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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 MoreWhite Sox pitcher Mike Clevinger is Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Monday, Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler rises to 10th place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors.
Read MoreDiamondbacks pitcher Zac Gallen is Friday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day, rising to fifth place in season player rankings.
Gallen pitched a complete-game, three-hit shutout, striking out nine and allowing one walk, in the 1-0 win over the Cubs.
Read MorePhillies pitcher Aaron Nola is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Nola struck out nine over seven scoreless innings, allowing one hit and one walk, in the 3-0 win over the Cardinals.
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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 MoreAstros 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 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.
Read MoreThe 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 MoreYankees pitcher Gerrit Cole tops players in Tuesday’s four league division series playoff games:
Other Player of the Game winners in Tuesday’s league division series games: Yordan Alvarez of the Astros, Nick Castellanos of the Phillies and Trea Turner of the Dodgers.
Read MoreBoth 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.
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Source: MLB.com.
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.
Read MoreAstros pitcher Justin Verlander is Wednesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day, rising to second place in season player rankings and rising to fifth on Box-Toppers’ “all-time” career points list.
Also Wednesday, Angels pitcher Shohei Ohtani maintains his lead in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors. Plus, Braves pitcher Kyle Wright rises to ninth place in season player rankings.
Read MoreRoyals pitcher Brady Singer is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Tuesday, two players rise in Box-Toppers season player rankings top 10 list after both earned Player of the Game honors—White Sox pitcher Dylan Cease rises to third place and Rays pitcher Shane McClanahan rises to ninth. Plus, Mookie Betts of the Dodgers rises to first place among National League batters in Box-Toppers points Tuesday.
Read MoreCarlos Correa of the Astros and Aaron Hicks of the Yankees are Box-Toppers Players of the Game in Monday’s two American League Division Series games.
Read MoreBoth National League Division Series begin Tuesday.
The Miami Marlins face the Atlanta Braves in one best-of-five game series and the San Diego Padres take on the Los Angeles Dodgers in the other series.
Read MoreCubs pitcher Alec Mills is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day, pitching a no-hitter.
Also Sunday, Rangers pitcher Lance Lynn rises to second place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors.
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The Los Angeles Dodgers maintain their lead in Box-Toppers weekly team rankings for the third week.
Meanwhile, the Chicago White Sox rise to lead American League teams and the Toronto Blue Jays are the week’s hottest team.
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Imagine a Major League Baseball season beginning normally in the spring and ending on June 4.
That’s what the proposed pandemic-shortened 60-game schedule for 2020 will seem like.
In 2019, most clubs had played at least 60 games by June 4. That was barely more than a third of the regular season’s 162 games (37 percent). But for 2020, if all goes according to plan and the coronavirus doesn’t intervene to cut it even shorter, 60 games will be the complete, entire season.
Read MoreThe Box-Toppers All-Star teams for 2018-19 consist of the best players at each position in each league over the previous two seasons.
Among the 27 players included on the American and National League teams are 18 who are also on Box-Toppers 2019 All-Star teams. Leading the 2018-19 All-Stars is Astros pitcher Justin Verlander, who ranks first in Box-Toppers points over 2018-19 with 51.8.
Read MoreThose who figure Wins Above Replacement and those who figure Box-Toppers points (me) often don’t seem to be looking at the same game.
But we are. We are looking at the exact same Major League Baseball game. In recent years, Box-Toppers has seen pitchers come to so overwhelmingly dominate the game that they’ve pushed batters’ relative achievements into the background. But WAR seems to persist in the notion that it is batters who are primarily the stars of the game, contributing more to help their teams win than pitchers.
Read MoreBox-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. Players earn Box-Toppers points 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.