Tigers' Miguel Cabrera, Reds' Brandon Phillips among leaders in All-Star voting and Box-Toppers standings

Box-Toppers all-stars graphic.png

Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers and Brandon Phillips of the Reds are among players who are leaders both in fan All-Star voting and Box-Toppers standings.

In fact, Box-Toppers standings roughly coincide with about half of the players currently leading in All-Star voting.

Major League Baseball released All-Star vote standings for the National League on June 9 and released American League standings on June 3. The current leaders by league and by position are listed in the far right columns in the chart below. Note that five of the players currently leading in All-Star voting also rank first in their position in the league in Box-Toppers points. Three others rank second.

Overall, it's either a very good showing by fans or a decent affirmation of Box-Toppers' worth as a measure of player performance. Or it could be that we're all wrong.

Fans and Box-Toppers generally agree on these players: 

  • AL 1B: Chris Davis of the Orioles.
  • AL 2B: Robinson Cano of the Yankees. 
  • AL 3B: Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers. 
  • AL CA: Joe Mauer of the Twins. (Mauer ranks second among AL catchers in Box-Toppers points for the 2013 season, but leads among AL catchers when both the 2012 and 2013 seasons are combined.)  
  • AL OF: Mike Trout of the Angels. (Trout ranks seventh among AL outfielders in Box-Toppers points for the 2013 season, but leads among AL outfielders over the combined 2012 and 2013 seasons.) 
  • AL DH: David Oritz of the Red Sox. 
  • NL 1B: Brandon Phillips of the Reds. 
  • NL CA: Buster Posey of the Giants. (Posey is second to Brian McCann of the Braves in Box-Toppers points for the 2013 season and the combined 2012 and 2013 seasons, but it is a pretty close race.) 
  • NL OF: Bryce Harper of the Nationals. (Harper is second among NL outfielders in Box-Toppers points for the 2013 season.) 

There are a few instances in which Box-Toppers ranked a player lower than fans: 

  • AL SS: Elvis Andrus of the Rangers ranks ninth in Box-Toppers points among AL shortstops for the 2013 season. He has 1.0 point this season and only 2.0 the past two seasons. 
  • AL OF: Adam Jones of the Orioles ranks 13th in Box-Toppers points among AL outfielders.
  • AL OF: Torii Hunter of the Angels ranks 55th in Box-Toppers among AL outfielders. Though Hunter has scored no Box-Toppers points this season, he ranks second among AL outfielders in Box-Toppers points over the period of 2008-2013.
  • NL 1B: Joey Votto of the Reds ranks 10th in Box-Toppers points among NL first basemen. 
  • NL SS: Troy Tulowitzki of the Rockies ranks fifth among NL shortstops. 
  • NL 3B: Pablo Sandoval of the Giants ranks seventh among NL third basemen. 
  • NL OF: Justin Upton of the Braves ranks 20th among NL outfielders. 
  • NL OF: Carlos Beltran of the Cardinals ranks 28th among NL outfielders.

There are only a few obvious snubs by Box-Toppers measures, but there are still a couple of weeks before All-Star voting closes to fix the problems:

  • NL 1B: Should be Paul Goldschmidt of the Diamondbacks. Goldschmidt leads all NL batters in Box-Toppers points for the 2013 season with 8.7. He leads NL first basemen in Box-Toppers points for 2013 and over the combined 2012 and 2013 seasons. He is second among NL first basemen in All-Star voting with over 900,000 votes, more than 600,000 behind Votto.
  • NL SS: Should be Everth Cabrera of the Padres. Cabrera leads NL shortstops in Box-Toppers points for 2013 and over the combined 2012 and 2013 seasons. He's not in the top five among NL shortstops in All-Star voting.
  • NL OF: Carlos Gonzalez of the Rockies should be among the top three. He is currently seventh in All-Star voting with 955,000—Carlos Beltran of the Cardinals, currently third in voting among NL outfielders, has 1,550,000. Gonzalez leads all NL outfielders in Box-Toppers points for both the 2013 season and the combined 2012 and 2013 seasons.
  • NL CA: Buster Posey leads in fan voting, but Brian McCann of the Braves has very narrow Box-Toppers points leads over Posey. But it hardly matters since Posey has nearly 2 million fan votes and McCann has barely 500,000.

The chart below shows Box-Toppers points leaders by position so far through the 2013 season. The middle columns look at players over the longer run, seeing who is leading in Box-Toppers points for the combined 2012 and 2013 seasons. And the far right columns show the current All-Star fan vote leaders, with their rank by position in Box-Toppers points in the 2013 season.

The chart also includes Box-Toppers points leaders among starting, middle and relief closing pitchers, even though fans don't get to vote on those.

Voting for the All-Star game is open until July 4.

Here is how the Box-Toppers All-Star teams stand as of today: 

2013 SEASON   2012-13 SEASONS   ALL-STAR VOTE LEADERS 
ALPLAYERTEAMBTP PLAYERTEAMBTP PLAYERTEAMRANK BY POS.
First baseDavis, Chris 2478bal al4.5 Davis, Chris 2478bal al16.5 Chris Davisbal al1
Second baseCano, Robinson 2092nyy al4.5 Kipnis, Jason 2933cle al9.5 Robinson Canonyy al1
ShortstopDrew, Stephen 2210bos al4.5 Escobar, Yunel 2331tb al10 Elvis Andrustex al9
Third baseCabrera, Miguel 1776det al10.7 Cabrera, Miguel 1776det al22.4 Miguel Cabreradet al1
CatcherArencibia, J.P. 2781tor al5.5 Mauer, Joe 1869min al13 Joe Mauermin al2
Outfield 1Johnson, Kelly 2018tb al4.5 Trout, Mike 2949ana al13.5 Mike Troutana al7
Outfield 2Nava, Daniel 2740bos al4.5 Hamilton, Josh 2332ana al11.5 Adam Jonesbal al13
Outfield 3Raburn, Ryan 2340cle al4.5 Rios, Alex 1989chi al9.9 Torii Hunterdet al55
Designated hitterOrtiz, Davidbos al5.2 Butler, Billy 2330kc al13.7 David Ortizbos al1
Starting pitcher 1Masterson, Justin 2462cle al10.7 Verlander, Justin 2112det al30.8    
Starting pitcher 2Buchholz, Clay 2363bos al10.1 Darvish, Yu 3003tex al25.8    
Starting pitcher 3Iwakuma, Hisashi 3048sea al9.7 Scherzer, Max 2588det al25.7    
Starting pitcher 4Darvish, Yu 3003tex al9 Hernandez, Felix 2064sea al25.4    
Middle relieverTazawa, Junichi 3151bos al4 Chen, Bruce 1170kc al8    
Closing pitcherPerkins, Glen 2506min al5 Rodney, Fernando 1803tb al10    
NL           
First baseGoldschmidt, Paul 2935ari nl8.7 Goldschmidt, Paul 2935ari nl13.2 Joey Vottocin nl10
Second basePhillips, Brandon 1691cin nl5 Phillips, Brandon 1691cin nl14.5 Brandon Phillipscin nl1
ShortstopCabrera, Everth 2625sd nl4.5 Cabrera, Everth 2625sd nl7.5 Troy Tulowitzkicol nl5
Third baseZimmerman, Ryan 2180dc nl5.2 Freese, David 2710stl nl12.7 Pablo Sandovalsf nl7
CatcherMcCann, Brian 2179atl nl5 McCann, Brian 2179atl nl11 Buster Poseysf nl2
Outfield 1Gonzalez, Carlos 2460col nl8 Gonzalez, Carlos 2460col nl17.2 Justin Uptonatl nl20
Outfield 2Harper, Bryce 3011dc nl5.9 Braun, Ryan J. 2300mil nl16 Bryce Harperdc nl2
Outfield 3Pollock, A.J. 3142ari nl4.7 Holliday, Matt 1836stl nl15.7 Carlos Beltranstl nl28
Starting pitcher 1Miller, Shelby 3134stl nl9.7 Kershaw, Clayton 2494lad nl28.8    
Starting pitcher 2Corbin, Patrick 3027ari nl9.4 Lynn, Lance 2992stl nl26.1    
Starting pitcher 3Harvey, Matt 3075nym nl9 Strasburg, Stephen 2736dc nl23.4    
Starting pitcher 4Wainwright, Adam 2150stl nl8.7 Gonzalez, Gio 2626dc nl22.7    
Middle relieverCollmenter, Josh 2863ari nl3 Casilla, Santiago 2301sf nl6    
Closing pitcherGrilli, Jason 2209pit nl4.7 Chapman, Aroldis 2826cin nl18    
AL top playerMasterson, Justin 2462cle al10.7 Verlander, Justin 2112det al30.8    
AL top batterCabrera, Miguel 1776det al10.7 Cabrera, Miguel 1776det al22.4    
NL top playerMiller, Shelby 3134stl nl9.7 Kershaw, Clayton 2494lad nl28.8    
NL top batterGoldschmidt, Paul 2935ari nl8.7 Gonzalez, Carlos 2460col nl17.2   

BTP: Box-Toppers points

RANK BY POS: Where the player ranks by fielding position in Box-Toppers points for the 2013 season. 

What are those numbers after players' names?