Astrology Baseball 2013 Playoffs, Round 2, FOIGHT!!!

In baseball, a lot is made of replacement level players - the type of player who can be called up from the minors at any time to fill in for the regulars in case of injury or provide some rest in case of fatigue. So much so that two of the most well-respected baseball sites have developed their own systems of measuring how many "wins" a player contributes above the level of production of an average replacement-level player. So while two weeks ago I looked at the eight teams who missed the Astrology playoffs through the lens of the players who most often led their team in weekly points, this time I'll look at the four remaining teams by examining the players who most frequently came in off the bench as substitutions.

You see, through the whole of this season, I've been doing weekly tinkerings of each lineup to reflect the changing trends in statistical production. As certain starters went through slumps, they were replaced by lesser-known and usually lower-ranked players who had acquitted themselves slightly better. Some of these players were cycled out periodically and some stuck around in the starting lineup for most of the year, and as I mentioned in the last post, I'm sure I didn't make the right decisions on who to start or who to bench every time, but looking at the weekly changes should give a good idea of which players best qualify as replacement-level. I'll start with the team that did the worst in the first round, which proves that there's no foul-play on my part as league manager: the Cancer Crabs.

But first, and I can't believe I didn't think of this before, here's a link to the main page of the Astrology Baseball 2013 League so you can explore the lineups yourself!

CANCER CRABS

The most frequent subs were pitchers, as they're considerably easier to swap in and out: each roster has a full 5 SP slots compared to only 1 for each offensive position, plus DH. Four pitchers were subbed out a team-leading four times: Phil Hughes and Paul Maholm (the two who were healthy and with their major league teams for the whole season), Tim Hudson (who was lost for the season in late July with a broken ankle), and Edinson Volquez (who was cut by the Padres, only to be picked up later by the Dodgers). Wei-Yin Chen was the only starter with 3 sub-outs, joining two-thirds of the team's closer-trio Jim Johnson and Ernesto Frieri (leaving only Chris Perez with 2 sub-outs to his credit).

The offensive side tells two very different stories about the Cancer middle infield: depth at 2B and a complete lack thereof at shortstop. Last year, Howie Kendrick provided a suitable backup to Brandon Phillips, but the revelation that I had made some incorrect calculations in my astrological calculations made Ian Kinsler the clear starter, pushing Phillips into DH limbo. That along with the fact that he struggled with some injuries accounts for his 3 sub-outs. But the patron saint of injuries on this team has to be Derek Jeter, who played a mere 17 games in 2013. I was pretty vigilant about getting the only SS on this team ranked within the top 200 in the game when he was healthy, which is why placeholder Derek Dietrich was taken out of the lineup 3 times. John Buck didn't start the year on the active roster, but his hot start got him into the lineup on three separate occasions. Although the versatile Allen Craig was this team's 4th-highest active scorer (behind only Shin-Soo Choo, Manny Machado, and Yadier Molina), he was subbed out 3 times also mainly due to injuries.

VIRGO MAIDENS

Virgo played well enough to beat Cancer last week, but still find themselves in the consolation ladder, having lost to the #1 seeded Leo. I think I've said this before (in any case I remember thinking it before), but Virgo is interesting in that they have rather murky starter/backup situations in a number of positions. For example, Ian Desmond and Elvis Andrus subbed out for each other a full 4 times this year, with neither able to become the clear favorite. Injuries to Rickie Weeks eventually put Neil Walker in the 2B hotspot, but not before the former was subbed out on 4 separate occasions. The first base round robin of Paul Goldschmidt, Joey Votto, and Freddie Freeman is a true embarrassment of riches and there's really no wrong choice to be made - suffice it to say two of these three occupied 1B and DH for most of the year. Brett Gardner toed the line between fantasy replacement level and injury risk, putting up some decent numbers when he was able to stay on the field.

Gio Gonzalez was ranked as one of the top 50 players in the game, so it's surprising that he led the staff with 3 sub-out/ins, tied with Jason Hammel, a breakout player last year who just kept getting chances to show his stuff. For all the talk of Dan Haren's disappointing season, he put together enough good stretches to amass a decent number of points for this team. The last pitcher to be involved in 3 subs was a valuable playoff addition for those lucky few still in the hunt: Andrew Cashner was owned by fewer than 10% of all ESPN fantasy owners prior to this week when he got a nice bump due to a hot stretch. The only relief sub-out was rather devastating: after Bobby Parnell went down right before the trade deadline, there was no other pitcher on this roster who even came close to amassing any saves.

LIBRA SCALES

Libra had by far the most tinkering out of all the contenders because of tremendous depth in the outfield and starting pitching departments, which luckily made up for tremendous injury troubles in those areas. The most frequent offenders were Yoenis Cespedes (brought in 4 times, taken out 3), Bryce Harper (3 and 3), Jose Bautista, Matt Kemp, and Starling Marte (out 3 times, brought in 2). Just looking at those names gives you an idea of what disgusting depth they were working with here, and that's not even counting consistent starters Andrew McCutchen and Carlos Gonzalez (before his various rash of injuries). On the pitching side, Kris Medlen was subbed out an unprecedented 5 times: no one else on the squad eclipsed 3, but there were four different pitchers who reached that milestone (Jered Weaver, Shelby Miller, Matt Cain, and Derek Holland).

LEO LIONS

Leo was the top team in Fantasy Astrology this year, and the top spot didn't come without a fair amount of tinkering. Let's start with the players with 4 subs: Jason Heyward (various bad luck injuries mixed with periods of slumping), Mark Reynolds (who was able to fill in for both Pablo Sandoval and Anthony Rizzo, plus DH-ing), and Joaquin Benoit (who tag-teamed with fellow middle reliever Santiago Casilla before ascending to Detroit's closer role). Catcher was another messy spot with Wilson Ramos and Ryan Hanigan giving way to breakout star Evan Gattis early, before Ramos won the job back (and taking home the top scoring spot in Round 1 of the playoffs). Once Clay Buchholz went down with his neck injury, a bevy of replacements battled to take his spot with neither Scott Diamond nor Chris Capuano sticking on full time.

Based on what's been happening all through this year, I'd say Leo has the clear advantage in this matchup if due to their momentum alone. I will likely be too engrossed in the playoffs to spend a lot of time analyzing the winner of this playoff matchup, but that's what the off-season is for!