Yankees pitcher Ryan Yarbrough is Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Monday, Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto rises to second place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors.
Read MoreBlue Jays’ Gausman tops players for Wednesday, May 21, passing 100 career B-T points
Blue Jays pitcher Kevin Gausman is Wednesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day, passing the 100 career Box-Toppers points threshold.
Other Player of the Game winners Wednesday include Mets pitcher Tylor Megill, Logan O'Hoppe of the Angels and J.T. Realmuto of the Phillies.
Read MoreYankees’ Fried tops players for Wednesday, April 9; Chourio, Mahle rise in top 10
Yankees pitcher Max Fried is Wednesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Wednesday, two players rise in Box-Toppers season player rankings top 10 list after both earned Player of the Game honors—Jackson Chourio of the Brewers rises to third place and Rangers pitcher Tyler Mahle rises to ninth.
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Dodgers lead 2025 Box-Toppers preseason team rankings; Yankees lead AL teams
The Los Angeles Dodgers are the top-ranked team in Box-Toppers’ 2025 preseason rankings.
Meanwhile, the New York Yankees lead American League teams, the Toronto Blue Jays made the biggest offseason improvement in players’ accumulated Box-Toppers points and the Atlanta Braves had the biggest decline.
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Dodgers, Mets, Phillies among leaders in Box-Toppers offseason team rankings
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.
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Box-Toppers’ big dippers—players whose 2024 point total declined most from 2023: Spencer Strider leads list
Braves pitcher Spencer Strider had the biggest decline in Box-Toppers points from 2023 to 2024.
Strider led all players in 2023 with 21.1 Box-Toppers points but earned just 1.0 point in 2024, a 20.1-point decline, which is also the fifth-largest decline (in regular-length seasons) since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995.
Read MoreD-backs’ Pfaadt tops players Thursday, Sept. 19; Ohtani has best game for batter in 2024
Diamondbacks pitcher Brandon Pfaadt is Thursday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Thursday, Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers records the second-highest Box-Toppers game score for a batter in the 30 years of Box-Toppers player tracking. He did it on the day he became the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a season.
Read MoreBlue Jays’ Gausman tops players Sunday, Aug. 25; Nationals’ Herz tops NL players
Blue Jays pitcher Kevin Gausman is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Gausman struck out 10 over seven innings, allowing one run, two hits and no walks, in the 8-2 win over the Angels.
Read MoreRoyals’ Singer tops players for Sunday, March 31; Padres’ Kim tops NL players
Royals pitcher Brady Singer is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Singer struck out 10 over seven scoreless innings, allowing three hits and one walk, in the 11-0 win over the Twins.
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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 MoreA pitchers vs. batters breakdown of each team’s Box-Toppers point total for 2023
The 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.
Read MoreFour Box-Toppers points leaders among players named to 2023 All-MLB First Team
Only four Box-Toppers points leaders are among players selected for 2023’s 16-member “All-MLB” team announced this month. Three other Box-Toppers leaders were chosen for the “All-MLB” Second Team.
The All-MLB team players are not selected based on their affiliation with American League or National League. Rather, all players are chosen regardless of league as “First Team” or “Second Team” players.
Read MoreBox-Toppers points leaders Ohtani, Henderson win 2023 Players Choice Awards
Only two of Box-Toppers category leaders also won Players Choice Awards for 2023 as voted by the players’ union: Shohei Ohtani of the Angels, who was voted American League Outstanding Player and Gunnar Henderson of the Orioles was voted AL Outstanding Rookie.
Read MoreBox-Toppers 2023 year-end All-Star teams
The Box-Toppers All-Star teams for the 2023 regular season are led by overall Box-Toppers points leader, Braves pitcher Spencer Strider.
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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Shohei Ohtani of the Angels and Ronald Acuña Jr. of the Braves were voted 2023 Most Valuable Player award winners. While Ohtani was also Box-Toppers’ choice as AL MVP, Pete Alonso of the Mets was Box-Toppers’ NL MVP leader over Acuña.
Box-Toppers’ pick Ohtani wins AL MVP, but Acuña wins NL MVP over our pick, Alonso
Shohei Ohtani of the Angels was voted 2023 American League Most Valuable Player Wednesday. He was also Box-Toppers’ choice as AL MVP.
However, in the National League, Ronald Acuna Jr. of the Braves was voted MVP—he finished second in Box-Toppers’ NL MVP ballot behind Pete Alonso of the Mets.
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Gerrit Cole of the Yankees wins the American League Cy Young Award and Blake Snell of the Padres wins the National League Cy Young Award. Box-Toppers choices for the awards were Chris Bassitt of the Blue Jays in the AL and Spencer Strider of the Braves in the NL.
Cole, Snell win 2023 Cy Young Awards over Box-Toppers leaders Bassitt, Strider
Neither winner of the 2023 Cy Young Awards—Gerrit Cole of the Yankees nor Blake Snell of the Padres—led their league’s pitchers in Box-Toppers points in 2023.
Cole, the American League winner, ranked fourth among AL pitchers with 17.0 Box-Toppers points, behind AL leader Chris Bassitt of the Blue Jays (20.1). Snell, the National League winner, ranked sixth among NL pitchers with 14.7 Box-Toppers points, behind NL leader Spencer Strider of the Braves (21.1).
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Box-Toppers choices for major postseason awards: AL MVP—Shohei Ohtani, Angels; NL MVP—Pete Alonso, Mets; AL Cy Young—Chris Bassitt, Blue Jays; NL Cy Young—Spencer Strider, Braves; AL Rookie of the Year—Gunnar Henderson, Orioles; NL Rookie of the Year—James Outman, Dodgers.
A look at Box-Toppers’ leaders for postseason awards, plus an award finalist overview
You’re going to hate Box-Toppers’ choices for postseason player honors.
That’s the impression I get from listening to and reading baseball commentators who by August were already declaring players as not even de facto but actual “don’t-argue-with-me-because-I’m-right-and-there’s-clearly-no-dispute” award winners.
Read MoreBox-Toppers’ MVP Awards: Ohtani reigns over AL; Alonso edges Acuña in NL
Shohei Ohtani of the Angels, favorite for American League Most Valuable Player, is also Box-Toppers’ choice for the award. But Box-Toppers’ choice for NL MVP, Pete Alonso of the Mets, is not among the finalists for the award, expected to go to Ronald Acuna Jr. of the Braves, who is second on Box-Toppers’ NL MVP ballot.
Read MoreBox-Toppers’ Cy Young Awards: Bassitt over Cole in AL; Strider over Snell in NL
Box-Toppers’ Cy Young Award selections for 2023 are: American League—Chris Bassitt of the Blue Jays and National League—Spencer Strider of the Braves.
Neither pitcher was among the six finalists for the award announced this week, even though they ranked first (Strider) and second (Bassitt) in overall Box-Toppers season player rankings and were the only two players this season to reach 20.0 Box-Toppers points.
Read MorePhillies’ Wheeler tops players in Tuesday’s opening Wild Card round playoff games
Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler tops players in Tuesday’s four Wild Card playoff games:
Other Player of the Game winners in Tuesday’s Wild Card series games: Rangers pitcher Jordan Montgomery,, Royce Lewis of the Twins and Corbin Carroll of the Diamondbacks.
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