Tim Beckham of the Mariners is Wednesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day in baseball’s 2019 opening game in Japan.
Beckham homered and went 3-for-3, scoring three times and driving in two runs, in the 9-7 win over the Athletics.
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Box-Toppers picks Yankees over Cubs in 2019 World Series
Box-Toppers picks the New York Yankees to beat the Chicago Cubs in the 2019 World Series.
In addition, Box-Toppers projects the Yankees will win 111 games in 2019, one of four teams projected to win 100 or more games this season. All 2018 American League playoff teams are projected to return to the postseason, while three different teams are forecast for the National League postseason—the Nationals, Phillies and Mets.
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Yankees top Box-Toppers 2019 preseason team rankings; champion Red Sox fall to 2nd
The New York Yankees are the top-ranked team in Box-Toppers’ 2019 preseason rankings, rising from second place at the end of the 2018 season.
The 2018 World Series-champion Boston Red Sox fall from first at the end of last season to second place in the 2019 preseason rankings.
Meanwhile, the Cincinnati Reds made the biggest offseason improvement in players’ accumulated Box-Toppers points, while the Arizona Diamondbacks had the biggest decline.
Read MoreWins leader Blake Snell also led players in Box-Toppers points in 2018
Blake Snell of the Rays, who led all pitchers in wins in 2018 with 21, also led all players in Box-Toppers points during the season with 27.2.
Six of the overall top 11 players in Box-Toppers points in 2018 are also among the top 11 pitchers in wins for the season. Plus, all 11 pitchers leading in wins are among the overall top 40 players in Box-Toppers points for the season.
Read MoreA correction: Rays' Blake Snell leads by wider margin after fixing errors in 2018 Box-Toppers stats
Striving to create a more perfect Box-Toppers, I discovered some errors in player tracking in 2018 and have been correcting them in recent weeks.
There were 10 total errors I discovered that changed the Box-Toppers point totals for 17 different players. Those errors were discovered after re-examining about one-third of the 2,430 games played in the 2018 season. So in other words, after looking at about 830 games, I found 10 errors.
Read MoreOnly 3 of top 10 home run hitters in 2018 are among Box-Toppers’ top 100-ranked players
Khris Davis of the Athletics led all players in home runs in 2018 but ranked relatively low in Box-Toppers player rankings—just 47th among American League batters.
Meanwhile, J.D. Martinez of the Red Sox, who led all batters in Box-Toppers points in 2018 with 12.5, ranked second in home runs. And just three of the top 10 home run hitters in 2018 are among the top 100 ranked players in Box-Toppers points for the season.
Read MoreHow 2019 Hall of Fame candidates fared in Box-Toppers
Four players—Mariano Rivera, Roy Halladay, Edgar Martinez and Mike Mussina—were elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame Tuesday.
The three pitchers selected—Rivera, Halladay and Mussina—are among the top 40 players in career Box-Toppers points (tracking began in 1995). Martinez ranks ninth among designated hitters in career Box-Toppers points since 1995, but he started his career in 1987, before the advent of Box-Toppers tracking.
Read MoreERA leader Jacob deGrom ranked 12th in 2018 Box-Toppers rankings
Jacob deGrom of the Mets had the lowest earned run average of any pitcher in 2018 and ranked 12th in Box-Toppers player rankings.
The overall Box-Toppers points leader, Blake Snell of the Rays (27.2), ranked second in ERA (1.89).
Read MoreTop 3 batters in Box-Toppers rankings also are top 3 in batting average—Betts, Martinez, Yelich
The batters with the top three Box-Toppers point totals in 2018 were also the batters with the three highest batting averages.
Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez of the Red Sox and Christian Yelich of the Brewers had both the three highest batting averages in 2018 and the three highest Box-Toppers point totals among batters in 2018.
Read MoreAn overview of Box-Toppers category leaders over several time frames after 2018
Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer leads two of Box-Toppers’ four main leaderboards and came within 2.1 Box-Toppers points of leading three of the four after the 2018 season.
Scherzer has the most Box-Toppers points of any player over the past two seasons (50.1 over 2017 and 2018) and the most points of any player over the past six seasons (137.0 from 2013 to 2018). Scherzer finished second in overall points in 2018 with 25.1, just behind leader Rays pitcher Blake Snell (27.2).
Read MoreA look at Box-Toppers season-by-season AL & NL pitching & batting leaders, 1995-2018
Analyzing 24 years of Box-Toppers points leaders in pitching & batting in both leagues
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A look at Box-Toppers' ‘all-time' top 10 lists—top overall players, top pitchers, top batters—since tracking began in 1995
With Max Scherzer’s rise into Box-Toppers career points top 10 list during 2018, there are now six active players in the top 10, the most since 2008, when there were eight.
Box-Toppers player tracking began in 1995 and the overall top 10 players in career points was composed entirely of active players until 2008. The number of active players on the list slipped to as low as two as recently as 2014, but grew to six on June 5, when Nationals pitcher Scherzer joined the list, rising to 10th place with 172.1 Box-Toppers points, displacing retired pitcher Roy Halladay. Scherzer finished the season with 181.8 points, ranked ninth.
Read MoreMax Scherzer leads players in Box-Toppers points since start of 2013
Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer leads players in Box-Toppers points since the start of 2013.
Scherzer has 137.0 Box-Toppers points over the period 2013-2018, just 2.6 points ahead of Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, who has 134.4 points over that span.
In fact, Scherzer unseats Kershaw from atop the six-year rolling Box-Toppers point total, a spot Kershaw has held at the end of each season since 2013, five straight seasons.
Read MoreMax Scherzer leads players in Box-Toppers points over past 2 seasons
Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer has more Box-Toppers points over the past two seasons than any other player.
Scherzer has earned 50.1 Box-Toppers points over 2017 and 2018. He ranked second among all players in both seasons.
Read MoreA look at Box-Toppers top 100 players of 'all-time' after the 2018 season
Randy Johnson leads all players in career Box-Toppers points and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
The most likely rival to Johnson’s throne at the moment is Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw who has 214.8 career Box-Toppers points, third among all players since 1995 and most among active players.
Read MoreA look at Box-Toppers' top 100 players for 2017-18 and 2013-18
Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer is Box-Toppers’ top-ranked player over both the past two seasons and past six seasons.
Scherzer has the most Box-Toppers points over the past two seasons (50.1 over 2017 and 2018) and the most points over the past six seasons (137.0 from 2013 to 2018).
Read MoreBox-Toppers votes eight players to Hall of Fame in internet writers’ ballot
Box-Toppers is voting for eight players to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) ballot.
Read MoreBox-Toppers’ big dippers—players whose 2018 point total declined most from 2017: Ervin Santana leads list
Twins pitcher Ervin Santana had the biggest decline in Box-Toppers points from 2017 to 2018.
Santana, who earned 16.1 Box-Toppers points in 2017 (ninth among all players), earned no points in 2018. His decline of 16.1 points was just ahead of Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg, whose 6.7 points in 2018 represented a 15.1-point drop from the 22.5 points he earned in 2017.
Read MoreRays' pitcher Blake Snell is Box-Toppers' Most Improved Player in 2018
Rays pitcher Blake Snell had the biggest improvement in Box-Toppers point totals from 2017 to 2018, and is this season’s Box-Toppers’ Most Improved Player.
Snell had 22.2 more Box-Toppers points in 2018 than he did in 2017. In 2017, he had 5.0 Box-Toppers points and in 2018, he had 27.2 points, first among all players.
Read MorePostseason awards wrap-up: How Box-Toppers leaders fared in 2018's major season honors
Depending on how you look at it, Box-Toppers points leaders took home two (or three or four) of the six major postseason awards for 2018.
There were two awards won outright by Box-Toppers points leaders in their categories:
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