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Yankees pitcher Jordan Montgomery is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day in baseball’s second day of summer exhibition games.
Montgomery struck out six over five scoreless innings, allowing two hits and one walk, in the 6-0 win over the Mets.
Read MorePhillies pitcher Aaron Nola is Saturday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day in baseball’s first day of summer exhibition games.
Nola struck out four over five scoreless innings, allowing one hit and one walk, in the 7-2 win over the Nationals.
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Box-Toppers picks the New York Yankees to beat the Washington Nationals in the 2020 World Series.
Still.
We made the same prediction in March before the season was thrown into doubt by the coronavirus pandemic. Only the projected win total has changed.
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Imagine a Major League Baseball season beginning normally in the spring and ending on June 4.
That’s what the proposed pandemic-shortened 60-game schedule for 2020 will seem like.
In 2019, most clubs had played at least 60 games by June 4. That was barely more than a third of the regular season’s 162 games (37 percent). But for 2020, if all goes according to plan and the coronavirus doesn’t intervene to cut it even shorter, 60 games will be the complete, entire season.
Read MoreAlex Rodriguez has the most Box-Toppers points of any third baseman since tracking began in 1995.
Rodriguez, who played from 1994 to 2016 for the Yankees, Mariners and Rangers, earned 187.0 Box-Toppers points, ranked 10th among all players since 1995 and second among all batters. Rodriguez is 38.0 Box-Toppers points ahead of Chipper Jones, who ranks second among third basemen on the “all-time” career Box-Toppers points list with 149.0.
Read MoreMiguel Tejada has the most Box-Toppers points of any shortstop since tracking began in 1995.
Tejada, who played from 1997 to 2013 primarily for the Athletics and Orioles, but also for the Astros, Giants, Padres and Royals, earned 102.3 career Box-Toppers points. That is 25.9 Box-Toppers points ahead of the second-place shortstop in career Box-Toppers points, Derek Jeter (76.4), who played for the Yankees from 1995 to 2014.
Read MoreAlex Rodriguez has the most career Box-Toppers points of all Major League Baseball number-one draft picks since 1990.
Rodriguez, who was the first pick in the 1993 draft, earned 187.0 Box-Toppers points during his career from 1994 to 2016, which is 10th overall since 1995 and second among all batters (behind Albert Pujols of the Angels with 201.8).
Read MoreJeff Kent has a dominating lead in Box-Toppers points among second basemen since tracking began in 1995.
Kent, who played from 1992 to 2008 primarily for the Giants, Dodgers, Mets, Astros and Blue Jays, earned 109.7 Box-Toppers points from 1995 to the end of his career—that’s 30.3 more points than the second-place second baseman since 1995, Robinson Cano of the Mariners (79.4).
Read MoreAlbert Pujols of the Angels has the most Box-Toppers points of any first baseman since tracking began in 1995.
Pujols also has the distinction of leading all American League first basemen in Box-Toppers points over the past season (2019), the past two seasons (2018-19) and the past six seasons (2014-19).
Read MorePitchers led their team’s players in Box-Toppers points on 25 of 30 teams in 2019. Batters led all team’s players on the other five. Chart shows the players who led his team’s pitchers and batters in Box-Toppers points in 2019.
Read MoreDodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw leads the list of Box-Toppers Active Career All-Stars and is one of four active players 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 10 players who have retired and four who are still active—Kershaw, along with Albert Pujols of the Angels, Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers and Astros pitcher Zack Greinke, who joined the All-Time All-Star team in 2019.
Read MoreThe Box-Toppers All-Star teams for 2014-19 consist of the best players over the past six seasons, which includes seven of the 27 players who are also on Box-Toppers 2018-19 All-Star teams.
Also, among the 27 players on the teams, there are eight players who are on Box-Toppers 2019 All-Star teams and six who are on All-Star teams over all three time spans—for 2019, for 2018-19 and for 2014-19. Leading the 2014-19 All-Stars is Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer, who ranks first in Box-Toppers points over that six-season period with 134.3.
Read MoreThe Box-Toppers All-Star teams for 2018-19 consist of the best players at each position in each league over the previous two seasons.
Among the 27 players included on the American and National League teams are 18 who are also on Box-Toppers 2019 All-Star teams. Leading the 2018-19 All-Stars is Astros pitcher Justin Verlander, who ranks first in Box-Toppers points over 2018-19 with 51.8.
Read MoreAlbert Pujols has the chance in 2020 to break the record for most consecutive seasons earning Box-Toppers points.
If Pujols of the Angels earns Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors once in 2020, he will have earned Box-Toppers points for 20 straight seasons (2001-2020). Pujols is currently tied for the longest streak at 19 seasons with three other players—CC Sabathia, Jason Giambi and Carlos Beltran.
Read MoreOn April 25, 1995, the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Florida Marlins, 8-7, to open the 1995 regular season.
That game 25 years ago today marked the beginning of Box-Toppers. Through the past 25 seasons—1995 to 2019—I’ve analyzed each of the approximately 60,000 regular season games played, determining a top player in each game, rewarding points to the top players and tracking those points for the past quarter century.
Read MoreHere is a detailed look at Box-Toppers point leaders for 2019.
The chart accompanying this post shows points leaders for the season by several different categories and classifications.
Read MoreHow did baseball’s statistical leaders do in Box-Toppers points in 2019?
The leaders in three specific pitching categories—earned run average, wins and strikeouts—were among the overall top 10 players in Box-Toppers points. However, the leaders in three specific batting categories—batting average, home runs and runs batted in—did not fare well in Box-Toppers points. All three ranked outside the top 100 overall players in Box-Toppers points and also ranked outside the top 10 players among their league’s batters.
Read MoreThose who figure Wins Above Replacement and those who figure Box-Toppers points (me) often don’t seem to be looking at the same game.
But we are. We are looking at the exact same Major League Baseball game. In recent years, Box-Toppers has seen pitchers come to so overwhelmingly dominate the game that they’ve pushed batters’ relative achievements into the background. But WAR seems to persist in the notion that it is batters who are primarily the stars of the game, contributing more to help their teams win than pitchers.
Read MoreAstros pitcher Gerrit Cole, who led all players in Box-Toppers points in 2019, also led all pitchers in strikeouts during the season.
In fact, each of the top six-ranked players in Box-Toppers points were among the top 11 strikeout leaders in 2019.
Read MoreSeven of the 11 top runs batted in leaders were among their league’s top 10 batters in Box-Toppers points in 2019.
However, overall RBI leader Anthony Rendon of the Nationals ranked outside the top 10 National League batters in Box-Toppers points.
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.