With baseball season just around the corner, here is a look back at highlights from the 2017 season, including happenings from the offseason.

While baseball stopped in the fall, Box-Toppers spent the offseason tabulating results from the season and sharing them on Box-Toppers.com. This is a summary of Box-Toppers’ offseason posts with links to the original posts.

Among the highlights are:

2017 team and player rankings
Lists of the top 100 players over various time periods.
Box-Toppers’ All-Star teams for various time periods.
Box-Toppers’ leaders by defensive position.
The most improved players and the biggest decliners in Box-Toppers points from 2015 to 2016.
Top pitchers and batters by team in 2017.
Top single-game performances of 2017 in terms of Box-Toppers game score.
An overview of Box-Toppers season leaders for the entire duration of Box-Toppers tracking, from 1995 to 2017.
A look at 2017 postseason award winners and 2018 Hall of Fame candidates.
How statistical leaders (wins, home runs, strikeouts, batting average, runs batted in, earned run average) fared in Box-Toppers points in 2017.
A look at Box-Toppers results from each game of the 2017 postseason.
2018 preseason features, including Box-Toppers team rankings and predictions.

Box-Toppers tracks which players most help their team win the most Major League Baseball 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.

More about what Box-Toppers is all about and how it works and why Box-Toppers was devised.

Here are links to key offseason posts:

Top players, top teams

Year-end 2017 team rankings—Indians lead Box-Toppers final '17 team rankings, NL-leading Dodgers end as hottest team
Year-end 2017 player rankings—Red Sox' Chris Sale is 2017 Box-Toppers Player of the Year

Top 10 player lists

Box-Toppers’ leaderboard overview
Here are Box-Toppers points category leaders over different time frames. Overall leaders and leaders for AL and NL pitchers and batters are shown for 2017, for 2016‑17 (past two seasons), for 2012‑17 (past six seasons) and for 1995-17 (“all-time,” since the start of Box-Toppers tracking). Each top-ranked player is shown with their category timeframe-leading Box-Toppers point (BTP) total.

    OVERALL
    POS
    TEAM
    BTP
  
    2017
    Chris Sale
    pi sp
    Red Sox
    25.1
  
    2016‑17
    Max Scherzer
    pi sp
    Nationals
    50.7
  
    2012‑17
    Clayton Kershaw
    pi sp
    Dodgers
    147.2
  
    1995-17
    Randy Johnson
    pi sp
    Retired
    278.8
  
    AL PITCHERS
    POS
    TEAM
    BTP
  
    2017
    Chris Sale
    pi sp
    Red Sox
    25.1
  
    2016‑17
    Corey Kluber
    pi sp
    Indians
    43.2
  
    2012‑17
    Chris Sale
    pi sp
    Red Sox
    106.5
  
    AL BATTERS
    POS
    TEAM
    BTP
  
    2017
    Edwin Encarnacion
    dh 1b
    Indians
    12.1
  
    2016‑17
    Elvis Andrus
    ss
    Rangers
    20.2
  
    2012‑17
    Miguel Cabrera
    1b
    Tigers
    59.8
  
    NL PITCHERS
    POS
    TEAM
    BTP
  
    2017
    Max Scherzer
    pi sp
    Nationals
    25.0
  
    2016‑17
    Max Scherzer
    pi sp
    Nationals
    50.7
  
    2012‑17
    Clayton Kershaw
    pi sp
    Dodgers
    147.2
  
    NL BATTERS
    POS
    TEAM
    BTP
  
    2017
    Anthony Rizzo
    1b
    Cubs
    15.5
  
    2016‑17
    Giancarlo Stanton
    rf
    Marlins
    20.7
  
    2012‑17
    Andrew McCutchen
    cf
    Pirates
    47.5
  
    PITCHERS
    POS
    TEAM
    BTP
  
    1995-17
    Randy Johnson
    pi sp
    Retired
    278.8
  
    BATTERS
    POS
    TEAM
    BTP
  
    1995-17
    Albert Pujols
    dh
    Angels
    187.8
  
BTP: Box-Toppers points

NOTE: Players are listed with their playing status at the close of 2017. Only active players are included in the 2017, 2016-17 and 2012-17 lists. All players, including retired and released players, are included in the “all-time” list, 1995-2017. Since retired and released players have no current team or league affiliation, there are no separate AL and NL lists for 1995-2017 leaders—all players are grouped into a single batting or pitching list.

Box-Toppers top 10 players by category (Overall, AL pitchers, NL pitchers, AL batters, NL batters)

Box-Toppers’ All-Star teams

Box-Toppers’ Top 100 players

2017: Chris Sale tops list
2016-17: Max Scherzer tops the list
2012-17: Clayton Kershaw tops list
“All-time” 1995-2017: Randy Johnson tops list

Box-Toppers’ High by position

Top players at a single position over several time frames—2017, 2016-17, 2012-17, “All-time” (1995-2017):

First base: Miguel Cabrera leads all-time (career Box-Toppers points since 1995). He also leads all active first basemen in career points and leads all first basemen over the past six seasons. Anthony Rizzo leads past season.
Second base: Jeff Kent leads all-time. Scooter Gennett leads past season.
Shortstop: Miguel Tejada leads all-time over Derek Jeter. Elvis Andrus leads past season (and also past two seasons).
Third base: Alex Rodriguez leads all-time. Jose Ramirez leads past season.
Catcher: Mike Piazza leads all-time. Buster Posey leads past season (and also past two and past six seasons).
Outfield: Manny Ramirez leads all-time. Giancarlo Stanton leads past season (and also past two seasons).
Designated hitter: Albert Pujols leads all-time (and also leads active DHs in career points). Edwin Encarnacion leads past season (and also past two seasons and past six seasons).
Pitcher: Randy Johnson leads all-time. Clayton Kershaw leads active pitchers in career points (and also leads over past six seasons). Chris Sale leads past season. Max Scherzer leads past two seasons.
Closing pitcher: Trevor Hoffman leads all-time over all-time saves leader Mariano Rivera. Craig Kimbrel leads active closers in career points (and also leads over past two seasons and past six seasons). Edwin Diaz leads over past season.
Overall: Johnson leads all players in Box-Toppers points since 1995. Kershaw leads active players in career points and also leads all players over the past six seasons. Chris Sale led players in 2017. Max Scherzer leads players over the past two seasons.

Statistical leaders

How 2017 statistical leaders fared in Box-Toppers points and rankings

Batting average: Five of the top 10 players in batting average for 2017 are among Box-Toppers’ top 100 players.
Earned run average: Corey Kluber of the Indians had the lowest earned run average of any pitcher in 2017 and ranked fifth in Box-Toppers player rankings.
Home runs: Giancarlo Stanton of the Marlins led all players in home runs in 2017 and ranked second among all batters in Box-Toppers points for the season.
Wins: Three of the four pitchers who led the Major Leagues in wins in 2017 are among Box-Toppers’ top 10 players for the season.
Runs batted in: Half of the top 10 runs batted in leaders are among their league’s top 10 batters in Box-Toppers points in 2017.
Strikeouts: Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale, 2017’s leader in Box-Toppers points, also was the season’s leader in strikeouts.
Wins above replacement (WAR): Six of the 10 leaders in baseball’s Wins Above Replacement statistic for 2017 are among the top 100 players in Box-Toppers points for the season.
Overview: An overview look at how baseball's 2017 statistical leaders ranked in Box-Toppers points