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Astros pitcher Ronel Blanco is Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day pitching the season’s first no-hitter and earning his first career Box-Toppers points.
Also Monday, Cubs pitcher Shota Imanaga earned Box-Toppers National League Player of the Day honors in his Major League debut. Plus, Freddie Freeman of the Dodgers earned Box-Toppers points in his 14th straight season.
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The Los Angeles Dodgers are the top-ranked team in Box-Toppers’ 2024 preseason rankings.
Meanwhile, the New York Mets made the biggest offseason improvement in players’ accumulated Box-Toppers points, while the San Diego Padres saw the biggest decline.
Read MoreAthletics pitcher Joey Estes is Box-Toppers Player of the Day in Wednesday’s spring training games.
Meanwhile, Freddie Freeman of the Dodgers, who ranked third among National League batters in Box-Toppers points in 2023, earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors for the second time this spring.
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During the 2023 season, Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander each rose one spot on Box-Toppers “all-time” career points top 10 list.
They were the only player movements among Box-Toppers “all-time” career points top 10 players overall, among the top 10 pitchers and among the top 10 batters. Pitcher Randy Johnson, who retired in 2009, still leads all players in career Box-Toppers points with 282.5 (tracking began in 1995).
Read MoreAnalyzing 29 years of Box-Toppers points leaders in pitching and batting in both leagues.
In 2023, Shohei Ohtani of the Angels, American League Most Valuable Player, was the only player who won a major postseason award and also led his Box-Toppers category (leading AL batters with 19.4). Also, Pete Alonso of the Mets became the ninth batter since 1995 to lead his league’s batters in Box-Toppers points more than once, leading NL batters for the second straight season.
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The Atlanta Braves are Box-Toppers’ top-ranked team going into 2024, with a roster mostly intact from 2023 when they had baseball’s best record.
Meanwhile, the Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners are Box-Toppers’ top two American League teams, with the Mariners having one of the best offseason improvements of any team so far. And also, while the Los Angeles Dodgers have made big offseason splashes adding Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow and Teoscar Hernandez, their offseason ranking has actually fallen from third place last season to fourth place now.
Read MoreShohei Ohtani of the Angels, favorite for American League Most Valuable Player, is also Box-Toppers’ choice for the award. But Box-Toppers’ choice for NL MVP, Pete Alonso of the Mets, is not among the finalists for the award, expected to go to Ronald Acuna Jr. of the Braves, who is second on Box-Toppers’ NL MVP ballot.
Read MoreTwins pitcher Sonny Gray is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Sunday, Marlins pitcher Jesus Luzardo rises to third place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning National League Player of the Day honors.
Read MoreMariners pitcher Bryce Miller is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Miller struck out five over six scoreless innings, allowing two hits and one walk, in the 3-1 win over the Astros.
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The New York Mets are the top-ranked team in Box-Toppers’ 2023 preseason rankings.
Meanwhile, the Texas Rangers made the biggest offseason improvement in players’ accumulated Box-Toppers points, while the World Series champion Houston Astros saw the biggest decline.
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Astros pitcher Justin Verlander tops Box-Toppers list of the top 100 players of 2022.
Verlander had 26.0 Box-Toppers points during the regular season. Verlander came back after sitting out most of the previous two seasons, recovering from Tommy John surgery. He earned 1.0 Box-Toppers point in 2020 and none in 2021. His 26.0 point gain from 0.0 in 2021 to 26.0 in 2022 is the largest single-season point gain for any player since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995.
Read MoreIn 2022, Justin Verlander led American League pitchers in season Box-Toppers points for the third time in his career, tied for the seventh-most times a player has led a season points category.
Also in 2022, the New York Mets and Miami Marlins each had their first Box-Toppers points category leader—Pete Alonso and Sandy Alcantara— leaving the Pittsburgh Pirates as the only team to never have a player lead a category since tracking began in 1995.
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The New York Yankees and New York Mets lead Box-Toppers offseason rankings after landing the winter’s two biggest free agents.
The Yankees rank first after Carlos Rodon Thursday agreed to a free agent deal. Rodon earned 19.8 Box-Toppers points in 2022 with the Giants, sixth overall and third among National League pitchers. He ranked second among all free agents going into the 2023 season.
Read MoreSeven Box-Toppers points leaders are among players selected for 2022’s 16-member “All-MLB” team announced Tuesday.
One other Box-Toppers leader was chosen for the “All-MLB” Second Team.
Read MoreBox-Toppers’ choices for baseball’s major postseason awards won three of six of the 2022 honors.
Also, Box-Toppers’ top-ranked American League batter, Aaron Judge of the Yankees, won the AL MVP, though our choice for the award was Shohei Ohtani of the Angels.
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Aaron Judge of the Yankees and Paul Goldschmidt of the Cardinals were voted 2022 Most Valuable Player award winners over Box-Toppers’ choices for the awards, Shohei Ohtani of the Angels and Pete Alonso of the Mets.
Aaron Judge of the Yankees and Paul Goldschmidt of the Cardinals were voted 2022 Most Valuable Players Thursday, over Box-Toppers’ choices for the awards—Shohei Ohtani of the Angels and Pete Alonso of the Mets.
Read MoreSeven of the 20 batters winning Silver Slugger Awards Thursday were also among the leaders at their positions in 2022 Box-Toppers point totals.
Read MoreAaron Judge of the Yankees, winner of the American League 2022 Hank Aaron Award given to the league’s best offensive performer, also led AL batters in Box-Toppers points.
Paul Goldschmidt of the Cardinals, who won the award in the National League, ranked seventh among NL batters in 2022 Box-Toppers points.
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Five Box-Toppers points category leaders also won Players Choice Awards for 2022 as voted by the players’ union: Justin Verlander, Aaron Judge, Sandy Alcantara, Spencer Strider and Julio Rodriguez.
Five Box-Toppers points category leaders also won Players Choice Awards for 2022 as voted by the players’ union: Justin Verlander, Aaron Judge, Sandy Alcantara, Spencer Strider and Julio Rodriguez.
Read MoreBox-Toppers’ top-ranked players are, for the most part, finalists for 2022 major postseason awards, as announced by baseball writers Monday.
In five of the six major awards, the Box-Toppers points leader for 2022 in that category is among the three finalists for the awards, which will be announced next week.
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.