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The Los Angeles Dodgers are Box-Toppers’ top-ranked team going into 2025 but with player injuries factored in, the New York Mets hold the overall edge.
The current 2025 roster of last year’s World Series champion Dodgers accumulated 118.7 Box-Toppers points in 2024, most of any team. However, with several players injured and expected to miss time in 2025, their injury-adjusted Box-Toppers point total drops to 106.7, fifth among all teams.
Read MoreIn 2024, teams with the most Box-Toppers points earned by pitchers generally ranked higher in overall Box-Toppers team rankings.
For example, the Philadephia Phillies led all teams with 124.9 Box-Toppers points. Pitchers earned 78.0 of those points, fifth-most among all teams. Box-Toppers’ seven top-ranked teams were all among the top 10 in points earned by pitchers.
However, the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers were a notable anomaly. While the team finished eighth overall in Box-Toppers points (113.7), they finished 11th in points earned by pitchers (66.2) and third in points earned by batters (47.5).
Read MoreOverall Box-Toppers points leader, Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler, leads the Box-Toppers All-Star teams for the 2024 regular season.
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. In addition to nine batters in each league are the top four starting pitchers in each league and the top closing pitcher.
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As baseball writers push for Ichiro Suzuki to not only be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame but to become only the second player voted in unanimously, what chucklehead will oppose that?
It pains me to say: Me. Let me explain.
Despite earning Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year Awards and getting 3,000 hits, Suzuki was not the key player very often in his team’s wins. There was almost always some other teammate outperforming Suzuki in team wins. Suzuki never led his team in a season in Box-Toppers points and never even led his team’s batters.
Read MoreThe New York Yankees, Box-Toppers’ top-ranked American League team and the top seed among AL teams in the postseason, are favored over the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Championship Series.
The Yankees have the edge in overall Box-Toppers points and in starting and relief pitchers. However, the Guardians hold a surprising edge among the likely starting nine batters.
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Source: MLB.com
Both American League Division Series begin Saturday.
The Detroit Tigers face the Cleveland Guardians in one best-of-five game series and the Kansas City Royals face the New York Yankees in the other. The top two AL seeds, the Yankees (first) and the Guardians (second) received byes from the first round of playoffs and face the winners of the best-of-three Wild Card series played this week.
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The Philadelphia Phillies finish 2024 atop Box-Toppers team rankings, leading for the 22nd straight week.
Meanwhile, the New York Yankees maintain their lead among American League teams in final Box-Toppers team rankings, while the non-playoff-bound Seattle Mariners are the hottest team over the final days of the season.
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The Philadelphia Phillies maintain the Box-Toppers team rankings lead for the 14th week, despite winning only one game in the past week and making only minimal moves at a trade deadline which shook up team rankings.
Among the changes this week: The New York Yankees rise past the Baltimore Orioles to regain the lead among American League teams and the Los Angeles Dodgers are the hottest team of the week, in part due to landing the top trade deadline acquisition, picking up pitcher Jack Flaherty (9.0 Box-Toppers points) from the Tigers.
Read MoreOn 27 of the 30 Major League clubs, pitchers are the team’s leader in 2024 Box-Toppers points. Batters lead the other three teams.
Pitchers are dominating much the way they are winning the overwhelming majority of Box-Toppers points this season compared to batters. Pitchers are winning 63 percent of all points this season compared to 37 percent for batters. The all-time record-low share of points earned by batters is 38.1 percent set in 2022. Last year, in 2023, batters won 40.7 percent of all points.
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The Philadelphia Phillies have the most players among the top 100 in Box-Toppers’ 2024 player rankings at the All-Star break.
Meanwhile, the Baltimore Orioles have the most players in the top 100 among American League teams.
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The Philadelphia Phillies lead Box-Toppers team rankings for the second week.
Meanwhile, the Kansas City Royals regain the lead among American League teams and the Seattle Mariners are the week’s hottest team.
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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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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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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 MoreThe 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.
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The Texas Rangers hold significant Box-Toppers points advantages over the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2023 World Series.
The Rangers finished first in Box-Toppers team rankings for the season while the Diamondbacks finished 14th, lowest among all postseason teams.
Read MoreBox-Toppers favors the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League Championship Series, though the Arizona Diamondbacks have the slight edge among starting pitchers.
Both teams fought through higher-ranked teams to make their way to the league championship series, so neither is particularly highly ranked in Box-Toppers team rankings for 2023.
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It doesn’t seem possible or correct, but the Texas Rangers persist in leading Box-Toppers team rankings for the eighth straight week.
Teams that could challenge the Rangers for top spot in rankings simply have not been gaining ground on the team that is struggling to cling to a final American League Wild Card playoff spot.
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The Texas Rangers still lead Box-Toppers team rankings this week, despite falling outside the dozen teams that would currently qualify for a playoff spot.
Meanwhile, the Atlanta Braves continue to gain on the Rangers, leading all National League teams. Plus, the Chicago Cubs are the week’s hottest team.
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.