A look at Box-Toppers top 100 players of 'all-time'

Top 100 list ‘All-time’

Here is Box-Toppers ‘All-time’ Top 100, listing players with the highest Box-Toppers points totals since record keeping began in 1995. Also shown, when applicable, are players' Box-Toppers points total from 2014.


 Player Pos Team BTP BTP
’14
1 Johnson, randy pi sp retired 278.8
2 Martinez, Pedro J. pi sp retired 244.8
3 schilling, curt pi sp retired 194.1
4 Rodriguez, Alex 3b dh suspended 179.3
5 Sabathia, C.C. 1492 pi sp nyy al 173.3 1.0
6 Halladay, Roy 1178 pi sp retired 170.7
7 Pujols, Albert 1438 dh 1b ana al 167.3 7.5
8 Ramirez, manny lf dh chi nl 167.2
9 Santana, Johan 1448 pi sp bal al 166.6
10 clemens, roger pi sp retired 164.8
11 smoltz, john pi sp retired 160.9
12 mussina, Mike pi sp retired 155.6
13 bonds, barry lf retired 153.2
14 Hudson, Tim 1231 pi sp sf nl 153.0 8.7
15 maddux, greg pi sp retired 151.7
16 jones, chipper 3b retired 149.0
17 Vazquez, Javier 1146 pi sp retired 148.3
18 thome, jim 1b dh retired 146.7
19 Hernandez, Felix 2064 pi sp sea al 143.3 20.8
20 pettitte, andy pi sp retired 138.5
21 Kershaw, Clayton 2494 pi sp lad nl 133.6 31.5
22 Colon, Bartolo pi sp nym nl 133.4 10.7
23 Ortiz, David dh bos al 133.4 7.0
24 giambi, jason dh ph cle al 133.4
25 Peavy, Jake 1635 pi sp sf nl 131.8 5.7
26 hoffman, trevor pi cp retired 129.4
27 Guerrero, Vladimir rf dh retired 128.3
28 Cabrera, Miguel 1776 1b det al 128.2 12.5
29 Oswalt, Roy 1469 pi sp retired 127.2
30 rivera, mariano pi cp retired 126.4
31 Greinke, Zack 1871 pi sp lad nl 125.7 16.5
32 sheffield, gary lf retired 124.1
33 Burnett, A.J. 1300 pi sp phi nl 121.8 8.0
34 Lee, Cliff 1798 pi sp phi nl 119.1 2.0
35 Verlander, Justin 2112 pi sp det al 118.2 4.0
36 Delgado, Carlos 1b retired 117.7
37 Zito, Barry 1415 pi sp free agent 117.4
38 Helton, Todd 1060 1b retired 116.4
39 Weaver, Jered 2178 pi sp ana al 115.4 6.7
40 Beckett, Josh 1544 pi sp lad nl 114.9 7.7
41 Buehrle, Mark 1407 pi sp tor al 114.7 9.7
42 Carpenter, Chris pi sp retired 113.3
43 sosa, sammy rf retired 113.2
44 brown, kevin j. pi sp retired 112.8
45 Hamels, Cole 2135 pi sp phi nl 110.8 12.4
46 glavine, tom pi sp retired 110.6
47 kent, jeff 2b retired 109.7
48 Lincecum, Tim 2288 pi sp sf nl 109.3 10.4
49 Lester, Jon 2173 pi sp oak al 109.1 16.4
50 Wagner, Billy pi cp retired 108.7
51 Millwood, Kevin pi sp retired 108.3
52 Haren, Danny 1787 pi sp lad nl 108.2 8.0
53 Berkman, Lance 1261 1b lf rf retired 108.1
54 Hunter, Torii 1190 rf det al 107.9 5.5
55 thomas, frank dh 1b retired 106.2
56 moyer, jamie pi sp retired 104.0
57 Tejada, Miguel 3b ss free agent 102.3
58 griffey, ken jr. cf retired 102.2
59 wakefield, tim pi sp retired 101.4
60 schmidt, jason pi sp retired 101.2
61 Konerko, Paul 1107 dh 1b chi al 100.7 1.0
62 bagwell, jeff 1b retired 100.4
63 walker, larry rf retired 100.1
64 Ramirez, Aramis 1364 3b mil nl 99.8 5.0
65 Wainwright, Adam 2150 pi sp stl nl 98.8 18.7
66 edmonds, jim cf rf ph retired 98.8
67 Lackey, John 1640 pi sp stl nl 98.1 10.7
68 Rolen, Scott 3b free agent 97.6
69 Wolf, Randy 1235 pi sp ana al 97.4 1.0
70 Jones, Andruw dh lf ph japan 96.5
71 piazza, mike ca retired 95.7
72 Abreu, Bobby dh nym nl 95.5
73 nomo, hideo pi sp retired 95.5
74 Beltran, Carlos 1194 dh rf nyy al 95.4 1.0
75 Dempster, Ryan 1109 pi sp restricted 95.2
76 Cain, Matt 2081 pi sp sf nl 95.0 1.0
77 Ordonez, Magglio rf retired 94.5
78 Dunn, Adam 1512 1b dh oak al 94.3 2.5
79 williams, bernie rf retired 93.8
80 Lilly, Ted 1452 pi sp retired 93.3
81 giles, brian rf retired 92.5
82 Wood, Kerry pi sp cp retired 92.4
83 Glaus, Troy 1132 3b retired 91.6
84 Lowe, Derek pi sp retired 91.5
85 Howard, Ryan 2040 1b phi nl 91.2 7.2
86 Holliday, Matt 1836 lf stl nl 90.3 7.5
87 Teixeira, Mark 1738 1b nyy al 89.8 2.0
88 Ibanez, Raul 1137 lf dh kc al 89.7
89 Beltre, Adrian 1141 3b tex al 89.3
90 Shields, James 2157 pi sp kc al 89.0 13.7
91 Santana, Ervin 2005 pi sp atl nl 87.9 11.0
92 alou, moises lf retired 87.5
93 belle, albert rf retired 87.5
94 wells, david pi sp retired 87.5
95 castilla, vinny 3b retired 86.9
96 anderson, garret lf retired 86.5
97 leiter, al pi sp retired 86.2
98 Lee, Carlos 1246 lf retired 85.5
99 Zambrano, Carlos 1676 pi sp retired 85.2
100 Scherzer, Max 2588 pi sp det al 85.0 22.1
101 Lohse, Kyle 1487 pi sp mil nl 85.0 11.1
102 radke, brad pi sp retired 85.0
BTP: Box-Toppers points

Randy Johnson’s perch atop Box-Toppers’ “all-time” player standings was safe during 2014.

The flame-throwing, likely Hall-of-Fame pitcher retired in 2009 with 278.8 Box-Toppers points, the most of any player since record keeping began in 1995. His nearest active rival, pitcher CC Sabathia of the Yankees, earned only 1.0 Box-Toppers point during the 2014 season. While that moves him closer, he is still 105.5 points from Johnson’s total. But still Sabathia’s 173.3 career Box-Toppers points puts him at fifth place among all players since 1995.

Box-Toppers points are a measure of how much a player provides key contributions to his team’s wins. Specifically, Box-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. In regular season games, players earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point 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.

The chart here shows the rankings of the top 102 players since record keeping began in 1995, along with their career Box-Toppers point total and, where applicable, their Box-Toppers points for 2014. The chart also shows each player’s roster status as of the end of the 2014 season. For example, Alex Rodriguez, ranked fourth among all players with 179.3 Box-Toppers points, was suspended for the 2014 season under baseball’s performance enhancing drug policy. If he returns to the Yankees in 2015, a season in which he turns 40, he will start the season as the active player with the most Box-Toppers points.

Players who have changed teams in the offseason are still listed on the chart with the teams with whom they finished the 2014 season. For example, A.J. Burnett, ranked 33rd with 121.8 Box-Toppers points, is listed with the Phillies, the team he finished the season with last year. But in the offseason, Burnett has signed to return to the Pirates.

Some other notable players on the top 100 list:

• Albert Pujols moved into the “all-time” top 10 list during the 2014 season. Pujols, who had his best year in his three seasons with the Angels, earned 7.5 Box-Toppers points in 2014 and moves into seventh place on the “all-time” list and is the second-ranked batter, 12.0 points behind Alex Rodriguez.

• Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, who has led all players in Box-Toppers points three of the past four seasons has rocketed up the list of Box-Toppers “all-time” players. At the end of 2012, he ranked 98th with 80.4 Box-Toppers points. At the end of 2013, he ranked 54th with 102.1. And after a season in which he earned 31.5 Box-Toppers points—the most by any player since 2002—he is now in 21st place with 133.6. If he were to equal his 2014 Box-Toppers point total in 2015, he would pass Roger Clemens, who is now in 10th place.

 

Top 100 for 2014 & 'All-time' 

There were 21 players on Box-Toppers’ “all-time” list who also appeared in Box-Toppers’ top 100 player list for 2014. They are shown in the chart below, listed in order by their career Box-Toppers player ranking.

 

Breakdown: Active vs. inactive

Of the 102 players on the “all-time” list, 59 of them are either retired or ended the season as free agents, on the restricted list or were playing in Japan. If you include Manny Ramirez (who was playing and coaching the minor leagues) and Alex Rodriguez (who was suspended), that means 61 of the players on the list were not on active Major League rosters at season’s end. That means 41 of the 102 players on the list were active and playing in the Majors.

Of those 41 players, 36 of them earned at least 1.0 Box-Toppers point in 2014. Five active players on the list earned 0.0 Box-Toppers points in 2014. They were:

• Johan Santana, Orioles.

• Jason Giambi, Indians (Giambi is the only player to record at least 1.0 Box-Toppers point in each of the first 19 seasons of Box-Toppers record keeping, from 1995 to 2013—2014 was the first year he recorded no points).

• Bobby Abreu, Mets.

• Raul Ibanez, Royals.

• Adrian Beltre, Rangers.

 

Top teams

Three teams had four active players on the list, tied for the most of any team:

• Tigers: Miguel Cabrera, Justin Verlander, Torii Hunter, Max Scherzer.

• Phillies: A.J. Burnett, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels, Ryan Howard.

• Giants: Tim Hudson, Jake Peavy, Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain.

 

Breakdown by position

Pitchers outnumber batters on the “all-time” list. There are 57 pitchers and 45 batters. (On the list of top 100 players for 2014, pitchers outnumbered batters to a far greater extent, 79 to 21.)

Here is a breakdown of the players by their primary position on the “all-time” list:

54—Starting pitcher

18—Outfield (2 CF, 8 LF, 8 RF)

9—First base

8—Third base

8—Designated hitter

3—Closing pitcher

1—Second base

1—Catcher

 

Box-Toppers methodology

Keep in mind that these are only statistics since 1995. For many players who debuted before then (such as Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens and Greg Maddux), their career Box-Toppers totals would likely be far higher if the years before 1995 were accounted for. On the other hand, for a player like Chipper Jones (ranked 16th), Box-Toppers covers virtually his entire career—he only played in eight games before 1995, so Box-Toppers covers 2,491 games of his 2,499-game career. 

If you note how the names are listed in the chart—some all lowercase, some properly capitalized, some with numbers after them—the inconsistencies might make your inner copy editor cringe. But there is an unintentional method to this madness. In early days of keeping the Box-Toppers database from 1995 to 1997, names were inputted quickly, often with no capitalization—Box-Toppers' e.e. cummings phase, if you will. In about 1997, names were pretty consistently properly capitalized. And in 1998, numbers were added at the ends of names to denote their order of first appearance in the Box-Toppers database (the first time they earned Player of the Game).

So today, when you see player names like "rivera, mariano," (now ranked 30th) you'll know that Rivera first appeared early in Box-Toppers history (in his case, the first year, 1995). "Ortiz, David," (properly capitalized) made his Box-Toppers debut in 1997 (now ranked 23rd). And "Helton, Todd 1060," was one of the first players with the debut order number appended, when he first appeared in 1998 (now ranked 38th).

 

Top 10 'All-time' active players who earned points in 2014

Here are the top 10 players on the “all-time” list who earned Box-Toppers points in 2014 (note: Manny Ramirez, Johan Santana and Jason Giambi were all active in 2014 but did not earn points):

1. CC Sabathia, Yankees, 173.3 career Box-Toppers points

2. Albert Pujols, Angels, 167.3

3. Tim Hudson, Giants, 153.0

4. Felix Hernandez, Mariners, 143.3

5. Clayton Kershaw, Dodgers, 133.6

6. Bartolo Colon, Mets, 133.4

7. David Ortiz, Red Sox, 133.4

8. Jake Peavy, Giants, 131.8

9. Miguel Cabrera, Tigers, 128.2

10. Zack Greinke, Dodgers, 125.7

 

Top 10 'All-time' batters

Here are the top 10 batters from the “all-time” list:

1. Alex Rodriguez, suspended from Yankees, 179.3

2. Albert Pujols, Angels, 167.3

3. Manny Ramirez, Cubs (minor league player-coach), 167.2

4. Barry Bonds, retired, 153.2

5. Chipper Jones, retired, 149.0

6. Jim Thome, retired, 146.7

7. David Ortiz, Red Sox, 133.4

8. Jason Giambi, Indians, 133.4

9. Vladimir Guerrero, retired, 128.3

10. Miguel Cabrera, Tigers, 128.2

 

Breakdown: All players by Box-Toppers points

Over the course of 20 seasons, 3,436 players have earned at least 1.0 Box-Toppers point:

• 63 have 100.0 career Box-Toppers points or more.

• 133 have 75.0 or more.

• 277 have 50.0 or more.

• 693 have 25.0 or more

• 1,386 have 10.0 or more.

This means 2,050 players have fewer than 10.0 career Box-Toppers points and 622 players have fewer than 2.0 Box-Toppers points, meaning they earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors just once.

What are those numbers after players' names?

How does Box-Toppers scoring work?

Editor's note: Box-Toppers realizes the Marlins are no longer called the Florida Marlins and the Angels are no longer the Anaheim Angels. But we keep the old team abbreviation names around (fla nl, ana al) since the changes in the team name were largely for marketing or political purposes and involved no substantial change in the actual geography of the team.

Overlapping players

Here are players who are on both the Box-Toppers' top 100 list of "all-time" (above) and the Box-Toppers' top 100 list for the 2014 season. Players are listed in order of career Box-Toppers points, with their predominant position played during 2014 and the team with whom they finished the 2014 season. Their career Box-Toppers points (BTP) are listed, along with their rank on the "all-time" list (Box-Toppers record keeping began in 1995). Their Box-Toppers points for 2014 (BTP '14) are also listed, along with their rank among all players in 2014 (Rank '14). 

Player Pos Team BTP Rank
‘all-
time’		 BTP
’14		 Rank
’14
Pujols, Albert 1438 dh 1b ana al 167.3 7 7.5 98
Hudson, Tim 1231 pi sp sf nl 153.0 14 8.7 71
Hernandez, Felix 2064 pi sp sea al 143.3 19 20.8 6
Kershaw, Clayton 2494 pi sp lad nl 133.6 21 31.5 1
Colon, Bartolo pi sp nym nl 133.4 22 10.7 49
Cabrera, Miguel 1776 1b det al 128.2 28 12.5 28
Greinke, Zack 1871 pi sp lad nl 125.7 31 16.5 11
Burnett, A.J. 1300 pi sp phi nl 121.8 33 8.0 82
Beckett, Josh 1544 pi sp lad nl 114.9 40 7.7 95
Buehrle, Mark 1407 pi sp tor al 114.7 41 9.7 59
Hamels, Cole 2135 pi sp phi nl 110.8 45 12.4 31
Lincecum, Tim 2288 pi sp sf nl 109.3 48 10.4 54
Lester, Jon 2173 pi sp oak al 109.1 49 16.4 12
Haren, Danny 1787 pi sp lad nl 108.2 52 8.0 83
Wainwright, Adam 2150 pi sp stl nl 98.8 65 18.7 8
Lackey, John 1640 pi sp stl nl 98.1 67 10.7 50
Holliday, Matt 1836 lf stl nl 90.3 86 7.5 97
Shields, James 2157 pi sp kc al 89.0 90 13.7 22
Santana, Ervin 2005 pi sp atl nl 87.9 91 11.0 46
Scherzer, Max 2588 pi sp det al 85.0 100 22.1 5
Lohse, Kyle 1487 pi sp mil nl 85.0 101 11.1 43