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Four players—Mariano Rivera, Roy Halladay, Edgar Martinez and Mike Mussina—were elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame Tuesday.
The three pitchers selected—Rivera, Halladay and Mussina—are among the top 40 players in career Box-Toppers points (tracking began in 1995). Martinez ranks ninth among designated hitters in career Box-Toppers points since 1995, but he started his career in 1987, before the advent of Box-Toppers tracking.
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BOX-TOPPERS EXTRA
Andrew McCutchen may be selected as National League’s Most Valuable Player, but only ranks 18th among NL batters in Box-Toppers points. Mike Trout may be voted American League MVP but ranks seventh among AL batters in Box-Toppers points.
| Player | Team | BTP | Rank | Honors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Derek Jeter | Yankees | 0.0 | 996 | |
| Yasiel Puig | Dodgers | 1.0 | 593 | |
| Andrew McCutchen | Pirates | 6.5 | 137 | |
| Mike Trout | Angels | 8.5 | 78 | |
| Troy Tulowitzki | Rockies | 11.6 | 39 | 1st NL batter |
| Jose Abreu | White Sox | 15.5 | 14 | 1st AL batter |
| Corey Kluber | Indians | 25.8 | 2 | 1st AL pitcher |
| Clayton Kershaw | Dodgers | 31.5 | 1 | 1st NL pitcher |
Meanwhile, unexpected players—Jose Abreu and Troy Tulowitzki—who may have no chance at even being considered for postseason honors, are among Box-Toppers points leaders.
Why?
Why do some unexpected players excel in Box-Toppers points? And why do some star players seem to lag behind with fewer Box-Toppers points?
This season, Box-Toppers set to demonstrate why by focusing on a limited number of players and their daily performances. These watched players—featured in Box-Toppers Facebook posts and specially hashtagged Box-Toppers Twitter posts—showed when a player was deserving of earning Box-Toppers points or showed how other players in their game beat them out for points.
Box-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 1.0 Box-Toppers point 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.
At the end of the season, Box-Toppers was watching eight players—four of them lead key Box-Toppers categories (NL and AL pitching and batting) and four others are players who often do not score well in Box-Toppers points but who are frequently highly touted, considered for postseason honors and are considered to be stars.
Here is a look at the eight players (including the Twitter hashtag (#) used in daily “watched” posts):
Jeter, 40, is surely a future Hall-of-Famer, but in 145 games, he did not earn Player of the Game honors in any of the Yankees wins in his retirement season.
Box-Toppers watched him this season because he announced his retirement prior to the season and we thought it would be interesting to see how he fared in his last year. But Box-Toppers also watched him because he tended not to score as highly in Box-Toppers as his reputation as a star would indicate.
In his career, he scored 76.4 career Box-Toppers points and ranks 127th among all players. To give some perspective, he trails DH Travis Hafner (in 123rd place with 76.9 points), who is not exactly on the glidepath to Cooperstown that Jeter is.
But to be fair, Jeter ranks second among all shortstops all-time, trailing Miguel Tejada (102.3 Box-Toppers points). The shortstop position is generally not called upon for the offensive numbers required to win Player of the Game honors and earn Box-Toppers points.
Jeter’s Box-Toppers points total have also likely been impacted over the years because of the caliber of the talent on his own team—players like Roger Clemens, CC Sabathia, Jason Giambi, who have been his teammates, have more career Box-Toppers points than Jeter and likely beat him out on occasion for Player of the Game honors.
For example, Jeter did not even earn Player of the Game honors in his final game at Yankee Stadium Sept. 25. While Jeter drove in the winning run on a dramatic, walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth (and was 2-for-5 with a run and three RBIs), he was beat out for Player of the Game by pitcher Hiroki Kuroda, who struck out nine over eight innings in the win over the Orioles.
Also, Jeter’s star power does not come from putting together performances that frequently make him Player of the Game. It often comes from anecdotal (but real) flashes of brilliance that make the highlight reel, that do contribute to the win, that wows the fans to the point of deserved admiration, but do not translate well to the scorecard, the box score—or to Box-Toppers points.
Box-Toppers watched Puig this year because of the buzz he created. True, he led the NL in on-base percentage and had the NL’s eighth-best batting average—but he only once was Dodger’s top player in a win, on May 12. He has only earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors twice in his career and has only 2.5 career Box-Toppers points in two seasons.
Is Puig overrated and not living up to the hype, at least in terms of helping the Dodgers win games? Or is Puig perhaps overshadowed by other players on his team who contributed more to Dodgers wins, especially pitcher Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke, who were among the overall Box-Toppers points leaders?
A leader in new-fangled baseball statistics, such as Wins Above Replacement and on-base plus slugging, the 2013 NL MVP is touted by many to repeat the feat in 2014.
But in 2013, he finished 22nd among NL batters in Box-Toppers points with 6.0. This year, he is slightly improved, with 6.5 points—18th among NL batters. According to Box-Toppers, he is not the NL batter who most helped his team win the most games. In fact, he is not even the top Pirates batter, an honor that goes to Neil Walker (7.0 Box-Toppers points).
Another sabermetrician favorite and leader in wins above replacement, Trout actually had a decent season Box-Toppers-wise—just not among the top five of AL batters.
Trout was watched this season because he has been touted as an MVP candidate for two seasons, finishing behind Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers both times. With Cabrera ostensibly out of the limelight since he is not having another Triple Crown season, the door has been opened for Trout to finally claim MVP this year. However, it should be noted that Cabrera has 12.5 Box-Toppers points this season, in second among AL batters and ahead of Trout.
But ahead of both Trout and Cabrera in Box-Toppers points is rookie Jose Abreu of the White Sox with 15.5 points.
In 2013, Trout had only 3.5 Box-Toppers points and yet finished second in AL MVP voting. This year is his second-best ever (he had 11.0 points in 2012) and he is the leading batter among Angels players in Box-Toppers points, third-best among all Angels players.
Rookie Jose Abreu has been a Box-Toppers watched player since he assumed the lead among AL batters in June. He hit 36 home runs and led the AL in slugging percentage (.581) and handily won Box-Toppers AL Batter of the Year honors—Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers finished second with 12.5 Box-Toppers points.
Abreu should win AL Rookie of the Year honors. But despite his performance, it is unclear whether he is even being taken seriously as a candidate for AL MVP.
Tulowitzki played only 91 games this season—he last played July 19 and was out with injury and hip surgery after that. No one in their right mind would consider that anyone who missed nearly half the season should be considered as NL MVP.
And yet, according to Box-Toppers, no other NL batter playing an entire season even came close the the 11.6 Box-Toppers points Tulowitzki earned in his short time. Second-place Buster Posey of the Giants had 8.5.
Early in the season, Tulowitzki was the rare batter among Box-Toppers top 10 overall players. But even as he fell down to 39th among all players, he never fell from first among NL batters in Box-Toppers points.
It could be argued that NL batters were so lackluster and so overshadowed by NL pitchers in 2014 that no batter should win MVP and the honor should go instead to Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw. More on him in a second.
Kluber came on late to take the AL pitching lead from Max Scherzer of the Tigers (22.1 Box-Toppers points, second among AL pitchers).
Kluber became one of only 11 players in Box-Toppers’ 20 years of record keeping to reach 25 Box-Toppers points in a season.
Kershaw’s season was dominant. Despite missing six weeks with injury at the start of the season, Kershaw racked up the fourth-best single-season Box-Toppers point total in 20 years.
It was a year so dominant in a year in an overall down year for NL batters, Kershaw is being touted for the NL MVP.
One in a series
Box-Toppers’ Stick-A-Fork-In-Them series looks at 14 players whose careers are done or may be done. Included is a look at how they have fared in Box-Toppers points over their careers, reflecting their impact on the game over time. This is the sixth of the series:
Derek Jeter said this week he will retire at the end of the 2014 season, ending a 20-year career at the age of 40.
Jeter, who has 76.4 career Box-Toppers points, ranks second among all shortstops (Box-Toppers record keeping began when he made his Major League debut in 1995), 60th among all batters and 121st among all players. He finished among the top 10 American League batters only once (1998) and finished as high as second place in AL Most Valuable Player award voting once (2006).
| Year | Team | BTP | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | nyy al | 0.0 | |
| 1996 | nyy al | 4.5 | RoY-1 |
| 1997 | nyy al | 2.0 | MVP-24 |
| 1998 | nyy al | 10.0 | AS, BTP-51, BTP-AL bat-9, MVP-3 |
| 1999 | nyy al | 2.0 | AS, BTP-409, MVP-3 |
| 2000 | nyy al | 2.5 | AS, BTP-400, MVP-6 |
| 2001 | nyy al | 5.0 | AS, BTP-200, MVP-10 |
| 2002 | nyy al | 5.0 | AS |
| 2003 | nyy al | 2.5 | MVP-21 |
| 2004 | nyy al | 8.7 | AS, BTP-68, BTP-AL bat-16, MVP-3 |
| 2005 | nyy al | 4.0 | BTP-238, MVP-10 |
| 2006 | nyy al | 6.7 | AS, BTP-135, MVP-2 |
| 2007 | nyy al | 7.0 | AS, BTP-112, BTP-AL bat-29, MVP-11 |
| 2008 | nyy al | 3.0 | AS |
| 2009 | nyy al | 1.0 | AS, BTP-571, MVP-3 |
| 2010 | nyy al | 5.0 | AS |
| 2011 | nyy al | 4.5 | AS |
| 2012 | nyy al | 3.0 | AS, BTP-319, MVP-7 |
| 2013 | nyy al | 0.0 | |
| Total | 76.4 | BTP-121, BTP-bat-60 |
AS All-star selection
BTP Finish among all players in Box-Toppers points
BTP-AL bat Finish among all AL batters in BTP
MVP Finish in league Most Valuable Player Award voting
RoY Rookie of the Year
Source: Information for player awards comes from Baseball-Reference.com
Jeter, of course, has spent his entire career with the New York Yankees—so far. (This season has yet to play out, so there’s always the chance Jeter will be dealt to the Astros—or the Red Sox … OK, probably not.)
Miguel Tejada is the only shortstop with more career Box-Toppers points than Jeter. Tejada, currently a free agent who has played primarily for the Athletics and the Orioles, has 102.3 points. Jeter is just ahead of the third-place shortstop on the “all-time” list—Nomar Garciaparra has 74.9 Box-Toppers points.
Jeter’s Box-Toppers point totals seem a little low given his longevity, his profile and his accomplishments—five-time World Series champion, 2000 World Series MVP, 1996 AL Rookie of the Year, membership in the 3,000-hit club (he has 3,316 at present) and Yankees team captain since 2003. Plus, his seasonal point totals are lower than expected given his general Jeterian-ness—he has only one season with 10.0 Box-Toppers points.
Why doesn’t he have more Box-Toppers points? A couple of reasons: Box-Toppers tends to favor players with fat batting lines—lots of hits, runs and runs batted in. No doubt, Jeter has a lot of hits, but because he has hit early in the line-up and because he doesn't necessarily hit for power, he does not rack up RBIs as quickly as some. (For example, Jeter has 1,261 career RBIs over 19 seasons. Just behind him on the all-time RBI list is Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers, who has nearly as many RBIs as Jeter in just over half the time—1,260 RBIs over 11 seasons.)
Plus, Box-Toppers awards only one player for each game—the one who most contributes to his team’s win. Jeter has had a lot of competition for Player of the Game in a Yankees’ lineup stocked with All-Stars. He played on a team that had a lot of power hitters—Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi and Bernie Williams, for example. Those players were more likely to drive in runs, which drove the Box-Toppers formula to give them Player of the Game honors more often and thus, earn more Box-Toppers points.
He also competed for points against some of the all-time great pitchers on his team—Roger Clemens, CC Sabathia, Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera. With so much talent around him, competition for Box-Toppers points (though they probably had no idea they were competing for Box-Toppers points!) was fierce.
Shortstops also generally don't receive as many Box-Toppers points because they are hired mainly for their fielding—which Box-Toppers ignores—and not for their bat. That all supposedly changed in the 1980s when Cal Ripken Jr. of the Orioles brought power hitting to the shortstop position (Box-Toppers tracking didn't begin until the end of Ripken's career, but he did record 26.9 Box-Toppers points from 1995 to 2001.) In the 1990s, three phenom players ran with Ripken's shortstops-that-can-really-hit model—Jeter, Nomar Garciaparra, then of the Red Sox and Alex Rodriguez, then of the Mariners.
Garciaparra, as previously mentioned, accumulated 74.9 Box-Toppers points from 1996 to 2009 (though late in his career, he played first and third base). Rodriguez played shortstop for his first eight seasons with the Mariners and the Rangers, racking up 87.5 Box-Toppers points over that time, which is more than the 76.4 Jeter has over 19 seasons. Rodriguez switched to third base in deference to Jeter when he signed with the Yankees in 2004 and has accumulated 91.8 more Box-Toppers points over those 10 seasons, giving him 179.3 for his career. But the most successful shortstop of the Box-Toppers era (since 1995) is none of those three, but Miguel Tejada, with 102.3 points (a few of the points earned while playing third base and designated hitter).
On Box-Toppers all-time batting ranks, Jeter ranks 60th, just behind these five players—John Olerud (77.8), Shawn Green (77.6), Edgar Martinez (77.5), Mark McGwire (77.3) and Travis Hafner (76.9). He is just ahead of these five players—Pat Burrell (76.0), Jermaine Dye (76.0), Vernon Wells (75.8), Luis Gonzalez (75.3) and Garciaparra (74.9).
Jeter scored at least one Box-Toppers point in 17 straight seasons, from 1996 until 2012. He did not score any points in his injury-shortened 2013 season, ending the streak. Some other career highlights for Jeter:
• In 1998, he had 10.0 Box-Toppers points, the most he had in any season. He finished ninth among all AL batters and 51st among all players in Box-Toppers points, both rankings were his highest for a season. He finished third in AL MVP voting. (The winner, Juan Gonzalez of the Rangers, had 16.3 Box-Toppers points, second among AL batters to Albert Belle of the White Sox with 16.4.)
• In 1999, he had only 2.0 Box-Toppers points, but finished third in AL MVP voting.
• In 2004, he had 8.7 Box-Toppers points and was again third in AL MVP voting. (Vladimir Guerrero of the Angels was voted MVP. He had 14.4 Box-Toppers points, fifth among all AL players.)
• In 2006, he had 6.7 Box-Toppers points and was second in AL MVP voting, his highest finish. (Justin Morneau of the Twins was voted MVP—he had 12.2 Box-Toppers points, seventh among all AL batters.)
• In 2007, he had 7.0 Box-Toppers points and was 11th in AL MVP voting.
• In 2009, he had only 1.0 Box-Toppers point and was ranked 571st among all players in Box-Toppers season rankings. Yet, he still finished third in AL MVP voting.
Jeter’s Box-Toppers numbers often don’t correlate well with baseball writers voting for MVP, especially in years like 2009, when Jeter had but 1.0 Box-Toppers point, yet finished third in MVP voting. Again, Jeter’s point totals may have been kept low because he has not been a power hitter and has competed with an all-star Yankee line-up for points. But Jeter’s play was often spectacular, flipping impossible relays, diving into stands for a foul ball, hitting dramatic World Series-game winning homers. It’s hard to ignore that, but unless it shows up in a box score batting line during a regular season game, Box-Toppers does, indeed, ignore it. Plus, Jeter had the squishy intangibles working in his favor—he was a clubhouse leader, a heckuva guy writers liked and fans admired. Box-Toppers really doesn’t pay attention to that either. It also doesn’t hurt that Jeter is playing in New York and able to attract a lot of attention. But Box-Toppers doesn’t award bonus points for performing well in the media hub of the world.
Box-Toppers is another metric through which players can be compared. Jeter has done well in Box-Toppers points, not so much as a dominant player season-by-season, but more for his long-term legacy and for what he has accomplished over a two-decade career.
Box-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.
Previously in the series: Alex Rodriguez, Roy Halladay, Manny Ramirez, Johan Santana, Jim Thome
Braves pitcher Paul Maholm is Monday's Player of the Day. Maholm pitched seven innings, striking out seven and allowing one hit, no runs and three walks in the 2-0 win over the Marlins.
Red Sox pitcher Clay Buchholz is American League Player of the Day. Buchholz threw seven shutout innings and struck out eight in the 3-1 win over the Orioles.
Travis Hafner of the Yankees is American League Batter of the Day. Hafner hit a three-run homer and went 2-for-3 in the 11-6 win over the Indians.
Jay Bruce of the Reds is National League Batter of the Day. Bruce went 4-for-5 in the 13-4 win over the Cardinals.
Maholm receives two Box-Toppers points for being named Player of the Day. Buchholz receives 1.7 for AL Player of the Day. Hafner receives 1.5 points for AL Batter of the Day. Bruce receives 1.5 points for NL Batter of the Day.
All of Monday's other Players of the Game (listed in the chart below) receive one Box-Toppers point:
| 408 | Score | Team | BATTERS | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | - | - | PITCHERS | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MLB | 10.0 | Braves | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Paul Maholm (W, 2-0) | 7.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 | ||
| 9.0 | Mets | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Matt Harvey (W, 2-0) | 7.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 9 | |||
| AL | 8.0 | Red Sox | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Clay Buchholz (W, 2-0) | 7.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 8 | ||
| BAT | 6.0 | Yankees | Travis Hafner DH | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 5.0 | `Pirates | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Justin Wilson | 3.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |||
| 4.1 | Mariners | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Joe Saunders (W, 1-1) | 6.1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | |||
| 4.0 | Royals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Ervin Santana (W, 1-1) | 8.0 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | |||
| 3.1 | `Giants | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Santiago Casilla (H, 1) | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |||
| 3.0 | Brewers | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Marco Estrada (W, 1-0) | 7.0 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 6 | |||
| BAT | 2.0 | Reds | Jay Bruce RF | 5 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 2.0 | Rangers | Mitch Moreland 1B | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Box-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.