Fantasy Astrology 2016 Playoff Teams

This weekend, I completed work on my preliminary Baseball Database: a huge sortable color-coded spreadsheet that includes a row full of stats and information for all 1,353 players who recorded a game in the major leagues this year. (The full version of the database will eventually add info for all players who appeared on a team's 40-man roster, all non-roster invitees heading into 2016, and any minor leaguer who was traded for a player with MLB experience over the course of the season.) This is a three-step process, involving confirming each player's name, handedness, and roster status as of the last day of the season using each team's official site; then noting each player's position eligibility and teams played for, using Baseball-Reference.com's fielding stats page; and finally entering in each player's fantasy point totals, calculated by a custom ESPN fantasy league. It's tedious and time consuming, but it's absolutely a labor of love, and it allows me to generate lineup after lineup, such as these ones of the top four Fantasy Astrology teams from 2016.

As I've mentioned via Twitter, the Libra Scales just won the Fantasy Astrology championship for the fourth time in five years! The lone outlier was 2015 when Clayton Kershaw and Jake Arrieta led Pisces to a wild pitching-fueled upset, but Capricorn could not keep the trend going in 2016. And it's no wonder, considering the incredible wealth of talent that graces Libra's roster every year. Keep in mind, these aren't the lineups each team used in the playoffs, or even throughout the majority of the regular season, but rather an optimized configuration using the aggregate 2016 season stats and positional eligibility. I'll go over some major ways each roster evolved from their opening day versions in the commentary after each graphic.

You might notice that Libra has a spot for an additional position player at the bottom. This is not because the Fantasy Astrology league has two DH spots, but because I wanted you to marvel at this team's outfield depth. The five outfielders listed would likely line up as Betts, Cespedes, and Harper in left, center, and right, with a Gonzalez/Kemp DH platoon. But when you consider that this year's top offensive performer overall Mookie Betts had holdover CF eligibility from 2015, that would eliminate the need to feature either Yoenis Cespedes (and his injury-shortened, albeit brilliant campaign) or Andrew McCutchen (and his admittedly disappointing performance). And that list doesn't even include such luminaries as Jose Bautista, Starling Marte, and Kole Calhoun, who would make a pretty good starting outfield trio on most fantasy teams.

But the outfield isn't the only strength of this team, as the infield is also brimming with depth. Around the horn, Robinson Cano, Evan Longoria, and Xander Bogaerts are backed up by Jonathan Schoop, Jake Lamb, and Troy Tulowitzki, respectively. Looking at the SS depth chart, Brad Miller actually outscored Tulo in 2016, but when the breakout offensive star Miller took over as the Rays' first baseman in August, he was able to unseat the decidedly mediocre Ryan Zimmerman at 1B. Considering that first base and catcher were two of the only weak spots in Libra's lineup (the latter of which should be adequately filled by Cameron Rupp for the foreseeable future), it's a little scary what this offense could look like down the line.

The picture isn't quite as clear for the starting staff, which turned in a good overall performance, despite some major disappointments. These disappointments mostly involved Diamondbacks players: consider that both Shelby Miller and Robbie Ray joined Zack Greinke in this team's opening day starting five. Greinke's 2016 performance kept him in that group, but I'm sure no one expected him to regress from the league leader in ERA to mid-rotation starter status. Another former ace, Chris Archer, also had similar regression, leaving it to Cy Young contender J.A. Happ and versatile Tanner Roark to headline the staff. (Roark's performance as a starter always made me question Washington's decision to move him to the bullpen upon their signing of Max Scherzer... unless it was a clever ruse to limit the second-year-man's innings.) Throw in two of the three top scoring relief pitchers, and you have the makings of a perennial champion.

Libra's opponent this year was the Capricorn Goats, a strong team on both sides of the ball that got a big boost from the positional eligibility rules. Going into 2016, CAP's top two players holding only 1B or DH eligibility were Edwin Encarnacion (22) and Albert Pujols (124), with Victor Martinez waiting in the wings (234). But after the season, that list expanded to include Hanley Ramirez, the team's opening day left fielder thanks to Boston's ill-advised decision to put him in front of the Green Monster in 2015. Losing his OF eligibility effectively forced Hanley to DH and Pujols to the bench, but at least the team had a competent corner outfield replacement in Stephen Piscotty. And of course they still had offensive superpowers in MVP candidate Kris Bryant and MLB home run leader Mark Trumbo anchoring the lineup. But the presence of mediocre performers up the middle like Tucker Barnhart and Jose Iglesias (unseating long time regulars A.J. Pierzynski and Erick Aybar, respectively) ensure that they just can't compare to Libra's star power.

On the starting pitching front, however, Capricorn has several more impressive hurlers than Libra could muster, starting with a pair of Cy Young candidates, one for each league, in Rick Porcello and Jon Lester. Interestingly enough, Porcello wasn't even in the opening day rotation for this team, his spot going to 2015 AL Cy Young Award winner Dallas Keuchel, whose struggles this year have been well-documented. And speaking of Cy Young candidates, their closer Zach Britton could garner some votes for the top honor for a pitcher, regardless of his non-use in the American League Wild Card Game. (Other relief pitching options include veteran Francisco Rodriguez and newly minted closer Alex Colome, both of whom averaged more than 30 points per game last year). The starting rotation behind Lester and the incredibly consistent Cole Hamels did have a fair bit of turnover though: Danny Salazar had his season cut short due to injuries and Michael Pineda couldn't perform consistently despite good health. They were replaced by two from the trio of Danny Duffy, Kevin Gausman, or Trevor Bauer.

My home-sign team, the Cancer Crabs, always seems to be on the edge of contention, but this year they lost out to this year's champions in the season's penultimate matchup. Let's start with the players we knew would be great: Manny Machado continued to dazzle at the plate while also gaining eligibility at shortstop, Nelson Cruz once again hit 40 home runs, Ian Kinsler put up another quietly impressive season, and Charlie Blackmon took advantage of Coors Field to boost his offensive numbers. Now the surprises: DJ LeMahieu ended up winning the National League batting title, Angel Pagan had a bit of a career resurgence, and most importantly, Trea Turner burst on the scene with an electrifying rookie season. Turner played center field and second base this year, but if he takes over at shortstop for the Nationals any time soon, he'll go a long way towards filling the hole left in Cancer's shortstop depth chart by Derek Jeter's retirement.

But perhaps the biggest reason for this team's success was a complete revamping of the pitching staff. Here's how the rotation looked on opening day based on preseason rankings: Stephen Strasburg, Michael Wacha, Wei-Yin Chen, Patrick Corbin, and Edinson Volquez. The only pitcher in that group who stuck around for the whole season was Strasburg, and he ended the season on the disabled list. (Of note: Marco Estrada would have earned a place in the opening day rotation based on his rank, but his own injury issues kept him from the fantasy lineup for the first matchups of the year.) Of course, no one could have expected that the Blue Jays would go back on their promise to move ace Aaron Sanchez to the bullpen, or that CC Sabathia's new sober lifestyle would give new life to his career. Likewise the bullpen, which featured only middle relievers at the start of the season (Kevin Siegrist and Brett Cecil) ended with three bona fide closers - although Seung Hwan Oh, Jim Johnson, and Tony Cingrani had to climb significantly up their teams' respective depth charts to earn their saves.

No Fantasy Astrology team was touched with more tragedy than Leo, who lost a key member of their pitching staff and one of the most captivating personalities in Major League Baseball when Jose Fernandez was killed in a boating accident. Obviously a tragedy like this takes the focus away from such trivialities as Astrology Baseball, and my thoughts and prayers go out to Fernandez's friends and family and teammates on his real life organization, the Miami Marlins. He was a bright spot in this game and he will be sorely missed.

In 2016, Jose Fernandez helped pitch the Leo Lions into the playoffs along with overall 2016 fantasy points leader Max Scherzer, slugging pitcher extraordinaire Madison Bumgarner, and (when healthy) Japanese ace Yu Darvish. Their relief pitcher situation was a bit more tenuous as both Santiago Casilla and Jake McGee lost their grips on their respective closer positions, and Huston Street was a nonentity pretty much all season; although the team did get a boost from the emergence of ground ball specialist Brandon Kintzler as Minnesota's stopper late in the season.

There's no question about who this team's leader was on offense, as Mike Trout finished second only to Mookie Betts among all batters in 2016 fantasy points (third overall behind astrology teammate Scherzer). Anthony Rizzo finished a fairly close second in offensive points, with the only other 100-RBI season on the team, while Dustin Pedroia had another typically excellent season, topping the 2,000 point mark for the fifth time in his career. Injuries did hit this team fairly hard: breakout catcher Wilson Ramos was lost for the season right at the height of the Fantasy playoffs, third baseman Wilmer Flores likewise saw his season end early after taking over from an immensely disappointing Pablo Sandoval, shortstops Zack Cozart and Aledmys Diaz each missed significant time, as did slugging outfielder J.D. Martinez. In the end, the consistency of Adam Jones and Melky Cabrera couldn't win the day.


Check out my twitter feed for graphical analysis of the rosters of the current playoff teams, and stay tuned to this blog for more 2016 season wrap-up-type posts and for analysis of rosters in the upcoming World Baseball Classic!