The Braves who won the 2021 World Series seem very different from the last Braves team that won the World Series in 1995. Comparing how each team fared in Box-Toppers points and rankings in their respective seasons.
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Dodgers’ Max Scherzer is Box-Toppers’ 2021 Player of the Year
Dodgers pitcher Max Scherzer is 2021 Box-Toppers Player of the Year.
Meanwhile Gerrit Cole of the Yankees is Box-Toppers American League Player of the Year, Jose Ramirez of the Indians is Box-Toppers top AL batter and Nick Castellanos of the Reds is Box-Toppers top National League batter.
Read MoreAthletics’ Montas tops players for Sunday, Sept. 19; Indians’ Ramirez rises to lead AL batter rankings
Athletics pitcher Frankie Montas is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Sunday, Jose Ramirez of the Indians rises to first place among American League batters after earning AL Batter of the Day honors, passing previous leader J.D. Martinez of the Red Sox.
Read MoreDodgers’ Scherzer tops players for Saturday, Sept. 18, extending lead in season player rankings
Dodgers pitcher Max Scherzer is Saturday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day, extending his lead in season player rankings and becoming the first player to reach 25 Box-Toppers points this season.
Scherzer struck out seven over seven scoreless innings, allowing two hits and two walks, in the 5-1 win over the Reds.
Read MoreBlue Jays’ Manoah tops players for Monday, Sept. 13; Marlins’ Alcantara tops NL players
Blue Jays pitcher Alek Manoah is Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Manoah struck out 10 over eight scoreless innings, allowing one hit and no walks, in the 8-1 win over the Rays.
Read MoreDodgers’ Scherzer tops players for Monday, Sept. 6, extends player rankings lead among NL pitchers
Dodgers pitcher Max Scherzer is Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day, extending his lead among National League pitchers in 2021 Box-Toppers points.
Also Monday, Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler rises to third place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors. Wheeler rises to second place among NL pitchers behind Scherzer.
Read MoreA look at Clayton Kershaw’s rise to 2nd place on Box-Toppers ‘all-time’ career points list
Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw now has the second-most career Box-Toppers points since player tracking began in 1995.
Kershaw rose into second place on the “all-time” career points list Sunday with 246.6 points, passing Pedro Martinez (244.8), who held the second-place spot for more than 22 years.
Read MoreDodgers’ Kershaw tops players for Sunday, June 27, rises to 2nd on ‘all-time’ career points list
Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day, rising to second place on Box-Toppers’ “all-time” career points list, passing Pedro Martinez, who had continuously held second place for 22 years.
Kershaw also rises to sixth place in 2021’s Box-Toppers season player rankings. Plus, three other players in Box-Toppers season player rankings top 10 earned Player of the Game honors Sunday—Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler, who ranks fifth, Padres pitcher Yu Darvish, who rises to seventh and Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer, who rises to eighth.
Read MoreHow 2021 Hall of Fame candidates fared in Box-Toppers
No players were voted for induction to the National Baseball Hall of Fame Tuesday.
None of the 25 players eligible received the necessary 75 percent of the vote from members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Pitcher Curt Schilling came the closest to reaching 75 percent—he received 71.1 percent of the vote, falling 16 votes short.
Read MoreAn overview of Box-Toppers category leaders over several time frames after 2020
Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole holds the lead in three of Box-Toppers’ main leaderboards at the end of 2020, most of any player.
Cole leads all players in Box-Toppers points over the past two seasons (2019-2020) and also leads American League pitchers over the past two seasons and past six seasons (2015-2020). Cole has 39.6 Box-Toppers points over 2019-20 and 90.1 over 2015-20.
Read MoreA look at Box-Toppers season-by-season AL & NL pitching & batting leaders, 1995-2020
Analyzing 26 years of Box-Toppers points leaders among American League and National League pitchers and batters each season.
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A look at Box-Toppers' ‘all-time' top 10 lists—top overall players, top pitchers, top batters—since tracking began in 1995
After massive reshuffling during the 2019 season, Box-Toppers’ “all-time” career points top 10 list remained unchanged during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
There were also few changes among the top 10 pitchers and top 10 batters in career Box-Toppers points. Cubs pitcher Jon Lester rises to ninth place among all pitchers in career points since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began, with 176.3. Lester had ranked 11th among pitchers at the end of 2019 with 172.6.
Read MoreA look at Box-Toppers top 100 players of ‘all-time’ after the 2020 season
Randy Johnson leads all players in career Box-Toppers points and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
Johnson earned 282.5 Box-Toppers points from the time Box-Toppers record keeping began in 1995 until he retired in 2009. The most likely rival to Johnson’s throne at the moment is Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw who has 235.2 career Box-Toppers points, third among all players since 1995 and most among active players.
Read MoreBox-Toppers’ big dippers—players whose 2020 point total declined most from 2019: Justin Verlander leads list
Astros pitcher Justin Verlander had the biggest decline in Box-Toppers points from 2019 to 2020.
Verlander, who earned 27.5 Box-Toppers points in 2019 (second among all players), earned 1.0 point in 2020. His decline of 26.5 points was ahead of Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole, whose 7.4 points in 2020 represented a 24.8-point drop from the 32.2 points he earned to lead all players in 2019.
Read MoreBox-Toppers selects seven players for 2021 Hall of Fame induction in internet writers’ ballot
Box-Toppers is voting for seven players to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) ballot—Todd Helton, Tim Hudson, Torii Hunter, Jeff Kent, Aramis Ramirez, Curt Schilling and Billy Wagner.
Read MoreYankees’ J.A. Happ tops players for Saturday, Sept. 19; Kershaw, Burnes rise into player rankings top 10
Yankees pitcher J.A. Happ is Saturday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Saturday, two players rise into Box-Toppers season player rankings top 10 list after both earn Player of the Game honors—Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw rises to seventh place and Brewers pitcher Corbin Burnes rises to ninth place.
Read MorePadres’ Manny Machado tops players in unusual slate of games for Thursday, Aug. 27
Thursday was an unusual day in an unusual baseball season in an unusual year.
Only eight games were played and none of them lasted nine innings. All were part of pandemic-shortened, seven-inning doubleheaders and one went into “extra” innings, lasting eight innings.
It was a day in which seven games were postponed as teams protested for social justice in the wake of the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis.
Read MoreWhat would 2019 have looked like if only the final 60 games of season were played?
What would the 2019 baseball season have looked like if only the final 60 games were played?
In many ways, it would have looked exactly like the entire, overall 2019 season: From about July 25 on in 2019, the Houston Astros were Box-Toppers’ top-ranked team and Astros pitcher Gerrit Cole was Box-Toppers’ top-ranked player. Both also led for the overall 2019 season.
Read MoreRangers’ Lynn tops players for Friday, Aug. 14, rises to 3rd in player rankings; Gray, Kelly, Cole also rise in top 10
Rangers pitcher Lance Lynn is Friday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day, rising to third place in season player rankings.
Also Friday, three other players rose in Box-Toppers season player rankings top 10 list after each earned Player of the Game honors—Reds pitcher Sonny Gray rose to fourth, Diamondbacks pitcher Merrill Kelly rose to eighth and Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole rose to 10th.
Read MorePlay ball? Trouble with COVID's curve: Do we even deserve baseball in 2020?
To 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.
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