Astrology Baseball: September Call Ups

It's time once again for Labor Day, which means it's time for baseball teams being awarded a whopping 10 extra roster spots to help keep regulars rested (if in contention) or showcase some of tomorrow's talent without using up an option year (if competing for protected draft picks). Either way, the occasion of September Call Ups gives us a good sample size of "replacement level" talent, the ubiquitous but elusive phrase that is responsible for one of the sport's most violent acronyms: WAR (Wins Above Replacement, or how many actual legitimate team wins would this guy contribute on his own, over and above say you're average September Call Up (SCU) type player).

That being said, it also provides us a useful landmark/vantage point in time to judge the season as a whole, much like the first quarter (1Q) or the All Star break (ASB). Since I already plugged the ASB stats  into the Hometown tournament project (which I promise I will finish, for those of you into video game simulation), let's take a look at the top performers pre-SCU through the lens of Fantasy and Astrology. Direct your attention not only to the ESPN website I set up several years ago, but first to this chart of how the final four would look if a) they were managed as efficiently as possible and b) the playoffs were determined by overall point value throughout the year, none of this "fantasy is a weekly game" stuff Matthew Berry keeps shouting about. To the right is the most basic standings based on points, below are the position by position breakdowns for the two matchups that make up the final four:

Aries is once again the overall top scorer, which means it takes on the fourth seed Scorpio. I've put handy check marks next to the team that I think has advantage in a particular area, and as you can see, the Aries team is clearly superior in the areas of infield and starting pitchers, even with the substitution that I should have made of the disappointing Jason Kipnis for doubles machine Daniel Murphy given that the Mets put the latter on the DL last week. Few could match the trio of Stanton, Braun and Ortiz in the OF/DH department, and if Coco Crisp can somehow miraculously recover from the newly strained neck that's kept him out of action for the last few games, they'll have a game changer in all four spots. If Aries wanted to sub out a couple of players based on recent performance rather than overall point totals, they could sub Orioles 1B Steve Pearce (who recently forced Chris Davis to move over to his old position of 3B to make room for him) in for Michael Morse (who the streaking Giants have "fallen in love with" this season), and put Astros cleanup hitter Dexter Fowler (now that he's back from the DL) in for Lorenzo Cain.

The Aries pitching staff is just unfair (and strangely international to boot), especially considering they have the likes of Chris Tillman, Henderson Alvarez, and Mark Buehrle waiting in the wings. Scorpio would look a lot better had Masahiro Tanaka not gone down for the season with an injury. Thankfully phenom James Paxton returned from his own injury just in time to put up some excellent numbers, and in terms of depth they've got solid performers like Wade Miley, Jon Niese and Jeff Locke (all lefties) who are all doing alright this season. If I were a betting man, I'd put some cash down on the "Rams" but I also know that fantasy tides can turn unexpectedly, so I wouldn't be surprised at any outcome here.

Last year's champion (and the one before) Libra doesn't look like they have a great edge over Leo in terms of direct player to player comparisons, but they didn't look like they did last year either and still ended up taking the crown. Mike Trout and Andrew McCutchen are probably the top two outfielders in the game right now so it'll be interesting to see them each lead a playoff team here. What might turn the tide in this matchup was Jose Bautista's surprise eligibility at 1B. Had he stayed in RF (pushing Calhoun to the bench) he would have easily won the matchup with Jason Heyward (since they don't count defense in fantasy), but that means breakout star Anthony Rizzo would have mopped the floor with Libra's second string 1B Lonnie Chisenhall. Dustin Pedroia might not have beaten Robinson Cano even at full strength, but the former's concussion issues stemming from a right cross from Logan Forsythe make it all but impossible. Libra was not immune from injury either as the shortstop spot occupied by rookie Xander Bogaerts went to NL Home Run Derby captain Troy Tuolwitzki for most of the season.

Although they have the top two pitchers in the matchup, Leo would have been even more stacked were it not for season ending injuries to Jose Fernandez and Yu Darvish. Jesse Hahn has pitched well bouncing between AA San Antonio and the Padres this year, but he doesn't have the staff-leading electric stuff of the pitchers he's replacing (at least not yet). On the Libra side, Greinke and Roark have the kind of stuff to be #1 starters on some clubs, while Weaver, Cobb and Lohse are kind of the opposite: above-average pitchers who are saddled with their teams' ace responsibilities. I gave Leo the edge in both relief pitchers here, but were it not for Sean Doolittle's placement on the DL, the two teams would be evenly split. This should be a fun and unpredictable week, everything a seed 2 vs. seed 3 matchup should be.


So now that we've seen how the stars are influencing baseball, it's time to turn back to see what the actual teams are doing on the field, including Scorpio Adam Dunn's last minute acquisition by the Oakland Athletics. Even if he continues the fireworks show he put on this afternoon, I doubt he'd supplant either LaRoche or Big Papi from the 1B or DH slots. But it's nice to keep track of players involved in the Astrology playoffs who have a chance to be involved in the actual playoffs.