Red Sox pitcher Nick Pivetta is Box-Toppers Player of the Day in Saturday’s spring training games.
Pivetta struck out five over three scoreless and hitless innings, allowing no walks, in the 1-0 win over the Twins.
Read MoreGuardians’ Tully, Braves’ Vines tops players in Friday’s spring training games
Guardians pitcher Tanner Tully is Box-Toppers Player of the Day in Friday’s spring training games.
Tully struck out four over three scoreless innings, allowing no hits, no runs and one walk, in the 3-2 win over the Reds.
Read MoreRed Sox’ Marrero tops players in Thursday’s opening spring training games
Elih Marrero of the Red Sox is Box-Toppers Player of the Day in Thursday’s opening spring training games.
Marrero hit two doubles and went 2-for-2, scoring twice and driving in three runs, in the 14-1 win over the Twins.
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A Box-Toppers look at unsigned free agents as lockout set to end
With a new collective bargaining agreement finalized and set to be ratified Thursday, Major League clubs will soon be scrambling to sign players in the rich free agency pool.
And baseball bloggers will be scrambling to finish their blogs on free agent players before they quickly become outdated. Clayton Kershaw leads Box-Toppers’ list of free agent players.
Read MoreAn overview look at how baseball's 2021 statistical leaders ranked in Box-Toppers points
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 200 overall players in Box-Toppers points and also ranked outside the top 10 players among their league’s batters.
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While Box-Toppers stat reflects the decline of batters, they still dominate WAR
Looking at the top 10 players in the Wins Above Replacement (WAR) statistic for each of the past 25 seasons, gives the impression batters are holding steady as the dominant force in baseball.
Yet, in recent years, batters are striking out more and hitting for lower batting averages against pitchers who are holding batters down and stealing their lunch money. Looking at the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points for each of the past 25 seasons provides a more accurate reflection of the game—one in which batters performed well and even dominated through about 2009, until pitchers’ announced their presence with authority from 2010 on.
Read More6 of top 10 strikeout leaders also among Box-Toppers’ top 10 players for 2021
Six of the 10 top strikeout leaders in 2021 were also among the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points for the season.
Blue Jays pitcher Robbie Ray led all players with 248 strikeouts. He ranked sixth overall in Box-Toppers points with 17.7, second among American League pitchers. Ray won the AL Cy Young Award.
Read More5 of 11 top RBI leaders among Box-Toppers’ top 100 players in 2021
Five of the top 11 runs batted in leaders were among the top 100 players in Box-Toppers points in 2021. All five were also among their league’s top 10 batters in Box-Toppers rankings.
However, Salvador Perez of the Royals, who led all players with 121 RBIs, had just 4.5 Box-Toppers points in 2021, 222nd among all players and 44th among American League batters.
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A look at how 2021 wins leaders fared in Box-Toppers points
Julio Urias of the Dodgers, who led all pitchers in wins in 2021 with 20, also ranked fourth among all players in Box-Toppers points with 19.1.
Among the 13 pitchers with 14 or more wins in 2021, Urias is one of five who were among the top 10 in Box-Toppers points for the season. Meanwhile, Max Scherzer of the Dodgers, who led all players in Box-Toppers points in 2021, also had Box-Toppers’ highest Sincere Win Differential (SWD) of +10.1.
Read More6 of 12 top home run leaders among their league’s top 10 batters in Box-Toppers points
While six of the top 12 home run hitters in 2021 ranked among their league’s top 10 batters in Box-Toppers points for the season, the two top home run hitters ranked low.
Salvador Perez of the Royals and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Blue Jays led all players with 48 home runs each in 2021, but both were the lowest ranked among the 12 top home run hitters in Box-Toppers points, both ranking outside the overall top 200 players.
Read More7 of top 10 in earned run average also among top 10 in Box-Toppers points for 2021
Seven of the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points in 2021 also recorded among the 10 lowest earned run averages for the season.
Brewers pitcher Corbin Burnes, who had the lowest ERA (2.43), ranked fifth in Box-Toppers points for 2021 (18.1), fourth among National League pitchers. Dodgers pitcher Max Scherzer, who led all players with 25.1 Box-Toppers points, had the second-lowest ERA (2.46).
Read MoreCastellanos is only top 10 batting average leader among top 100 in Box-Toppers points for 2021
Only one of the top 10 batting average leaders for 2021 is among Box-Toppers’ top 100 ranked players for the season.
Nick Castellanos of the Reds, whose .309 batting average ranked ninth among all players, ranked 35th among all players with 11.5 Box-Toppers points. That also led all NL batters.
Read MoreAn overview of Box-Toppers category leaders over several time frames after 2021
Dodgers pitcher Max Scherzer holds the lead in five of Box-Toppers’ main leaderboards at the end of 2021, most of any player.
Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole leads four Box-Toppers leaderboards, second most of any player.
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A look at Box-Toppers top 100 players of ‘all-time’ after the 2021 season
Randy Johnson leads all players in career Box-Toppers points and the two active players most likely to pass his total won’t likely do it until 2023 at the very earliest.
Johnson earned 282.5 Box-Toppers points from the time Box-Toppers record keeping began in 1995 until he retired in 2009.
Read MoreA look at Box-Toppers’ top 100 players for 2020-21 and 2016-21
Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole is Box-Toppers’ top-ranked player over the past two seasons while Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer ranks first in points over the past six seasons.
Cole earned 29.8 Box-Toppers points combined in 2020 and 2021 to lead all players in that span, while Scherzer earned 120.3 from 2016-2021, most in that span.
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A look at Box-Toppers’ top 100 players for 2021
Dodgers pitcher Max Scherzer tops Box-Toppers list of the top 100 players of 2021.
Scherzer had 25.1 Box-Toppers points during the regular season. It is his fourth season with 25.0 or more Box-Toppers points. Only two other players have as many or more seasons with 25.0 or more points.
Read MoreHow 2022 Hall of Fame candidates fared in Box-Toppers
Though Box-Toppers would not have voted David Ortiz as a first-ballot Hall of Famer, it’s hard to argue that his performance on the field was not worthy.
Yet, several other candidates with Hall-of-Fame worthy careers were not voted for induction Tuesday because of their ties to the steroid era. In fact, it can be argued that righteous baseball writers did a noble thing Tuesday by blocking three such candidates—Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa—for their 10th and final time on the ballot.
Read MoreInternet writers vote David Ortiz for Hall of Fame; none of Box-Toppers’ 9 choices made the cut
David Ortiz is the only player inducted into internet baseball writers’ Hall of Fame for 2022.
None of the nine candidates Box-Toppers voted for Hall induction received the necessary 75 percent support. And Box-Toppers also did not vote for Ortiz.
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Pitchers won fewer Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors after foreign substance crackdown, but still dominated in 2021
Pitchers won fewer Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors after a Major League Baseball sticky-substance rule crackdown in June, but pitchers still dominated in 2021.
Even after the June 21 rules crackdown, pitchers still won the vast majority of Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors. But the rate of their dominance decreased from 65.5 percent prior to the crackdown and 56.5 percent after.
Read MoreBox-Toppers’ big dippers—players whose 2021 point total declined most from 2020: Dinelson Lamet leads list
Padres pitcher Dinelson Lamet had the biggest decline in Box-Toppers points from 2020 to 2021.
Lamet, who earned 9.0 Box-Toppers points in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season (fifth among all players and third among National League pitchers), earned 2.0 points in 2021. After a stellar 2020 season, he battled injury early in 2021, struggled and went from a starter to a bullpen pitcher.
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