Box-Toppers picks Yankees over Nationals in 2020 World Series

Shawn Plank March 18, 2020

Box-Toppers picks the New York Yankees to beat the Washington Nationals in the 2020 World Series.

Box-Toppers projects the Yankees will have the most wins among all teams—110—and will be the only team with more than 100 wins this season.

Of course, these projections are made with the assumption that each team will play a complete 162-game schedule. That is thrown into doubt now that Coronavirus precautions have prompted baseball to suspend spring training and delay the start of the season.

A look at Box-Toppers top 100 players of ‘all-time’ after the 2019 season

Shawn Plank February 17, 2020

Randy Johnson leads all players in career Box-Toppers points and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Johnson earned 278.8 Box-Toppers points from the time Box-Toppers record keeping began in 1995 until he retired in 2009.

A look at Box-Toppers’ top 100 players for 2018-19 and 2014-19

Shawn Plank February 11, 2020

Astros pitcher Justin Verlander is Box-Toppers’ top-ranked player over the past two seasons while Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer ranks first in points over the past six seasons.

Verlander earned 51.6 Box-Toppers points combined in 2018 and 2019 to lead all players in that span while Scherzer earned 134.3 points from 2014-2019, most in that span.

A look at Box-Toppers’ top 100 players for 2019

Shawn Plank January 13, 2020

Astros pitcher Gerrit Cole tops Box-Toppers list of the top 100 players in 2019.

Cole had 32.2 Box-Toppers points during the regular season, which is the fourth-highest single-season point total in the 25 seasons of Box-Toppers tracking, which began in 1995. It was 1.5 points short of the record, 33.7, set by Randy Johnson of the Diamondbacks in both 2000 and 2002.

Astros’ Cole, Nationals’ Corbin top players in Tuesday's league championship games

Shawn Plank October 16, 2019

Astros pitcher Gerrit Cole and Nationals pitcher Patrick Corbin are top players in Tuesday’s pair of league championship games.

The Astros take a 2-1 lead over the Yankees in the American League Championship Series and the Nationals win the National League Championship Series, sweeping the Cardinals, 4-0.

NLCS Preview: Wild card Nationals seem to hold the cards against Cardinals

Shawn Plank October 11, 2019

Though the Washington Nationals are the Wild Card team, they seem to hold most of the advantages over the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Championship Series.

The Nationals have more wins and rank higher in Box-Toppers team rankings than the NL Central champion Cardinals. Still, the Cardinals have a Box-Toppers point advantage in starting batting lineups, as the teams begin the best-of-seven games series Friday in St. Louis.

Milwaukee Brewers face Washington Nationals in NL Wild Card Game Tuesday

Shawn Plank October 1, 2019

The Milwaukee Brewers visit the Washington Nationals in the National League one-game Wild Card playoff game Tuesday.

Starting pitchers are:

Brewers—Brandon Woodruff, 7.7 Box-Toppers points, ranked 94th among all players, 40th among NL pitchers.

Nationals—Max Scherzer, 15.4 Box-Toppers points, ranked 15th among all players, ninth among NL pitchers.

Houston Astros finish 2019 with large lead in Box-Toppers team rankings

Shawn Plank September 30, 2019

The Houston Astros finish the 2019 season with a large lead in Box-Toppers team rankings.

The Astros lead the rankings for the 10th straight week, while the Washington Nationals continue to lead National League teams in the rankings and were the hottest team since the last rankings report Sept. 19.

Houston Astros maintain Box-Toppers team rankings lead for ninth straight week

Shawn Plank September 20, 2019

The Houston Astros maintain the lead in Box-Toppers team rankings, leading for the ninth straight week, and are also the hottest team of the past week.

Meanwhile, the Washington Nationals maintain their lead among National League teams in the penultimate (and also next-to-last) weekly team rankings report of the 2019 season. The final team rankings report will be posted after the completion of regular season games Sunday, Sept. 29.

Houston Astros maintain Box-Toppers team rankings for eighth straight week

Shawn Plank September 13, 2019

The Houston Astros maintain the lead in Box-Toppers team rankings, leading for the eighth straight week.

Meanwhile, the Washington Nationals maintain their lead among National League teams and the Milwaukee Brewers are the week’s hottest team.

Trade deadline deals help Astros rocket to huge lead in Box-Toppers team rankings

Shawn Plank August 2, 2019

The Houston Astros rocketed to a huge lead in Box-Toppers team rankings this week, mainly due to acquiring Zack Greinke and other players at the July 31 trade deadline.

The Astros lead for the second week, but last week’s narrow lead has exploded to an enormous lead this week, as they gained the most Box-Toppers points of any team in the past week.

Houston Astros regain lead in Box-Toppers team rankings, passing Dodgers

Shawn Plank July 26, 2019

The Houston Astros rise to regain the lead in Box-Toppers team rankings this week, passing the Los Angeles Dodgers, who had led for the past four weeks.

The Dodgers maintain their lead among National League teams, while the St. Louis Cardinals are the week’s hottest team.

Box-Toppers 2013-18 All-Star teams

Shawn Plank July 18, 2019

The Box-Toppers All-Star teams for 2013-18 consist of the best players over the past six seasons, which includes 11 of the 27 players who are also on Box-Toppers 2017-18 All-Star teams.

Also, among the 27 players on the teams, there are five players who are on Box-Toppers 2018 All-Star teams and four who are on All-Star teams over all three time spans—for 2018, for 2017-18 and for 2013-18.

Dodgers, Red Sox have most players—six–among Box-Toppers’ top 100 for 2019 at All-Star break

Shawn Plank July 9, 2019

The Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox have the most players—six each—among the top 100 in Box-Toppers’ 2019 player rankings at the All-Star break.

The Dodgers also are Box-Toppers’ top-ranked team going into the All-Star break, with its players accumulating 72.6 Box-Toppers points this season. The defending World Series champion Red Sox, while they have as many representatives among the top 100 players, rank lower—in 13th place overall, with 55.9 Box-Toppers points.

Los Angeles Dodgers maintain lead in Box-Toppers team rankings for second week

Shawn Plank June 28, 2019

The Los Angeles Dodgers maintain the lead in Box-Toppers team rankings for the second week.

Meanwhile, the Minnesota Twins pass the Houston Astros to lead American League teams and the Cleveland Indians are the week’s hottest team.

Box-Toppers 2017-18 All-Star teams

Shawn Plank June 19, 2019

The Box-Toppers All-Star teams for 2017-18 consist of the best players at each position in each league over those previous two seasons.

Among the 27 players included on the American and National League teams are 15 who are also on Box-Toppers 2018 All-Star teams (those players are denoted in the chart above with an asterisk).

Box-Toppers picks Yankees over Cubs in 2019 World Series

Shawn Plank March 20, 2019

Box-Toppers picks the New York Yankees to beat the Chicago Cubs in the 2019 World Series.

In addition, Box-Toppers projects the Yankees will win 111 games in 2019, one of four teams projected to win 100 or more games this season. All 2018 American League playoff teams are projected to return to the postseason, while three different teams are forecast for the National League postseason—the Nationals, Phillies and Mets.

Yankees top Box-Toppers 2019 preseason team rankings; champion Red Sox fall to 2nd

Shawn Plank March 10, 2019

The New York Yankees are the top-ranked team in Box-Toppers’ 2019 preseason rankings, rising from second place at the end of the 2018 season.

The 2018 World Series-champion Boston Red Sox fall from first at the end of last season to second place in the 2019 preseason rankings.

Meanwhile, the Cincinnati Reds made the biggest offseason improvement in players’ accumulated Box-Toppers points, while the Arizona Diamondbacks had the biggest decline.

A correction: Rays' Blake Snell leads by wider margin after fixing errors in 2018 Box-Toppers stats

Shawn Plank February 21, 2019

Striving to create a more perfect Box-Toppers, I discovered some errors in player tracking in 2018 and have been correcting them in recent weeks.

There were 10 total errors I discovered that changed the Box-Toppers point totals for 17 different players. Those errors were discovered after re-examining about one-third of the 2,430 games played in the 2018 season. So in other words, after looking at about 830 games, I found 10 errors.

A look at Box-Toppers' top 100 players for 2017-18 and 2013-18

Shawn Plank December 24, 2018

Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer is Box-Toppers’ top-ranked player over both the past two seasons and past six seasons.

Scherzer has the most Box-Toppers points over the past two seasons (50.1 over 2017 and 2018) and the most points over the past six seasons (137.0 from 2013 to 2018).