Saturn in Scorpio and the Pittsburgh Pirates

 One of the biggest sports stories of the year so far has been the Pittsburgh Pirates having the best record in baseball a week before the All-Star break. If you’re not familiar with the scenario the Pirates currently hold the dubious distinction of having the record for the most consecutive non-winning seasons in American professional sports history. They have currently gone 21 consecutive years without finishing with a .500or better record. They almost broke the streak last season before tanking in late July through September when the team had a cumulative batting average of only .236.

The Pirates have won or been to several World Series in their history the last being in 1979. They also had one of the best teams in baseball in the early 90’s when Barry Bonds broke into the big leagues. Bonds inability to produce in the post season killed them and they lost to the Reds and then the Braves twice in the NLCS . The game that signaled the demise of the Pirates organization was game 7 of the NLCS vs. the Braves when they had a 2-0 lead in the deciding 7^th game going into the 9^th inning before the Braves tied and then eventually won the game in extra innings and the Pirates subsequently lost Bonds and several other key players to free agency the following off season and have never recovered

So what has signaled the turnaround now? We’re going to look at the chart for the Pirates  that 1992 NLCS series that began their demise and the current transit of Saturn in Scorpio and put on our astrological detective hat and see if we can find the answers.

Astrologically Saturn has to do with gaining maturity and wisdom, discipline and correcting things that don’t work. Every 28 [ ish ] years every person or team will have what is called a Saturn return. This is a time when big adjustments will be made and new realities can take place. Any transit from Saturn to a birth chart is also a time when restructuring can occur.

Saturn also has to do with limitations and during a Saturn transit we may be faced with limitations or we may be able to remove our limitations through hard work.

Currently Saturn is in Scorpio and Pluto [ death, rebirth, transformation ] is in the sign of Capricorn. Saturn is the planetary ruler of Pluto and Saturn is the planetary ruler of Capricorn. These 2 planets are currently in the sign that the other one rules making them in “mutual reception “. That means the energy of these 2 planets are working very closely together and are helping each other out. In many cases this is helping a lot of people that have been striving to make changes and improve. This can also work negatively if the person is not aware or open to changes when they have these 2 energies in their birth chart [ see Aaron Hernandez for example ].

So the key elements in the chart for the Pittsburgh Pirates is to look at the decline and rebirth of the franchise is their Moon in early Scorpio [ 4 degrees of Scorpio on their noontime birth chart s it should fall in the 4-8 degrees of Scorpio range .]. The Moon correlates with the state of the fans who are the most emotionally attached to the team. The Pirates Saturn is at 15 Taurus [ structure and leadership of the team ] Neptune at 16 Taurus [ injuries and self undoing, victimization and secret enemies ] and their Pluto is at 28 Taurus [ power , destruction and transformation ]. Scorpio is the opposite sign of Taurus and Capricorn forms a nice earthy trine to Taurus.

Interestingly enough if we start at the downfall and the beginning of this losing era for the Pirates it started at game 7 of the 92 NLCS …the end of the last winning season in Pirates history. Immediately we see that Mercury [ communication , mental processes ] is at 10 degrees of Scorpio conjunct the Moon and opposed to the Saturn and Neptune in the Pirates chart signaling transformation. The big dog in this fight though is Pluto in Scorpio for 92 NLCS which sits at 21 Scorpio signaling death and transformation of what had been. Pluto sat in opposition to the Pirates Saturn , Neptune and Pluto…it was the end of an era.

Normally the fix for long standing issues [ e.g. 21 consecutive losing seasons ] is when another planet hits that spot to correct it. So last fall Saturn enters Scorpio and not only does this set off the Taurus and exactly being salso any planets in their respective charts that are in the sign of Scorpio. On an interesting note a lot of the Pirates current players will have been born a few years before this long streak of losing seasons began for the Pirates and thusly will have their Pluto’s in the sign of Scorpio. Saturn in Scorpio will work to refine and focus the energies of these players as it transits past the Pluto’s the different players.

So here are some of the key players on the Pirates and we’ll look at the planets in their charts and how they did last year when Saturn was still in Libra and how they’ve done this season so far with Saturn in Scorpio.

First of all the Pirates have a lot of players with their sun sign in Scorpio and they are mostly on their pitching staff. Jason Grille, Jeff Locke, Charlie Morton and Francisco liriano . Also of note are a couple of players that are not sun sign Scorpio’s but their Sun’s or Pluto’s are being activated by Saturn in Scorpio by conjunctions or squares.

Pedro Alvarez is a sun sign Aquarius but it is being squared by Saturn in Scorpio urging him to action and also his natal Pluto is at 9 Scorpio being conjuncted by Saturn. Sterling Marte has been a big part of the revival this season also turning into an excellent leadoff hitter and he has a  Pluto at 11 Scorpio.

So lets see how these players did last year with Saturn in Libra compared to this year with the focusing influence of Saturn in Scorpio hitting their charts.

Jason Grille-RP- 2011 - W-L 1-6 , 2.91 ERA 2 SAVES  2012- W-L 0-1, 2.15 ERA 28 SAVES IN 29 CHANCES

 Jeff Locke- SP  2011 -W-L 1-3 5.50 ERA   2012 W-L 8-2 2.15 ERA

 Charlie Morton –RP 2011- W-L 2-6 4.65 ERA   2012-W-L 1-2 3.38 ERA

 Francisco liriano-SP 2011- [ with Twins ] W-L 6-12 5.34 ERA   2012 W-L 8-3 2.20 ERA 

Pedro Alvarez-OF  2011- 30 HR 85 RBI .244 BA   2012-22 HR 57 RBI .249 BA

Sterling Marte-OF 2011 .257 BA 5 HR 17 RBI 12 SB   2012- .288 BA 9 HR 27 RBI 27 SB

So thanks to Locke and Liriano for helping my fantasy baseball team and to all of them as I have been a Pirates fan for 34 years .. the last 21 of which have been very long ones.

 So in conclusion I would expect the Pirates to remain a factor until at least a few years down the road when Pluto forms an exact opposition to the Pirates natal Pluto at 28 Taurus.