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Yankees pitcher Carlos Rodon and Mets closing pitcher Edwin Diaz are Box-Toppers Player of the Game winners in Monday’s two League Championship Series games.
The Yankees take a 1-0 lead over the Guardians in the American League, while in the National League, the Mets tie the series with the Dodgers, 1-1.
Read MoreBox-Toppers favors the surging New York Mets in the National League Championship Series over the injury-depleted Los Angeles Dodgers.
While the Dodgers are the NL’s highest seed in the postseason and while they feature Shohei Ohtani, the NL Box-Toppers points leader among batters, their starting pitching lineup, once considered their greatest asset, has become threadbare this postseason due to numerous injuries.
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Source: MLB.com
Both National League Division Series begin Saturday.
The San Diego Padres face the Los Angeles Dodgers in one best-of-five game series and the New York Mets face the Philadelphia Phillies in the other. The top two NL seeds, the Dodgers (first) and the Phillies (second) received byes from the first round of playoffs and face the winners of the best-of-three Wild Card series played this week.
Read MoreGiants pitcher Blake Snell is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day, rising to seventh place in season player rankings.
Also Sunday, Cubs pitcher Shota Imanaga becomes the third player to reach 20 Box-Toppers points in 2024 after earning Player of the Game honors, maintaining third place in season player rankings.
Read MoreYankees pitcher Carlos Rodon is Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Monday, Pirates relief pitcher Aroldis Chapman earned Box-Toppers points in his 15th consecutive season after earning Player of the Game honors.
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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.
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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.
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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 MoreEdwin Diaz of the Mets and Emmanuel Clase of the Guardians were named 2022 Relievers of the Year by Major League Baseball Tuesday.
Diaz, the winner in the National League, ranked second among all NL closing pitchers with 7.0 Box-Toppers points. But Clase, winner in the American League, ranked far outside the top three AL closers—in 24th place—with 2.0 Box-Toppers points.
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.
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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 MoreBox-Toppers has cast votes for postseason honors for Gerrit Cole, Jose Ramirez and for Max Scherzer—twice.
I have cast my vote in the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) for Dodgers pitcher Scherzer to be both National League Cy Young Award winner and NL Most Valuable Player.
Read MoreAngels pitcher Shohei Ohtani is Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Ohtani struck out five over seven innings, allowing one run, five hits and no walks, in the 6-2 win over the Rockies.
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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.
Read MoreJosh Hader of the Brewers and Edwin Diaz of the Mariners are winners of this year’s reliever of the year awards as voted on by the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA).
Hader wins the 2018 IBWAA Hoyt Wilhelm National League Relief Pitcher of the Year Award and Diaz is selected as the 2018 IBWAA Rollie Fingers American League Relief Pitcher of the Year. The awards were announced Sunday.
Read MoreAngels pitcher Andrew Heaney is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Heaney struck out 12 over seven scoreless innings, allowing three hits and no walks, in the 1-0 win over the White Sox.
Read MoreThe 2018 All-Star Game is an almost perfect example of why Box-Toppers is an antidote to shortsighted baseball thinking.
Two players were honored in the game—one who earned the game’s Most Valuable Player award and the other who earned the win. But Box-Toppers metrics say neither of those players really deserve the honors.
Read MoreJean Segura of the Mariners is Box-Toppers 2018 All-Star Player of the Game.
Segura hit a go-ahead, eighth-inning, three-run, pinch-hit homer, in the American League’s 8-6, 10-inning win over the National League. Segura went 2-for-2, scoring twice and driving in three runs.
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.