The Wild Card round of Major League Baseball’s postseason begins Tuesday with four best-of-three series.
Here is a Box-Toppers look at the eight teams competing in the four Wild Card round series.
Read MoreSource: MLB.com
Rangers finish atop Box-Toppers team rankings despite only earning Wild Card spot
The Texas Rangers finish 2023 atop Box-Toppers team rankings even though they only qualified for the postseason as the second-seeded American League Wild Card team.
Meanwhile, the Atlanta Braves maintain their lead among National League teams, finishing second overall. Plus, the San Diego Padres, who fell out of playoff contention, finish the season as the hottest team over the final days of the season.
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Rangers persist, leading Box-Toppers team rankings despite uncertain playoff spot
It doesn’t seem possible or correct, but the Texas Rangers persist in leading Box-Toppers team rankings for the eighth straight week.
Teams that could challenge the Rangers for top spot in rankings simply have not been gaining ground on the team that is struggling to cling to a final American League Wild Card playoff spot.
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Texas Rangers spot atop Box-Toppers team rankings seems to be a mirage
The Texas Rangers maintain the lead in Box-Toppers team rankings, slightly improving their position from last week, but the top ranking continues to seem undeserved.
Meanwhile, the Atlanta Braves continue to lead all National League teams and the Milwaukee Brewers are the week’s hottest team.
Read MorePadres’ Snell tops players for Wednesday, Sept. 13; Strider takes player rankings lead
Padres pitcher Blake Snell is Wednesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Wednesday, Braves pitcher Spencer Strider rises to lead Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors. Strider passes Shohei Ohtani of the Angels, who has led rankings every day but one for the past three months.
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Rangers still lead Box-Toppers team rankings, though currently outside playoff picture
The Texas Rangers still lead Box-Toppers team rankings this week, despite falling outside the dozen teams that would currently qualify for a playoff spot.
Meanwhile, the Atlanta Braves continue to gain on the Rangers, leading all National League teams. Plus, the Chicago Cubs are the week’s hottest team.
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Rangers still lead Box-Toppers team rankings despite falling to 3rd in AL West
The Texas Rangers still hold a narrowing lead in Box-Toppers team rankings this week, despite a terrible two-week stretch that has them falling to third place in the American League West Division.
Meanwhile, the Atlanta Braves continue to gain on the Rangers, leading all National League teams. Plus, the Cincinnati Reds, in part on the strength of waiver deadline acquisitions, are the week’s hottest team.
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Rangers, boosted by trade deadline deals, rise to lead Box-Toppers team rankings
The Texas Rangers, largely on the strength of their trade deadline pitcher acquisitions, rise to lead this week’s Box-Toppers season team rankings.
The Rangers gained the most Box-Toppers points by far of any team in the past week (21.1) thanks mostly to acquiring Max Scherzer (10.4 points) from the Mets and Jordan Montgomery (6.7 points) from the Cardinals.
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Rays, Rangers have most players on Box-Toppers’ top 100 midseason player list
The Tampa Bay Rays and the Texas Rangers have the most players among the top 100 in Box-Toppers’ 2023 player rankings at the All-Star break.
Both the Rays and Rangers have seven players on the top 100 list (which actually consists of 102 players because of a tie for 100th place). Both American League teams are also among the top three in Box-Toppers team rankings at the All-Star break—the Rays rank first and the Rangers rank third, second among AL teams.
Read MoreBox-Toppers picks Mets over Yankees in 2023 World Series
Box-Toppers picks the New York Mets to win the 2023 World Series, beating the predicted American League champion New York Yankees.
Box-Toppers projects the Mets will have the most wins among all teams—104—and will be one of three teams with more than 100 wins, along with the Yankees and the San Diego Padres.
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Mets lead 2023 Box-Toppers preseason team rankings; Yankees top AL teams
The New York Mets are the top-ranked team in Box-Toppers’ 2023 preseason rankings.
Meanwhile, the Texas Rangers made the biggest offseason improvement in players’ accumulated Box-Toppers points, while the World Series champion Houston Astros saw the biggest decline.
Read MoreA look at Box-Toppers’ top 100 players for 2021-22 and 2017-22
Angels pitcher Shohei Ohtani 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.
Ohtani earned 40.8 Box-Toppers points combined in 2021 and 2022 to lead all players in that span, while Scherzer earned 104.6 from 2017-2022, most in that span.
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A look at Box-Toppers’ top 100 players for 2022
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 MoreA look at Box-Toppers season-by-season AL & NL pitching & batting leaders, 1995-2022
In 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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Yankees, Mets lead Box-Toppers offseason team rankings, landing biggest free agents
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 MoreValdez tops players as Astros win World Series over Phillies in sixth game Saturday
Astros pitcher Framber Valdez is Box-Toppers Player of the Game in Saturday’s World Series Game 6.
The Houston Astros beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-1 to win the best-of-seven game World Series, 4-2.
Read MoreBox-Toppers 2022 year-end All-Star teams
The 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 MoreRyan Pressly tops players in Thursday’s World Series Game 5, Astros take 3-2 series lead
Astros 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’ Javier tops players in World Series Game 4, in a combined no-hitter, to tie series
Astros 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 MoreRanger Suarez tops players in World Series Game 3, as Phillies take a 2-1 series lead
Phillies pitcher Ranger Suarez is Box-Toppers Player of the Game in Tuesday’s World Series Game 3.
The Philadelphia Phillies win 7-0 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven game series. Suarez struck out four over five scoreless innings, allowing three hits and one walk.
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