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Marlins pitcher Pablo Lopez is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Tuesday, three players rise in Box-Toppers season player rankings top 10 after earning Player of the Game honors—Dodgers pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu rises to third place, Cubs pitcher Kyle Hendricks rises to fifth place and Reds pitcher Luis Castillo rises to sixth place.
Read MoreIndians pitcher Shane Bieber is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day, rising to 10th place in season player rankings.
Also Sunday, two other players rise in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors—Brewers pitcher Josh Hader maintains his second-place spot and Dodgers pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu rises to seventh place.
Read MoreAnalyzing 24 years of Box-Toppers points leaders in pitching & batting in both leagues
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With Max Scherzer’s rise into Box-Toppers career points top 10 list during 2018, there are now six active players in the top 10, the most since 2008, when there were eight.
Box-Toppers player tracking began in 1995 and the overall top 10 players in career points was composed entirely of active players until 2008. The number of active players on the list slipped to as low as two as recently as 2014, but grew to six on June 5, when Nationals pitcher Scherzer joined the list, rising to 10th place with 172.1 Box-Toppers points, displacing retired pitcher Roy Halladay. Scherzer finished the season with 181.8 points, ranked ninth.
Read MoreNationals pitcher Max Scherzer leads players in Box-Toppers points since the start of 2013.
Scherzer has 137.0 Box-Toppers points over the period 2013-2018, just 2.6 points ahead of Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, who has 134.4 points over that span.
In fact, Scherzer unseats Kershaw from atop the six-year rolling Box-Toppers point total, a spot Kershaw has held at the end of each season since 2013, five straight seasons.
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One reason that league-leading batters have had low Box-Toppers point totals in recent seasons is that batters’ overall share of Box-Toppers points earned is declining. Prior to 2010, batters earned about half or more of all Box-Toppers points awarded. Since 2010, batters’ share of points has been below 50 percent each season—and as low as 39.14 percent. (More detailed data used for this graph can be found in the chart at the bottom of his page.)
It seems increasingly likely that Box-Toppers’ league-leading batters will set dubious records in 2018.
Both the American League and National League leaders among batters in Box-Toppers points currently have point totals that would be the lowest to lead their league’s batters for a season since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995.
Read MoreAthletics pitcher Trevor Cahill is Saturday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Cahill struck out seven over seven scoreless innings, allowing one hit and one walk, in the 7-1 win over the Astros.
Read MoreWith Max Scherzer’s rise into Box-Toppers career points top 10 list this month, there are now six active players in the top 10, the most since 2008, when there were eight.
Scherzer, the Nationals pitcher, became the 10th-ranked player on Box-Toppers “all-time” list on June 5 with 172.1 career points, passing Roy Halladay (170.7). Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995.
Read MoreYankees pitcher Luis Severino is Wednesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and rises to retake the lead in season player rankings.
Also Wednesday, Mookie Betts of the Red Sox rises to ninth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings—and is the only batter among the top 10—after earning Player of the Game honors.
Read MoreAstros pitcher Lance McCullers is Saturday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day, rising to ninth place in season player rankings.
McCullers struck out seven over seven scoreless innings, allowing two hits and no walks, in the 11-0 win over the Athletics.
McCullers earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 4.7 for the season, rising to ninth place in season player rankings, sixth among American League pitchers.
With McCullers’ rise, Astros pitchers now make up four of the top 10 spots in Box-Toppers season player rankings.
Read MoreAn overview of Box-Toppers' new season-by-season Detail Leaders page.
This page includes a sprawling, scrolling chart that shows a listing of the top five or 10 players in different categories and subcategories for each season going back to 1995, the first year of Box-Toppers player tracking. It’s a useful tool for research or to relive who were the top players of past seasons.
Dodgers pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Ryu struck out eight over six scoreless innings, allowing one hit and one walk, in the 4-0 win over the Athletics.
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Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw has been mentioned on Box-Toppers.com more than any other player.
His team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, is also Box-Toppers’ most-mentioned team.
Read MoreDodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, Box-Toppers’ dominant player over the period 2012-2017, remains Box-Toppers’ dominant player over the period 2013-2017.
The 2013-2017 Box-Toppers point total for all players comes from dropping the points they earned in the 2012 season from their 2012-2017 totals. Box-Toppers uses this longer-term total to gauge a players’ staying power over the recent past.
And at the beginning of a season, when the rolling six-year total drops the earliest year of that timeframe, a player’s change in position in the rankings can give a clue to whether that player is improving, holding steady or declining.
Read MoreHere are Box-Toppers points leaders at each position over a variety of time frames.
For example, the all-time leader, Randy Johnson leads with 278.8 career Box-Toppers points (earned since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began). Johnson also leads in Box-Toppers points among all pitchers since 1995. Chris Sale leads over past season, Max Scherzer leads over past two seasons and Clayton Kershaw leads over past six seasons and also leads all active players in career Box-Toppers points.
Read MoreManny Ramirez has the most Box-Toppers points of any outfielder since tracking began in 1995.
Matt Holliday leads active outfielders in career points. Other leaders include Giancarlo Stanton, Mike Trout, Aaron Judge, Jay Bruce and Andrew McCutchen.
Read MoreMiguel Tejada has the most Box-Toppers points of any shortstop since tracking began in 1995. Derek Jeter ranks a distant second.
Other leaders at shorstop include Troy Tulowitzki, Elvis Andrus, Corey Seager and Stephen Drew.
Read MoreMiguel Cabrera of the Tigers has the most Box-Toppers points of any first basemen since tracking began in 1995, passing previous leader Jim Thome.
Cabrera has 146.9 career Box-Toppers points and in 2017 passed former player and newly elected Hall of Famer Thome, who has 146.7 points. Other leaders at first base include Anthony Rizzo, Edwin Encarnacion and Paul Goldschmidt.
Read MoreFour players—Chipper Jones, Vladimir Guerrero, Jim Thome and Trevor Hoffman—were elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame Wednesday. Key players overlooked: Curt Schilling, Jeff Kent, Johan Santana and the PED-clouded five of Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Manny Ramirez, Gary Sheffield and Sammy Sosa.
Read MoreDodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw leads the list of Box-Toppers Active Career All-Stars and is one of three active players to be included on Box-Toppers All-Time All-Star team.
The Box-Toppers All-Time All-Star team consists of the best players by position since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995 and includes 12 players who have retired and three who are still active—Kershaw, along with Albert Pujols of the Angels and Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers.
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.