The Los Angeles Angels finish the season atop Box-Toppers team rankings—but they had the fewest Box-Toppers points of any American League team in the past 10 days.
Final team rankings
Here are Box-Toppers' final team rankings for the 2014 season, which ended Sunday, Sept. 28. The column BTP shows the number of Box-Toppers points players on the team have accumulated so far this season. The column BTP/wk shows have many points teams have accumulated since Sept. 18.| 928 | Teams | BTP | BTP /wk |
Last wk rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | *Angels | 124.2 | 3.0 | 1 |
| 2 | *Dodgers | 123.2 | 8.0 | 2 |
| 3 | *Athletics | 117.6 | 5.7 | 3 |
| 4 | *Nationals | 115.5 | 11.5 | 8 |
| 5 | *Cardinals | 114.8 | 5.7 | 5 |
| 6 | *Orioles | 113.4 | 4.0 | 4 |
| 7 | *Tigers | 112.9 | 6.0 | 6 |
| 8 | *Giants | 110.8 | 4.5 | 7 |
| 9 | Blue Jays | 106.5 | 8.5 | 9 |
| 10 | *Royals | 101.1 | 6.5 | 11 |
| 11 | *Pirates | 99.9 | 6.7 | 16 |
| 12 | Mariners | 99.9 | 5.0 | 10 |
| 13 | Indians | 99.6 | 7.7 | 15 |
| 14 | Yankees | 96.4 | 8.9 | 17 |
| 15 | Marlins | 95.6 | 3.5 | 13 |
| 16 | Brewers | 94.7 | 4.7 | 14 |
| 17 | Braves | 92.1 | 3.0 | 16 |
| 18 | Reds | 90.5 | 6.5 | 19 |
| 19 | Mets | 89.9 | 6.0 | 21 |
| 21 | Rays | 88.2 | 3.7 | 18 |
| 20 | Padres | 88.0 | 7.5 | 22 |
| 22 | White Sox | 86.6 | 4.0 | 20 |
| 24 | Phillies | 82.0 | 3.0 | 24 |
| 23 | Twins | 81.3 | 6.0 | 25 |
| 25 | Astros | 79.9 | 3.7 | 23 |
| 26 | Rockies | 78.6 | 4.5 | 26 |
| 27 | Cubs | 75.2 | 6.0 | 27 |
| 28 | Rangers | 73.7 | 7.7 | 29 |
| 29 | Dbacks | 70.7 | 2.0 | 28 |
| 30 | Red Sox | 68.7 | 6.5 | 30 |
BTP: Box-Toppers points
The Los Angeles Dodgers meanwhile remained atop National League teams in Box-Toppers rankings—a spot they’ve held since July 3— and moved to within one point of the Angels.
Angels players have accumulated 124.2 Box-Toppers points (only 3.0 since the last ranking report on Sept. 18) and the Dodgers have 123.2. (The Dodgers picked up 8.0 points since Sept. 18, second-best among NL teams.)
The Angels are led by pitcher Garrett Richards, who has 15.7 Box-Toppers points and is out for the season with a torn knee tendon. Richards ranks 13th among all players and seventh among AL pitchers. Pitcher Matt Shoemaker has the most Box-Toppers points among active Angels players, with 11.7. He ranks 22nd among AL pitchers. Their top batter, Mike Trout, has 8.5 Box-Toppers points and ranks seventh among AL batters.
The Angels also have baseball’s best winning percentage (.605).
The Dodgers are led by overall Box-Toppers points leader, pitcher Clayton Kershaw, who has 31.5 points. Pitcher Zack Greinke has the second-most Box-Toppers points among Dodgers players—16.5, ranking sixth among NL pitchers. Their top batter, Adrian Gonzalez, has 7.2 Box-Toppers points and ranks 10th among NL batters.
The Dodgers have the second-best winning percentage in the NL (.580), behind the Washington Nationals (.593). The Nationals had the hottest past 10 days of any team, picking up 11.5 Box-Toppers points, giving them 115.5 for the season and moving from eighth to fourth place overall, second among NL teams.
All 10 teams bound for the playoffs finished in the top 11 spots in Box-Toppers team rankings. The only non-playoff team to finish in the top 10 is the Toronto Blue Jays, who finish ninth with 106.5 points, ahead of two playoff-bound teams—the Kansas City Royals and the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Oakland Athletics, who led Box-Toppers team rankings much of the season, were the last team to secure a playoff berth Sunday. They finish in third place overall with 117.6 Box-Toppers points, second among AL teams. They nearly lost their wild card spot to the Seattle Mariners, who with 99.9 Box-Toppers points, finished 12th among all teams.
Last year’s World Series champions, the Boston Red Sox, finish the 2014 season at the bottom of Box-Toppers team rankings, in 30th place with 68.7 points.
How did Box-Toppers preseason picks fare during the 2014 season? Only five of the 10 teams picked to make the playoff actually earned postseason berths (The good: Tigers, Orioles, Nationals, Cardinals and Dodgers. The bad: Red Sox, Rangers, Rays, Reds and Braves. The missed: Royals, Angels, Athletics, Pirates and Giants.) Four of six division winners were predicted correctly (Tigers, Nationals, Cardinals and Dodgers). But our preseason World Series pick of Dodgers over Tigers is still a possibility.
Box-Toppers tracks who most helps their team win the most games. Using standard box score statistics, Box-Toppers uses a simple formula to determine a Player of the Game for each Major League Baseball game played. That player is the person who contributed most to his team’s win. Players earn Box-Toppers points for being named Player of the Game and can earn bonus points for being Player of the Day or top player or batter in their league for the day.