Enrique Hernandez of the Dodgers is Box-Toppers Player of the Day in Thursday’s pair of season opening games.
Hernandez homered and went 4-for-5, scoring twice and driving in five runs, in the 8-1 win over the Giants.
Read MorePlay ball? Trouble with COVID's curve: Do we even deserve baseball in 2020?
To get a reward, you need to complete a task. As other nations sacrificed to bring coronavirus case counts down, to flatten the curve, we didn’t. Cases increased. It seems crazy to reward ourselves now with baseball, putting many at risk, simply because we want it. We are not worthy.
And yet, here we are: So here’s an opening day introduction to Box-Toppers, tracking who most helps their teams win the most games, based on box score statistics. We begin our 26th season of tracking and our eighth season on the web.
Read MoreRockies’ Drew Butera tops players in Wednesday, July 22’s final summer exhibition games
Drew Butera of the Rockies is Box-Toppers Player of the Day in Wednesday’s final day of summer exhibition games.
Butera homered, doubled and went 2-for-3, scoring twice and driving in four runs, in the 7-3 win over the Rangers.
Read MoreAstros’ Aledmys Diaz tops players in Tuesday, July 21’s preseason exhibition games
Aledmys Diaz of the Astros is Box-Toppers Player of the Day in Tuesday’s summer camp exhibition games.
Diaz homered and went 2-for-2, scoring once and driving in four runs, in the 15-6 win over the Royals.
Read MoreAngels’ Griffin Canning tops players in Monday, July 20's summer exhibition games
Angels pitcher Griffin Canning is Box-Toppers Player of the Day in Monday’s summer exhibition games.
Canning struck out five over six scoreless innings, allowing three hits and two walks, in the 1-0 win over the Padres.
Read MoreYankees’ Jordan Montgomery tops players in Sunday, July 19's exhibition games
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’ Aaron Nola tops players in Saturday, July 18’s opening summer exhibition games
Phillies 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.
Read More
Box-Toppers still picks Yankees over Nationals in 2020 World Series in pandemic-shortened season
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.
Read More
What would a 60-game schedule look like? Here's a Box-Toppers look at 2019 after 60 games on June 4
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 MoreBox-Toppers top third basemen by time frame (after 2019 season)
Alex 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 MoreBox-Toppers top shortstops by time frame (after 2019 season)
Miguel 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 MoreA look at how top draft picks fared in career Box-Toppers points and rankings
Alex 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 MoreBox-Toppers top second basemen by time frame (after 2019 season)
Jeff 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 MoreBox-Toppers top first basemen by time frame (after 2019 season)
Albert 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 MoreWho led in Box-Toppers points on each team in 2019? A look at each club’s top pitcher & batter
Pitchers 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 MoreBox-Toppers All-time All-Star teams, 1995-2019
Dodgers 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 MoreBox-Toppers 2014-19 All-Star teams
The 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 MoreBox-Toppers 2018-19 All-Star teams
The 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 could break record for most consecutive seasons earning Box-Toppers points in 2020
Albert 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 MoreBox-Toppers tracking began 25 years ago today, April 25, 1995
On 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 More