An opening day introduction to Box-Toppers, starting 24th season tracking players

What’s the most important thing in baseball?

Winning the game, right?

But what baseball statistic provides the fan an indication of the player who most contributed to the win? Logically, you might answer “the win” statistic, but it only applies to pitchers. Plus, in some circumstances, the win is not awarded to the pitcher most responsible for earning the win, but simply the pitcher who was in the game when the team took the lead.

What is needed is a metric that will select the player—from among pitchers and batters—who most contributed to his team’s win. And that’s where Box-Toppers comes in.

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Astros' Charlie Morton tops players in Tuesday, March 27's final spring games

Astros pitcher Charlie Morton is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day on the final day of spring training.

Box-Toppers is tracking several days of the 2018 spring training season to demonstrate the Box-Toppers player tracking metric and to prepare for the upcoming 2,430-game season. The regular season begins Thursday.

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Orioles' Miguel Castro tops players in Sunday, March 25's spring games

Orioles pitcher Miguel Castro is Sunday’s Box-Toppers spring training Player of the Day.

Box-Toppers is tracking several days of the 2018 spring training season to demonstrate the Box-Toppers player tracking metric and to prepare for the upcoming 2,430-game season.

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Rays' Andrew Kittredge tops players in Thursday, March 22's spring games

Rays middle relief pitcher Andrew Kittredge is Thursday’s Box-Toppers spring training Player of the Day.

Box-Toppers is tracking several days of spring training during 2018 as a test and demonstration of the Box-Toppers player tracking metric. Even after 23 seasons of tracking (including sharing those results for the past five seasons on Box-Toppers.com), we need to spend a little time shagging ground balls and getting in shape for the 2,430 games to be tracked during the regular season.

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Kershaw remains strong over past half decade—who is rising & who is declining among baseball's top stars

Dodgers 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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Box-Toppers’ top single game performances by batters for 2017

Anthony 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.

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Box-Toppers’ top single game performances for 2017

Yankees 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.

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A look at Box-Toppers points leaders by position over several time frames (after 2017)

Here 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.

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Box-Toppers top closing pitchers by time frame (after 2017)

Trevor 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.

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Box-Toppers top pitchers by time frame (after 2017)

Randy 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.

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Box-Toppers top outfielders by time frame (after 2017)

Manny 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.

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