The Los Angeles Dodgers maintain the lead in Box-Toppers team rankings for the third straight week.
Meanwhile, the Detroit Tigers rise to lead American League teams, while the Tigers and the Texas Rangers are the week’s hottest teams.
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Dodgers lead Box-Toppers team rankings for 2nd week; Mariners maintain AL lead
The Los Angeles Dodgers maintain the lead in Box-Toppers team rankings for the second week.
Meanwhile, the Seattle Mariners maintain the lead among American League teams and the Kansas City Royals are this week’s hottest team.
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Dodgers pass Padres to lead Box-Toppers team rankings; Mariners pass Yankees in AL
The Los Angeles Dodgers, the week’s hottest team, rise to first place in Box-Toppers season player rankings, passing last week’s leader, the San Diego Padres, who fall to third place.
Meanwhile, the Seattle Mariners rise to lead American League teams, passing the New York Yankees, who fall to second among AL teams.
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Padres pass Dodgers to lead Box-Toppers team rankings; Yankees lead AL teams
The San Diego Padres, the week’s hottest team, rise to lead Box-Toppers season player rankings, passing last week’s leader, the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Meanwhile, the New York Yankees rise to lead American League teams passing the Texas Rangers.
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Logo source: Chris Creamer’s SportsLogos.Net
Box-Toppers picks Dodgers over Orioles in 2025 World Series, plus our awards forecasts
Box-Toppers picks the Los Angeles Dodgers to win the 2025 World Series, beating the predicted American League champion Baltimore Orioles.
Box-Toppers projects the Dodgers will have the most wins among all teams—108—and that National League teams will be among the most dominant. Eight of the 15 NL teams are projected to have as many or more wins as the best American League teams (89).
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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.
Read MoreA pitchers vs. batters breakdown of each team’s Box-Toppers point total for 2024
In 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 MoreBox-Toppers 2024 year-end All-Star teams
Overall 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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Box-Toppers analysis: Why Ichiro Suzuki is not a Hall-of-Famer
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 MoreJuan Soto tops players Saturday as Yankees win AL Championship Series in fifth game
ALCS Preview: Top-ranked, top-seeded Yankees favored over Guardians
The 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
Box-Toppers’ AL Division Series preview: Tigers vs. Guardians, Royals vs. Yankees
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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Phillies finish atop Box-Toppers team rankings after leading nearly all season
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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Despite trade deadline team shake-up, Phillies hold Box-Toppers team ranking lead
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 MorePitchers are Box-Toppers points team leaders on 27 of 30 clubs; batters lead 3 teams
On 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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Phillies, Orioles have most players on Box-Toppers’ top 100 midseason player list
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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Phillies lead Box-Toppers team rankings for 2nd week, Royals regain lead in AL
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 Dodgers over Astros in 2024 World Series, plus our awards forecasts
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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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.
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