Box-Toppers detail leaders, season-by-season, 1995-2023

Here are Box-Toppers top players season-by-season from 1995 (when player tracking began) through 2023.

Top 10 overall players each season

In the sprawling, scrolling chart below, the top 10 overall players for each of Box-Toppers’ 29 seasons are listed across the top. Scroll to the right to see later seasons, scroll to the left to go back in time.

Top 10 by category: AL & NL pitching & batting

Also shown here, in order, are each season’s top 10 American League pitchers, top 10 AL batters, top 10 National League pitchers and top 10 NL batters.

Top batters by position in each league

Below that are the top AL batters by position: Top five first basemen, second basemen, shortstops, third basemen and catchers, plus top 10 outfielders and top five designated hitters. Below that are the top NL batters by position, listed in the same order as AL batters. The spots for top five NL designated hitters is blank from 1995 to 2019 and 2021. Designated hitters were not used in the National League during regular season games until interleague play began in 1997. The designated hitter was not a full-time regular position in the National League until 2020, during the pandemic-shortened 60-game season in which no pitchers batted. The NL began using the DH on a regular basis starting in the 2022 season.

Box-Toppers’ biggest dippers & risers

Below that are each season’s Box-Toppers biggest dippers—or players whose Box-Toppers point total declined most from one season to the next, ranked by biggest point decline. Next are each season’s Box-Toppers biggest risers—players whose Box-Toppers point total increased most from one season to the next, ranked by biggest point increase.

Top relief pitchers—closers & middle relievers—by league

At the bottom of the chart are each season’s rankings for relief pitchers—top five AL closing pitchers, top five AL middle relief pitchers, top five NL closers and top five NL middle relievers.

Legend and footnote information appears at the bottom.

About Box-Toppers—Box-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. In regular season games, players earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point 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.

Questions? Corrections? Viewing difficulties? Let me know. Thanks!

(Shawn Plank, updated Monday, January 22, 2024.)

➜ Players are listed by the position they predominantly played when they earned Box-Toppers points (by earning Player of the Game honors).
➜ Players are listed with the team on which they finished the season. Some players played on two or more teams in a single season.
What are those numbers after players' names?
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
➜ DIPPERS: Players whose Box-Toppers point total declined most from one season to the next, ranked by biggest point decline. (For example, Randy Johnson had 23.7 Box-Toppers points in 1995 and 6.0 points in 1996, a 17.7-point decline, the biggest dip of any player in 1996.)
➜ RISERS: Players whose Box-Toppers point total increased most from one season to the next, ranked by biggest point increase. (For example, John Smoltz had 8.4 Box-Toppers points in 1995 and 26.1 points in 1996, a 17.7-point increase, the biggest rise of any.player in 1996.)
* Note: No “Dippers” or “Risers” are listed for 1995 because that was the first season of Box-Toppers player tracking—there are no Box-Toppers statistics for 1994.
† Separate Box-Toppers classification for closing pitchers (CP) and middle relief pitchers (MR) was not kept until 1998, so there are no top five lists for AL or NL closing or middle relief pitchers for 1995, 1996 and 1997. (However, note that Braves closer Mark Wohlers was the ninth-ranked overall NL pitcher in 1995 with 9.0 Box-Toppers points that season.)
§ 2020 season was shortened from 162 games to 60 games because of the coronavirus pandemic.
§§ Designated hitters were not used in the National League during regular season games until interleague play began in 1997. The designated hitter was not a full-time regular position in the National League until 2020, during the pandemic-shortened 60-game season in which no pitchers batted. The NL began using the DH on a regular basis in the 2022 season.
➜ Note: If players have the same Box-Toppers point total, ties are broken based on which player had more Box-Toppers points in the previous season (or the previous season before that—and so on, if those point totals are tied). Such ties in rankings for Box-Toppers first season, 1995, are broken first based on which player had the most Player of the Game honors, then who had the most Player of the Day honors, then most league Player of the Day honors, most Batter of the Day honors and finally, most recent Player of the Game honor.

➜ GUIDE TO ABBREVIATIONS AND TERMS IN CHART
Pos Position
BTP Box-Toppers points
PI pitcher
SP starting pitcher
MR middle reliever
CP closing pitcher
1B first base
2B second base
SS shortstop
3B third base
CA catcher
OF outfield (general, any of the three outfield positions)
LF left field
CF center field
RF right field
DH designated hitter