romano on the shelf with ulnar neuritis (Emilio Pagan). Moving right along, Gemini got through Week 1 unscathed, but lost Anthony Rendon to a groin injury – Yoan Moncada will step up in the absence of the Twins’ best player.
Libra got hit hard, with Kolten Wong, Ketel Marte, and Teoscar Hernandez all going down in the first week. Since one of the above second baseman was filling in at first, he was replaced by Colin Moran, with Garrett Hampson filling in for the other. Libra’s deep outfield provides plenty of replacements for Hernandez, with the sign able to choose from Andrew McCutchen, Kole Calhoun, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., or Manuel Margot.
The loss of James Paxton due to Tommy John Surgery really hurts Scorpio’s chances, but Jon Gray has been a capable fill-in, and Sonny Gray just recently made his return from the IL. Sagittarius had their big injury news before the season, with Eloy Jimenez lost for the majority of the year. They also lost Josh Donaldson for Week 2, with Justin Turner filling in nicely. It’s also worth noting that both Byron Buxton and Christian Yelich are banged up but not officially on the IL.
Capricorn had a rough break, losing Fernando Tatis Jr. so early, especially since his top replacement was light-hitting Jose Igleasias. But the #2 ranked overall player is back now, and all is right with the Sea-Goats. As if Aquarius wasn’t hapless enough, they literally have not one third base eligible player to replace Ke’Bryan Hayes, who’s down with a wrist injury… not that it’ll make much difference in the standings if they’re down a player.
UPDATE: In the time since I initially wrote this on Saturday, we’ve had some more unfortunate developments. Cancer ace pitcher Stephen Strasburg, Taurus #1 starter Lance Lynn, and Libra center fielder Starling Marte have all gone on the IL with various ailments. Plus, the top player in baseball, Sagittarius phenom Ronald Acuna Jr., is day-to-day with abdominal issue. So hopefully the rest of Taurus season brings healing energy to baseball.
Next time, we’ll go back to 2005, which marks another half-decade in my reverse-chronological trip through FABL history, counting decades from 00-09, of course.