Red Sox closer Koji Uehara and Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman are the players most deserving to be voted to the All-Star Game in the Final Vote, according to Box-Toppers statistics.
Major League Baseball's All-Star Final Vote process gives fans the chance to select the final player on each All-Star team. Fans choose from a list of five players from each league who were either not selected by fans in general voting (which ended July 4) or selected by All-Star team managers to fill out the rosters.
Box-Toppers deems Freeman most worthy of earning the Final Vote in the National League. Of the 10 players on the Final Vote ballot, Freeman has the most Box-Toppers points with 5.0. He has the second-most Box-Toppers points of any NL first baseman, behind only Paul Goldschmidt of the Diamondbacks (8.7).
Uehara narrowly earns Box-Toppers' endorsement in the American League. He has 3.0 Box-Toppers points, tied with Rangers relief pitcher Tanner Scheppers. However, Uehara breaks the tie because he has more total Box-Toppers points over the past three seasons (5.0 to 3.0).
Though by Box-Toppers standards, Uehara is the top AL player on the Final Vote ballot, he does rank only 56th among AL pitchers in Box-Toppers points for the season. Scheppers ranks 61st. Even among AL closers, Uehara ranks 13th.
The American League choices are all relief pitchers and are all a little weak in terms of Box-Toppers points. In fact, one player, Tigers relief pitcher Joaquin Benoit has 0.0 Box-Toppers points this season and earned only 1.0 last season.
The National League choices, by contrast, are all batters, and seem a little more interesting, exciting and substantial choices. Rookie sensation Yasiel Puig of the Dodgers is on the list. While his stats for his brief time in the majors are impressive (batting over .400 with eight homers since his June 3 debut), he has earned only 1.5 Box-Toppers points, the fewest of any Final Vote candidate in the National League.
Box-Toppers is set up to determine the players who most help their team win the most games. Top players from the winning team of each game are determined by a formula using standard box score statistics. These top players earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being Player of the Game. Among each day's top players, bonus points are awarded for the top players and batters of the day in each league. Players accumulate points through the season to provide a data point for comparison, such as determining which players are most worthy as All-Stars.
Voting on the final candidates ends on Thursday. Fans can vote online.
| FINAL VOTE CANDIDATES | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AL PLAYERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |
| 1 | Koji Uehara | pi cp | bos al | 3.0 |
| 2 | Tanner Scheppers | pi mr | tex al | 3.0 |
| 3 | Steve Delabar | pi mr | tor al | 1.0 |
| 4 | David Robertson | pi mr | nyy al | 1.0 |
| 5 | Joaquin Benoit | pi mr | det al | 0.0 |
| NL PLAYERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |
| 1 | Freddie Freeman | 1b | atl nl | 5.0 |
| 2 | Ian Desmond | ss | dc nl | 4.5 |
| 3 | Adrian Gonzalez | 1b | lad nl | 3.0 |
| 4 | Hunter Pence | rf | sf nl | 2.0 |
| 5 | Yasiel Puig | rf | lad nl | 1.5 |
BTP: Box-Toppers points