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Indians pitcher Shane Bieber is Thursday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and rises to lead Box-Toppers season player rankings.
Bieber struck out 13 over eight scoreless innings, allowing three hits and no walks, in the 2-0 win over the Twins.
Read MoreBrewers pitcher Brandon Woodruff is Wednesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Meanwhile, Rangers pitcher Lance Lynn rises to lead Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning American League Player of the Day honors. He is one of three players Wednesday to win Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors for a second time this season.
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Sixteen teams will make the postseason in 2020, rather than 10 under the previous plan. Eight qualifying teams in each league will be seeded from 1-8 and will faceoff in a best-of-three game Wild Card series played entirely at the home of the higher seed. Winners of the Wild Card will face off in the Division Series and the playoffs will proceed in a similar format to recent years.
One more revision for Box-Toppers postseason predictions now that the playoff format has expanded from 10 to 16 teams. While it provides six more postseason, it doesn’t change our pick of the Yankees over the Nationals in the World Series.
Read MoreDiamondbacks pitcher Merrill Kelly is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Kelly struck out seven over 7 2/3 innings, allowing one run, three hits and one walk, in the 4-1 win over the Rangers.
Read MoreRays pitcher Tyler Glasnow is Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Tuesday, Cubs pitcher Jon Lester extended his streak of consecutive seasons earning Box-Toppers points to 15—tied for the third-longest active streak—after earning National League Player of the Day honors. Lester also rises to 12th place on Box-Toppers “all-time” career points list.
Read MoreNelson Cruz of the Twins is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day, extending his streak of earning Box-Toppers points to 15 consecutive seasons.
Cruz hit two homers and two doubles, going 4-for-5, scoring four times and driving in seven runs, in the 14-2 win over the White Sox.
Read MoreAngels pitcher Dylan Bundy is Saturday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Bundy struck out seven over 6 2/3 innings, allowing one run, three hits and no walks, in the 4-1 win over the Athletics.
Read MoreCubs pitcher Kyle Hendricks is Friday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Meanwhile, Astros pitcher Justin Verlander extended his consecutive streak of seasons earning Box-Toppers points to 15, tied for the third-longest active streak.
Read MoreEnrique 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 MoreTo 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 MoreDrew 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 MoreAledmys 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 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 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 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.
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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.
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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 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.