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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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During the 2022 season, Justin Verlander rose from sixth to fifth place on Box-Toppers “all-time” career points top 10 list.
It was the only player movement among Box-Toppers “all-time” career points top 10 players overall, among the top 10 pitchers and among the top 10 batters. Retired pitcher Randy Johnson still leads all players in career Box-Toppers points with 282.5 (tracking began in 1995).
Read MoreMets pitcher Max Scherzer leads players in Box-Toppers points since the start of 2017.
Scherzer has 104.6 Box-Toppers points over the period 2017-2022, 2.2 points ahead of second-ranked player Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole, who has 102.4 points over that span.
Read MoreAngels pitcher Shohei Ohtani has more Box-Toppers points over the past two seasons than any other player.
Ohtani has earned 40.8 Box-Toppers points over 2021 and 2022. He ranked second among all players in 2021 with 24.7 Box-Toppers points and 12th among all players in 2021 with 16.1 points. Ohtani ranked second among American League pitchers in 2022 and third among AL pitchers in 2021.
Read MoreMets pitcher Max Scherzer had the biggest decline in Box-Toppers points from 2021 to 2022.
Scherzer led all players in 2021 with 25.1 Box-Toppers points when he was with the Nationals and Dodgers. Scherzer earned 10.0 Box-Toppers points in 2022. While that was still 24th among National League pitchers, it was a 15.1-point decline from 2021, the biggest among all players.
Read MoreHere is a detailed look at Box-Toppers point leaders for 2022.
The chart accompanying this post shows points leaders for the season by several different categories and classifications.
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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 MoreAstros pitcher Justin Verlander is the clear-cut choice for Comeback Player of the Year in the American League, but three different National League players have won 2022 comeback awards, none of whom were among Box-Toppers’ top NL resurgent players.
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 MoreThe two pitchers who led their league in Box-Toppers points in 2022 also won both Cy Young Awards Wednesday.
Justin Verlander of the Astros, who led all players in 2022 with 26.0 Box-Toppers points, won the American League Cy Young Award. And Sandy Alcantara of the Marlins, who led all National League players with 21.1 Box-Toppers points, won the NL Cy Young Award.
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 MoreThe Box-Toppers All-Star teams for the 2022 regular season are led by overall Box-Toppers points leader, Astros pitcher Justin Verlander.
The American League and National League All-Star teams are composed of the players with the highest Box-Toppers point totals by position in each league.
Read MoreAstros closing pitcher Ryan Pressly is Box-Toppers Player of the Game in Thursday’s World Series Game 5.
The Houston Astros win 3-2 to take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven game series, which resumes Saturday with Game 6 in Houston.
Read MoreAstros pitcher Cristian Javier is Box-Toppers Player of the Game in Wednesday’s World Series Game 4.
Javier led a group of four Houston Astros pitchers in a combined no-hitter—the second in World Series history after Don Larsen’s 1956 perfect game—winning 5-0 over the Philadelphia Phillies to tie the best-of-seven game series at 2-2.
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.