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The Los Angeles Dodgers are Box-Toppers’ top-ranked team going into 2025 but with player injuries factored in, the New York Mets hold the overall edge.
The current 2025 roster of last year’s World Series champion Dodgers accumulated 118.7 Box-Toppers points in 2024, most of any team. However, with several players injured and expected to miss time in 2025, their injury-adjusted Box-Toppers point total drops to 106.7, fifth among all teams.
Read MoreAstros pitcher Hunter Brown is Friday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Brown struck out nine over seven scoreless innings, allowing five hits and no walks, in the 4-0 win over the Tigers.
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Source: MLB.com.
Both American League Division Series begin Saturday.
The Texas Rangers face the Baltimore Orioles in one best-of-five game series and the Minnesota Twins face the Houston Astros in the other. The top two AL seeds, the Orioles (first) and the Astros (second) received byes from the first round of playoffs and face the winners of the best-of-three Wild Card series played this week.
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Source: MLB.com
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 MorePhillies pitcher Aaron Nola is Friday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Friday, Rangers pitcher Jacob deGrom rises to lead Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning American League Player of the Day honors. Plus, Marlins pitcher Jesus Luzardo rises to eighth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Friday.
Read MorePadres pitcher Dinelson Lamet had the biggest decline in Box-Toppers points from 2020 to 2021.
Lamet, who earned 9.0 Box-Toppers points in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season (fifth among all players and third among National League pitchers), earned 2.0 points in 2021. After a stellar 2020 season, he battled injury early in 2021, struggled and went from a starter to a bullpen pitcher.
Read MoreSelections for Major League Baseball’s 2020 “All-MLB” teams announced this past week rarely coincided with the season’s Box-Toppers points leaders.
Only one All-MLB First Team batter was among the Box-Toppers points leaders at his position—Marcell Ozuna of the Braves led all designated hitters with 4.5 Box-Toppers points. However, three of the four All-MLB First Team starting pitchers were also among the top three players in Box-Toppers points for 2020—Shane Bieber of the Indians (11.4), Trevor Bauer of the Reds (10.0) and Yu Darvish of the Cubs (9.7).
Read MoreOnly three of the 18 batters winning Silver Slugger Awards this week also were among the leaders at their positions in 2020 Box-Toppers point totals.
The awards are given to the top batter in each position in both leagues, voted on by Major League Baseball coaches and managers. Box-Toppers analyzes traditional box scores and tracks which player most helps his team win the most games, awarding points for the top player in each game.
Read MoreA look at Box-Toppers All-Star teams for 2020 seems incomplete. So for added context, Box-Toppers is also looking at the All-Star teams over the past two seasons, 2019-20.
Read MoreAstros pitcher Framber Valdez is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also, Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole rises to 10th place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Tuesday.
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Angels pitcher Dylan Bundy rises to lead Box-Toppers weekly season player rankings report.
Meanwhile, Cubs pitcher Yu Darvish rises to lead National League pitchers, rising to third place overall. Plus, Aaron Judge of the Yankees leads American League batters and Jason Heyward of the Cubs leads NL batters.
Read MoreAngels pitcher Dylan Bundy is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and rises to lead season player rankings.
Also Tuesday, Luke Voit of the Yankees rises to 10th place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors.
Read MoreAthletics pitcher Frankie Montas is Saturday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day, rising to third place in season player rankings.
Also Saturday, Aaron Judge of the Yankees rises to fifth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings and Diamondbacks pitcher Merrill Kelly rises to 10th after both earned Player of the Game honors.
Plus, Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers has now earned Box-Toppers points for 18 straight seasons—tied for the fifth-longest streak since 1995—after earning Player of the Game honors Saturday.
Read MoreIndians pitcher Shane Bieber leads Box-Toppers first weekly player rankings report after two weeks of the 2020 season.
Meanwhile, Cubs pitcher Tyler Chatwood leads National League players and ranks second overall.
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The Chicago Cubs lead Box-Toppers first weekly team rankings report of the 2020 season.
Meanwhile, the Minnesota Twins are the top-ranked American League team and the Oakland Athletics are the hottest team of the past week.
Read MoreMarlins pitcher Pablo Lopez is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Tuesday, Indians pitcher Shane Bieber extends his lead in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors.
Read MoreAthletics pitcher Frankie Montas is Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Monday, three 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 third place, Astros pitcher Gerrit Cole rose to fifth place and Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom rose to sixth place.
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Astros pitcher Justin Verlander maintains the lead in Box-Toppers weekly team rankings report for the 13th straight week.
Meanwhile, all category leaders remain the same as last week: Verlander leads American League pitchers, Josh Hader of the Brewers leads National League pitchers, Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers leads NL batters and Nelson Cruz of the Twins leads AL batters.
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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.
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Astros pitcher Justin Verlander maintains the lead in Box-Toppers weekly team rankings report for the fifth straight week.
Also this week, all four main category leaders maintain their leads from last week: Verlander continues to lead American League pitchers, Brewers pitcher Josh Hader continues to lead National League pitchers, Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers continues to lead NL batters and Joey Gallo of the Rangers continues to lead AL batters.
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.