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With baseball season just around the corner, here is a look back at highlights from the 2017 season, including happenings from the offseason.
While baseball stopped in the fall, Box-Toppers spent the offseason tabulating results from the season and sharing them on Box-Toppers.com. This is a summary of Box-Toppers’ offseason posts with links to the original posts.
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Box-Toppers picks the Cleveland Indians to beat the Washington Nationals in the 2018 World Series.
Box-Toppers projects the Indians to defeat the Red Sox in the AL Championship Series and the Nationals to defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL Championship Series.
Read MoreDodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, Box-Toppers’ dominant player over the period 2012-2017, remains Box-Toppers’ dominant player over the period 2013-2017.
The 2013-2017 Box-Toppers point total for all players comes from dropping the points they earned in the 2012 season from their 2012-2017 totals. Box-Toppers uses this longer-term total to gauge a players’ staying power over the recent past.
And at the beginning of a season, when the rolling six-year total drops the earliest year of that timeframe, a player’s change in position in the rankings can give a clue to whether that player is improving, holding steady or declining.
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The Cleveland Indians are the top-ranked team in Box-Toppers’ 2018 preseason rankings, the same position where they finished the 2017 season.
The Nationals top NL teams and the World Series-champion Astros fall to 8th.
Meanwhile, the New York Mets made the biggest offseason improvement in players’ accumulated Box-Toppers points, while the Tampa Bay Rays and the Kansas City Royals had the biggest declines.
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While batters made modest gains in 2017, earning more Box-Toppers points and Player of the Game honors than in 2016, pitchers were still dominant, earning the most Box-Toppers points and far and away the most Player of the Day honors for the season.
Here's a look at some key statistics in a comprehensive look at all 2,430 Major League Baseball games played and tracked in 2017 by Box-Toppers.
Read MoreAnthony Rendon of the Nationals had the best single-game performance by a batter in the 2017 season as measured by Box-Toppers game score.
It also appears to be the highest game score for a batter in Box-Toppers’ 23 seasons of record keeping.
Read MoreYankees pitcher Masahiro Tanaka had the best single-game performance of the 2017 season as measured by Box-Toppers game score.
There were 2,430 games played in 2017. Here are the 10 games in which the Box-Toppers Player of the Game had the highest Box-Toppers game scores.
Read MoreHere are Box-Toppers points leaders at each position over a variety of time frames.
For example, the all-time leader, Randy Johnson leads with 278.8 career Box-Toppers points (earned since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began). Johnson also leads in Box-Toppers points among all pitchers since 1995. Chris Sale leads over past season, Max Scherzer leads over past two seasons and Clayton Kershaw leads over past six seasons and also leads all active players in career Box-Toppers points.
Read MoreTrevor Hoffman has the most Box-Toppers points of any closing pitcher since tracking began in 1995, more even than Mariano Rivera, considered by many to be the greatest closer of all time.
Craig Kimbrel leads active closers in career Box-Toppers points. Other leaders include Edwin Diaz, Greg Holland and Kenley Jansen.
Read MoreRandy Johnson has the most Box-Toppers points of any pitcher since tracking began in 1995.
Meanwhile, Chris Sale of the Red Sox led all pitchers in Box-Toppers points in 2017, Max Scherzer of the Nationals led all pitchers in points over the past two seasons and Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers led all pitchers in points over the past six seasons. Kershaw also leads all active pitchers in career Box-Toppers points.
Read MoreAlbert Pujols of the Angels has the most Box-Toppers points of any designated hitter since tracking began in 1995.
Edwin Encarnacion leads DHs in Box-Toppers points over the past season, past two seasons and past six seasons.
Read MoreManny Ramirez has the most Box-Toppers points of any outfielder since tracking began in 1995.
Matt Holliday leads active outfielders in career points. Other leaders include Giancarlo Stanton, Mike Trout, Aaron Judge, Jay Bruce and Andrew McCutchen.
Read MoreMike Piazza has the most Box-Toppers points of any catcher since tracking began in 1995.
Brian McCann leads active catchers in career points. Buster Posey leads catchers in
Box-Toppers points over the past season, past two seasons and past six seasons.
Read MoreAlex Rodriguez has the most Box-Toppers points of any third baseman since tracking began in 1995.
Other leaders at third base include Jose Ramirez, Nolan Arenado, Manny Machado and Adrian Beltre.
Read MoreMiguel Tejada has the most Box-Toppers points of any shortstop since tracking began in 1995. Derek Jeter ranks a distant second.
Other leaders at shorstop include Troy Tulowitzki, Elvis Andrus, Corey Seager and Stephen Drew.
Read MoreJeff Kent has a dominating lead in Box-Toppers points among second basemen since tracking began in 1995.
Robinson Cano of the Mariners leads active second basemen in career Box-Toppers points. Other leaders at the position include Scooter Gennett, Jose Ramirez, Daniel Murphy and Rougned Odor.
Read MoreMiguel Cabrera of the Tigers has the most Box-Toppers points of any first basemen since tracking began in 1995, passing previous leader Jim Thome.
Cabrera has 146.9 career Box-Toppers points and in 2017 passed former player and newly elected Hall of Famer Thome, who has 146.7 points. Other leaders at first base include Anthony Rizzo, Edwin Encarnacion and Paul Goldschmidt.
Read MoreFour players—Chipper Jones, Vladimir Guerrero, Jim Thome and Trevor Hoffman—were elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame Wednesday. Key players overlooked: Curt Schilling, Jeff Kent, Johan Santana and the PED-clouded five of Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Manny Ramirez, Gary Sheffield and Sammy Sosa.
Read MoreThree of the four players who won Cy Young or Most Valuable Player awards in 2017 also led their teams in Box-Toppers points for the season.
The only exception: American League Most Valuable Player Jose Altuve did not lead Astros batters in Box-Toppers points. In fact, with only 2.5 Box-Toppers points, he finished 11th among Astros batters and 21st among all Astros players.
Read MoreDodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw leads the list of Box-Toppers Active Career All-Stars and is one of three active players to be included on Box-Toppers All-Time All-Star team.
The Box-Toppers All-Time All-Star team consists of the best players by position since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995 and includes 12 players who have retired and three who are still active—Kershaw, along with Albert Pujols of the Angels and Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers.
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.