The San Diego Padres remain atop Box-Toppers team rankings for the second week.
Meanwhile, the New York Yankees continue to lead American League teams, while the Washington Nationals are the week’s hottest team.
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The San Diego Padres remain atop Box-Toppers team rankings for the second week.
Meanwhile, the New York Yankees continue to lead American League teams, while the Washington Nationals are the week’s hottest team.
Read MoreLogo source: Chris Creamer’s SportsLogos.Net
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).
Read MoreThe 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.
Read MoreThe 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 MoreThe 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.
Read MoreThe Philadelphia Phillies lead Box-Toppers team rankings for the 18th straight week.
Meanwhile, the New York Yankees continue leading American League teams and the Atlanta Braves are the week’s hottest team.
Read MoreThe 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 MoreThe Kansas City Royals rise to lead Box-Toppers team rankings, passing last week’s leader, the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers continue to lead National League teams (in second place overall) and the Philadelphia Phillies are the week’s hottest team (rising to third place overall).
Read MoreBox-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.
Read MoreAnalyzing 29 years of Box-Toppers points leaders in pitching and batting in both leagues.
In 2023, Shohei Ohtani of the Angels, American League Most Valuable Player, was the only player who won a major postseason award and also led his Box-Toppers category (leading AL batters with 19.4). Also, Pete Alonso of the Mets became the ninth batter since 1995 to lead his league’s batters in Box-Toppers points more than once, leading NL batters for the second straight season.
Read MoreThe 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.
Read MoreThe 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.
Read MoreSource: MLB.com.
Both American League Division Series begin Saturday.
The Texas Rangers face the Baltimore Orioles in one best-of-five game series and the Minnesota Twins face the Houston Astros in the other. The top two AL seeds, the Orioles (first) and the Astros (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 MoreRangers pitcher Nathan Eovaldi tops players in Wednesday’s four Wild Card playoff games, all of which ended in two-game sweeps.
Other Player of the Game winners in Wednesday’s Wild Card series games: Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola, Twins pitcher Sonny Gray and Diamondbacks closing pitcher Paul Sewald.
Read MorePhillies 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.
Read MoreSource: MLB.com
The Wild Card round of Major League Baseball’s postseason begins Tuesday 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 MoreThe 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 MoreThe Texas Rangers maintain the lead in Box-Toppers team rankings for the third straight week.
Meanwhile, the Atlanta Braves continue to lead National League teams and the Braves and the Los Angeles Dodgers are the two hottest teams of the week.
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.