Padres pitcher Stephen Kolek is Saturday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Saturday, Red Sox pitcher Garrett Crochet rises to second place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors.
Read MoreAs Dodgers celebrate championship, a Box-Toppers look back at 2024 postseason
The Los Angeles Dodgers won the 2024 World Series after the season’s 12 playoff-qualifying teams played a total of 43 postseason games over 30 days in October.
Here is a recap look at Box-Toppers Player of the Game winners in each of the 43 postseason games for 2024.
Read MorePadres’ Tatis, Phillies’ Castellanos top players in Sunday’s NL Division Series games
Fernando Tatis Jr. of the Padres and Nick Castellanos of the Phillies are Box-Toppers Player of the Game winners in Sunday’s two National League Division Series playoff games.
Both NL Division Series are now even heading into Monday’s travel day before resuming Tuesday.
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Source: MLB.com
Box-Toppers’ NL Division Series preview: Padres vs. Dodgers, Mets vs. Phillies
Both National League Division Series begin Saturday.
The San Diego Padres face the Los Angeles Dodgers in one best-of-five game series and the New York Mets face the Philadelphia Phillies in the other. The top two NL seeds, the Dodgers (first) and the Phillies (second) received byes from the first round of playoffs and face the winners of the best-of-three Wild Card series played this week.
Read MorePadres’ Musgrove tops players in Wednesday’s 4 Wild Card series games
Padres pitcher Joe Musgrove tops players in Wednesday’s four Wild Card playoff games.
Three teams swept the best-of-three-game series Wednesday and will advance to their league division series beginning Saturday—the Padres, Tigers and Royals. The Brewers and Mets will play a decisive Game 3 in their Wild Card series on Thursday.
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Dodgers lead 2024 Box-Toppers preseason team rankings; Rays top AL teams
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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Braves, Astros, Mariners among leaders in Box-Toppers offseason team rankings
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 MoreBox-Toppers’ big dippers—players whose 2023 point total declined most from 2022: Carlos Rodon leads list
Yankees pitcher Carlos Rodon had the biggest decline in Box-Toppers points from 2022 to 2023.
Rodon had 19.8 Box-Toppers points in 2022 with the Giants, sixth among all players and third among National League pitchers. But moving to the Yankees in 2023, he earned only 1.0 Box-Toppers point. That 18.8-point decline was the biggest among all players.
Read MoreLuzardo leads Box-Toppers most improved list; 2 others win B-T Comeback Player
While Marlins pitcher Jesus Luzardo is Box-Toppers’ most improved player in 2023, our choices for Comeback Players of the Year are Eduardo Rodriguez of the Tigers and Jason Heyward of the Dodgers.
Meanwhile, the consensus choices for Comeback Players of the Year—Cody Bellinger and Liam Hendriks—did not rank very highly among Box-Toppers most improved players in 2023.
Read MoreGuardians’ Giolito tops players for Friday, Sept. 15; Rockies’ Anderson tops NL players
Guardians pitcher Lucas Giolito is Friday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Giolito struck out 12 over seven scoreless innings, allowing two hits and one walk, in the 12-3 win over the Rangers.
Read MoreBlue Jays’ Gausman tops players for Thursday, June 1, rising to 1st in player rankings
Blue Jays pitcher Kevin Gausman is Thursday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day, rising to first place in season player rankings.
Gausman struck out 11 over 6 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing five hits and two walks, in the 3-1 win over the Brewers.
Read MoreCubs’ Wesneski tops players in Saturday, March 11’s spring training games
Cubs pitcher Hayden Wesneski is Box-Toppers Player of the Day in Saturday’s spring training games.
Wesneski struck out four over four scoreless and hitless innings, allowing no walks and picking up the win, in the 5-2 win over the Dodgers.
Read MoreBox-Toppers’ big dippers—players whose 2022 point total declined most from 2021: Max Scherzer leads list
Mets pitcher Max Scherzer had the biggest decline in Box-Toppers points from 2021 to 2022.
Scherzer led all players in 2021 with 25.1 Box-Toppers points when he was with the Nationals and Dodgers. Scherzer earned 10.0 Box-Toppers points in 2022. While that was still 24th among National League pitchers, it was a 15.1-point decline from 2021, the biggest among all players.
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While Box-Toppers stat reflects the decline of batters, they still dominate WAR
Looking at the top 10 players in the Wins Above Replacement (WAR) statistic for each of the past 25 seasons, gives the impression batters are holding steady as the dominant force in baseball.
Yet, in recent years, batters are striking out more and hitting for lower batting averages against pitchers who are holding batters down and stealing their lunch money. Looking at the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points for each of the past 25 seasons provides a more accurate reflection of the game—one in which batters performed well and even dominated through about 2009, until pitchers’ announced their presence with authority from 2010 on.
Read More5 of 11 top RBI leaders among Box-Toppers’ top 100 players in 2021
Five of the top 11 runs batted in leaders were among the top 100 players in Box-Toppers points in 2021. All five were also among their league’s top 10 batters in Box-Toppers rankings.
However, Salvador Perez of the Royals, who led all players with 121 RBIs, had just 4.5 Box-Toppers points in 2021, 222nd among all players and 44th among American League batters.
Read More6 of 12 top home run leaders among their league’s top 10 batters in Box-Toppers points
While six of the top 12 home run hitters in 2021 ranked among their league’s top 10 batters in Box-Toppers points for the season, the two top home run hitters ranked low.
Salvador Perez of the Royals and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Blue Jays led all players with 48 home runs each in 2021, but both were the lowest ranked among the 12 top home run hitters in Box-Toppers points, both ranking outside the overall top 200 players.
Read MoreAn overview of Box-Toppers category leaders over several time frames after 2021
Dodgers pitcher Max Scherzer holds the lead in five of Box-Toppers’ main leaderboards at the end of 2021, most of any player.
Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole leads four Box-Toppers leaderboards, second most of any player.
Read MoreGerrit Cole leads players in Box-Toppers points over past 2 seasons (2020-21)
Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole has more Box-Toppers points over the past two seasons than any other player.
Cole has earned 29.8 Box-Toppers points over 2020 and 2021. He ranked second among all players in 2021 with 22.4 Box-Toppers points and 12th among all players with 7.4 in 2020, a season shortened to 60 games by the coronavirus pandemic. Cole led American League pitchers in 2021 and ranked fifth among AL pitchers in 2020.
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These six players were selected for the 16-member All-MLB First Team and were also Box-Toppers’ choices for the All-MLB team: Fernando Tatis Jr. of the Padres, Aaron Judge of the Yankees, Dodgers pitcher Max Scherzer, Brewers pitcher Corbin Burnes, Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole and White Sox pitcher Liam Hendriks.
Six Box-Toppers points leaders among players named to 2021 All-MLB First Team
Six Box-Toppers points leaders are among players selected for 2021’s 16-member “All-MLB” team announced Tuesday.
Another three Box-Toppers leaders were chosen for the “All-MLB” Second Team.
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Shohei Ohtani of the Angels and Bryce Harper of the Phillies win the American League and National League Most Valuable Player awards. However, Jose Ramirez of the Indians led AL batters and Nick Castellanos of the Reds led NL batters in 2021 Box-Toppers points.
Ohtani, Harper win MVP Awards ahead of Box-Toppers batting leaders Ramirez, Castellanos
Shohei Ohtani of the Angels and Bryce Harper of the Phillies were voted 2021 Most Valuable Players Thursday, ahead of other Box-Toppers points leaders.
Ohtani, who ranked third in Box-Toppers points among all American League players with 16.1, was voted AL MVP. Harper, who ranked 28th among National League batters with 5.5 Box-Toppers points, was voted NL MVP.
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