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The Los Angeles Dodgers are the top-ranked team in Box-Toppers’ 2024 preseason rankings.
Meanwhile, the New York Mets made the biggest offseason improvement in players’ accumulated Box-Toppers points, while the San Diego Padres saw the biggest decline.
Read MoreAnalyzing 29 years of Box-Toppers points leaders in pitching and batting in both leagues.
In 2023, Shohei Ohtani of the Angels, American League Most Valuable Player, was the only player who won a major postseason award and also led his Box-Toppers category (leading AL batters with 19.4). Also, Pete Alonso of the Mets became the ninth batter since 1995 to lead his league’s batters in Box-Toppers points more than once, leading NL batters for the second straight season.
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The Atlanta Braves are Box-Toppers’ top-ranked team going into 2024, with a roster mostly intact from 2023 when they had baseball’s best record.
Meanwhile, the Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners are Box-Toppers’ top two American League teams, with the Mariners having one of the best offseason improvements of any team so far. And also, while the Los Angeles Dodgers have made big offseason splashes adding Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow and Teoscar Hernandez, their offseason ranking has actually fallen from third place last season to fourth place now.
Read MoreThe World Series champion Texas Rangers, leaders among all teams in Box-Toppers points in 2023, also led all teams in points earned by pitchers. The Los Angeles Dodgers, meanwhile, which finished third overall among all teams, had the most points won by batters in 2023.
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Source: MLB.com
Both National League Division Series begin Saturday.
The Philadelphia Phillies face the Atlanta Braves in one best-of-five game series and the Arizona Diamondbacks face the Los Angeles Dodgers in the other. The top two NL seeds, the Braves (first) and the Dodgers (second) received byes from the first round of playoffs and face the winners of the best-of-three Wild Card series played this week.
Read MorePadres pitcher Blake Snell is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Tuesday, Braves pitcher Spencer Strider extends his lead in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors. Plus, Mariners pitcher Luis Castillo rises to seventh place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors.
Read MoreWhite Sox pitcher Mike Clevinger is Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Monday, Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler rises to 10th place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors.
Read MoreElias Diaz of the Rockies is Box-Toppers 2023 All-Star Game Player of the Game.
Diaz hit an eighth-inning, two-run, go-ahead home run, in the National League’s 3-2 win Tuesday over the American League. Diaz went 1-for-2, scoring once and driving in two runs.
Read MoreBlue Jays pitcher Chris Bassitt is Thursday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day, rising to third place in season player rankings.
Also Thursday, Marlins pitcher Jesus Luzardo rises to 10th place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning National League Player of the Day honors.
Read MoreAngels pitcher Jaime Barria is Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Barria struck out six over five scoreless innings, allowing two hits and no walks, in the 2-1 win over the Red Sox.
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The New York Mets are the top-ranked team in Box-Toppers’ 2023 preseason rankings.
Meanwhile, the Texas Rangers made the biggest offseason improvement in players’ accumulated Box-Toppers points, while the World Series champion Houston Astros saw the biggest decline.
Read MoreAngels pitcher Shohei Ohtani is Box-Toppers’ top-ranked player over the past two seasons while Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer ranks first in points over the past six seasons.
Ohtani earned 40.8 Box-Toppers points combined in 2021 and 2022 to lead all players in that span, while Scherzer earned 104.6 from 2017-2022, most in that span.
Read MoreIn 2022, Justin Verlander led American League pitchers in season Box-Toppers points for the third time in his career, tied for the seventh-most times a player has led a season points category.
Also in 2022, the New York Mets and Miami Marlins each had their first Box-Toppers points category leader—Pete Alonso and Sandy Alcantara— leaving the Pittsburgh Pirates as the only team to never have a player lead a category since tracking began in 1995.
Read MoreMets pitcher Max Scherzer leads players in Box-Toppers points since the start of 2017.
Scherzer has 104.6 Box-Toppers points over the period 2017-2022, 2.2 points ahead of second-ranked player Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole, who has 102.4 points over that span.
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The New York Yankees and New York Mets lead Box-Toppers offseason rankings after landing the winter’s two biggest free agents.
The Yankees rank first after Carlos Rodon Thursday agreed to a free agent deal. Rodon earned 19.8 Box-Toppers points in 2022 with the Giants, sixth overall and third among National League pitchers. He ranked second among all free agents going into the 2023 season.
Read MoreAstros pitcher Framber Valdez is Wednesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day on the regular season’s final day.
Valdez struck out 10 over five scoreless innings, allowing two hits and one walk, in the 3-2 win over the Phillies.
Read MoreTwins pitcher Sonny Gray is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Tuesday, Rays pitcher Shane McClanahan rises to fifth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors. Plus, Mookie Betts of the Dodgers rises to seventh place in player rankings and rises to the lead among National League batters after earning Player of the Game honors.
Read MoreFive of the top 11 runs batted in leaders were among the top 100 players in Box-Toppers points in 2021. All five were also among their league’s top 10 batters in Box-Toppers rankings.
However, Salvador Perez of the Royals, who led all players with 121 RBIs, had just 4.5 Box-Toppers points in 2021, 222nd among all players and 44th among American League batters.
Read MoreDodgers pitcher Max Scherzer holds the lead in five of Box-Toppers’ main leaderboards at the end of 2021, most of any player.
Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole leads four Box-Toppers leaderboards, second most of any player.
Read MorePadres pitcher Dinelson Lamet had the biggest decline in Box-Toppers points from 2020 to 2021.
Lamet, who earned 9.0 Box-Toppers points in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season (fifth among all players and third among National League pitchers), earned 2.0 points in 2021. After a stellar 2020 season, he battled injury early in 2021, struggled and went from a starter to a bullpen pitcher.
Read MoreBox-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.