The Los Angeles Dodgers lead Box-Toppers first weekly team rankings report of the 2024 season.
Meanwhile, the Kansas City Royals lead American League teams and are the hottest team of the past week.
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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.
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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 MoreHow 2023 Silver Sluggers winners fared in Box-Toppers rankings
Six of the 20 batters winning Silver Slugger Awards in 2023 were also among the leaders at their positions in 2023 Box-Toppers point totals.
The awards are given to the top batter in each position in both leagues, voted on by Major League Baseball coaches and managers. Box-Toppers, analyzing traditional box scores, tracks which player most helps his team win the most games, awarding points for the top player in each game.
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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 7th week; Dodgers lead NL teams
The Tampa Bay Rays maintain their lead in Box-Toppers team rankings for the seventh straight week.
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Dodgers maintain their lead among National League teams and the St. Louis Cardinals 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.
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A look at Box-Toppers top 100 players of ‘all-time’ after the 2022 season
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?
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A look at Box-Toppers’ top 100 players for 2022
Astros pitcher Justin Verlander tops Box-Toppers list of the top 100 players of 2022.
Verlander had 26.0 Box-Toppers points during the regular season. Verlander came back after sitting out most of the previous two seasons, recovering from Tommy John surgery. He earned 1.0 Box-Toppers point in 2020 and none in 2021. His 26.0 point gain from 0.0 in 2021 to 26.0 in 2022 is the largest single-season point gain for any player since Box-Toppers 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 MoreBox-Toppers 2022 year-end All-Star teams
The Box-Toppers All-Star teams for the 2022 regular season are led by overall Box-Toppers points leader, Astros pitcher Justin Verlander.
The American League and National League All-Star teams are composed of the players with the highest Box-Toppers point totals by position in each league.
Read MoreNLCS Preview: Padres favored over Phillies, but favorites are 0-4 in ’22 NL postseason
The San Diego Padres hold the advantage over the Philadelphia Phillies in the upcoming 2022 National League Championship Series.
Going into the postseason, both teams would have been voted Least Likely to Succeed, as they are the two-lowest seeded NL playoff teams and both rank lowest in Box-Toppers rankings among NL postseason teams.
Read MoreBox-Toppers’ NL Division Series preview: Padres vs. Dodgers, Phillies vs. Braves
Both National League Division Series begin Tuesday.
The Los Angeles Dodgers face the San Diego Padres in one best-of-five game series and the Atlanta Braves face the Philadelphia Phillies in the other. The top two NL seeds, the Dodgers (first) and the Braves (second) received byes from the first round of playoffs and face the winners of the best-of-three Wild Card series played over the weekend.
Read MoreGuardians’ McKenzie tops players in Saturday’s Wild Card playoff games
Guardians pitcher Triston McKenzie tops players in Saturday’s four Wild Card playoff games:
Other Player of the Game winners in Saturday’s Wild Card series games: Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola, Cal Raleigh of the Mariners and Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom.
Read MoreGuardians’ Bieber tops players in Friday’s opening Wild Card round playoff games
Guardians pitcher Shane Bieber tops players in Friday’s four Wild Card playoff games:
Other Player of the Game winners in Friday’s Wild Card series games: Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler, Mariners pitcher Luis Castillo and Jurickson Profar of the Padres.
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Source: MLB.com.
A Box-Toppers preview of the four Wild Card Series that begin Friday, Oct. 7
The new Wild Card round of Major League Baseball’s postseason begins Friday with four best-of-three series. Here is a Box-Toppers look at the eight teams competing in the four Wild Card round series.
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Dodgers lead team rankings for 3rd week, Astros maintain AL team lead
The Los Angeles Dodgers lead Box-Toppers team rankings report for the third straight week.
Meanwhile, the Houston Astros continue to lead American League teams and the St. Louis Cardinals are the week’s hottest team.
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