Blog
Analyzing 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.
Read More
Could 2023 be the season Clayton Kershaw passes Randy Johnson for the “all-time” lead in career Box-Toppers points?
Or could this coming season be the year when Kershaw loses the lead among active players in career Box-Toppers points to either Max Scherzer or Justin Verlander?
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 MoreThe two pitchers who led their league in Box-Toppers points in 2022 also won both Cy Young Awards Wednesday.
Justin Verlander of the Astros, who led all players in 2022 with 26.0 Box-Toppers points, won the American League Cy Young Award. And Sandy Alcantara of the Marlins, who led all National League players with 21.1 Box-Toppers points, won the NL Cy Young Award.
Read More
Randy Johnson leads all players in career Box-Toppers points and the two active players most likely to pass his total won’t likely do it until 2023 at the very earliest.
Johnson earned 282.5 Box-Toppers points from the time Box-Toppers record keeping began in 1995 until he retired in 2009.
Read MoreYankees pitcher Gerrit Cole 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.
Cole earned 29.8 Box-Toppers points combined in 2020 and 2021 to lead all players in that span, while Scherzer earned 120.3 from 2016-2021, most in that span.
Read MoreAnalyzing 27 years of Box-Toppers points leaders among American League and National League pitchers and batters each season.
Read More
The Los Angeles Dodgers maintain their lead in Box-Toppers weekly team rankings report for the ninth straight week.
Meanwhile, the Chicago White Sox maintain the lead among American League teams and the St. Louis Cardinals are the week’s hottest team.
Read More
The Los Angeles Dodgers maintain their lead in Box-Toppers weekly team rankings report for the third straight week.
Meanwhile, the Chicago White Sox maintain their lead among American League teams and the San Francisco Giants are the week’s hottest team.
Read MoreDodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw now has the second-most career Box-Toppers points since player tracking began in 1995.
Kershaw rose into second place on the “all-time” career points list Sunday with 246.6 points, passing Pedro Martinez (244.8), who held the second-place spot for more than 22 years.
Read MoreTwins pitcher Jose Berrios is Saturday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Berrios struck out 12 over six hitless and scoreless innings, allowing no walks, in the 2-0 win over the Brewers. Berrios exited after 84 pitches with a no-hitter that was broken up with a single hit in the eighth inning.
Read More
The Los Angeles Dodgers are the top-ranked team in Box-Toppers’ 2021 preseason rankings. They also ended 2020 as Box-Toppers’ top-ranked team and World Series champions.
Meanwhile, the New York Mets made the biggest offseason improvement in players’ accumulated Box-Toppers points, while the Chicago Cubs saw the biggest decline.
Read MoreAnalyzing 26 years of Box-Toppers points leaders among American League and National League pitchers and batters each season.
Read MoreRandy Johnson leads all players in career Box-Toppers points and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
Johnson earned 282.5 Box-Toppers points from the time Box-Toppers record keeping began in 1995 until he retired in 2009. The most likely rival to Johnson’s throne at the moment is Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw who has 235.2 career Box-Toppers points, third among all players since 1995 and most among active players.
Read More
Box-Toppers’ two top-ranked pitchers in 2020 won this season’s Cy Young Awards.
Shane Bieber of the Indians, who led all American League players with 11.4 Box-Toppers points, was named Cy Young winner in the AL. And Trevor Bauer of the Reds, who led all National League players with 10.0 Box-Toppers points, was named winner in the NL.
Read MoreAthletics pitcher Frankie Montas is Saturday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day, rising to third place in season player rankings.
Also Saturday, Aaron Judge of the Yankees rises to fifth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings and Diamondbacks pitcher Merrill Kelly rises to 10th after both earned Player of the Game honors.
Plus, Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers has now earned Box-Toppers points for 18 straight seasons—tied for the fifth-longest streak since 1995—after earning Player of the Game honors Saturday.
Read More
Imagine a Major League Baseball season beginning normally in the spring and ending on June 4.
That’s what the proposed pandemic-shortened 60-game schedule for 2020 will seem like.
In 2019, most clubs had played at least 60 games by June 4. That was barely more than a third of the regular season’s 162 games (37 percent). But for 2020, if all goes according to plan and the coronavirus doesn’t intervene to cut it even shorter, 60 games will be the complete, entire season.
Read MoreAnalyzing 25 years of Box-Toppers points leaders among American League and National League pitchers and batters each season.
Read MoreNationals pitcher Max Scherzer leads players in Box-Toppers points since the start of 2014.
Scherzer has 134.3 Box-Toppers points over the period 2014-2019, 8.9 points ahead of Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, who has 125.4 points over that span.
Read MoreBox-Toppers is casting a vote for the American League Cy Young Award to Astros pitcher Gerrit Cole.
We are also casting our vote for AL Most Valuable Player to … Astros pitcher Gerrit Cole.
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.