The Philadelphia Phillies lead Box-Toppers team rankings for the second week.
Meanwhile, the Kansas City Royals regain the lead among American League teams and the Seattle Mariners are the week’s hottest team.
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Box-Toppers picks Dodgers over Astros in 2024 World Series, plus our awards forecasts
Box-Toppers picks the Los Angeles Dodgers to win the 2024 World Series, beating the predicted American League champion Houston Astros.
Box-Toppers projects the Dodgers will have the most wins among all teams—103—and will be one of three teams with 99 or more wins, along with the Astros and the Atlanta Braves.
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Dodgers lead 2024 Box-Toppers preseason team rankings; Rays top AL teams
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 MoreJake Cronenworth tops players in 2nd Korea game Thursday, as Padres beat Dodgers
Jake Cronenworth of the Padres is Box-Toppers Player of the Day in Thursday’s regular season opening game in Seoul, South Korea.
Cronenworth tripled, hit a sacrifice fly and went 4-for-4, scoring twice and driving in four runs, in the 15-11 win over the Dodgers, the second regular season game of the 2024 season.
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Braves, Astros, Mariners among leaders in Box-Toppers offseason team rankings
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 MoreA pitchers vs. batters breakdown of each team’s Box-Toppers point total for 2023
The 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.
Read MoreBox-Toppers’ Cy Young Awards: Bassitt over Cole in AL; Strider over Snell in NL
Box-Toppers’ Cy Young Award selections for 2023 are: American League—Chris Bassitt of the Blue Jays and National League—Spencer Strider of the Braves.
Neither pitcher was among the six finalists for the award announced this week, even though they ranked first (Strider) and second (Bassitt) in overall Box-Toppers season player rankings and were the only two players this season to reach 20.0 Box-Toppers points.
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Rangers hold Box-Toppers points edge over Diamondbacks in 2023 World Series
The Texas Rangers hold significant Box-Toppers points advantages over the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2023 World Series.
The Rangers finished first in Box-Toppers team rankings for the season while the Diamondbacks finished 14th, lowest among all postseason teams.
Read MoreNLCS Preview: Phillies favored to advance, though Diamondbacks have pitching edge
Box-Toppers favors the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League Championship Series, though the Arizona Diamondbacks have the slight edge among starting pitchers.
Both teams fought through higher-ranked teams to make their way to the league championship series, so neither is particularly highly ranked in Box-Toppers team rankings for 2023.
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Rangers finish atop Box-Toppers team rankings despite only earning Wild Card spot
The Texas Rangers finish 2023 atop Box-Toppers team rankings even though they only qualified for the postseason as the second-seeded American League Wild Card team.
Meanwhile, the Atlanta Braves maintain their lead among National League teams, finishing second overall. Plus, the San Diego Padres, who fell out of playoff contention, finish the season as the hottest team over the final days of the season.
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Rangers persist, leading Box-Toppers team rankings despite uncertain playoff spot
It doesn’t seem possible or correct, but the Texas Rangers persist in leading Box-Toppers team rankings for the eighth straight week.
Teams that could challenge the Rangers for top spot in rankings simply have not been gaining ground on the team that is struggling to cling to a final American League Wild Card playoff spot.
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Rangers, boosted by trade deadline deals, rise to lead Box-Toppers team rankings
The Texas Rangers, largely on the strength of their trade deadline pitcher acquisitions, rise to lead this week’s Box-Toppers season team rankings.
The Rangers gained the most Box-Toppers points by far of any team in the past week (21.1) thanks mostly to acquiring Max Scherzer (10.4 points) from the Mets and Jordan Montgomery (6.7 points) from the Cardinals.
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Rays lead Box-Toppers team rankings for 8th week, Dodgers lead NL teams
The Tampa Bay Rays maintain their lead in Box-Toppers team rankings for the eighth straight week.
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Dodgers maintain their lead among National League teams and the Los Angeles Angels are the week’s hottest team.
Read MoreBox-Toppers picks Mets over Yankees in 2023 World Series
Box-Toppers picks the New York Mets to win the 2023 World Series, beating the predicted American League champion New York Yankees.
Box-Toppers projects the Mets will have the most wins among all teams—104—and will be one of three teams with more than 100 wins, along with the Yankees and the San Diego Padres.
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Mets lead 2023 Box-Toppers preseason team rankings; Yankees top AL teams
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 MoreA look at Box-Toppers season-by-season AL & NL pitching & batting leaders, 1995-2022
In 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.
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Yankees, Mets lead Box-Toppers offseason team rankings, landing biggest free agents
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 MorePhillies’ Wheeler, Astros’ Pena top players in Sunday’s deciding LCS playoff games
Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler and Jeremy Pena of the Astros are Box-Toppers Player of the Game winners in Sunday’s two deciding league championship series games.
The Philadelphia Phillies and the Houston Astros both win their series and advance to the World Series, which begins Friday in Houston.
Read MoreAstros’ Javier, Phillies’ Hoskins top players in Saturday’s LCS playoff games
Astros pitcher Cristian Javier and Rhys Hoskins of the Phillies are Box-Toppers Player of the Game winners in Saturday’s two league championship series games.
Read MorePhillies’ Dominguez tops players in Friday’s NL Division Series Game 3
Phillies closing pitcher Seranthony Dominguez is Box-Toppers Player of the Game in Friday’s National League Championship Series Game 3.
Dominguez struck out three over two scoreless innings, allowing one hit, no walks and earning the save.
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