The Colorado Rockies visit the Chicago Cubs in the National League one-game Wild Card playoff game Tuesday.
Starting pitchers are:
Rockies—Kyle Freeland, 12.4 Box-Toppers points, ranked 30th among all players, 13th among NL pitchers.
Cubs—Jon Lester, 10.7 Box-Toppers points, ranked 40th among all players, 20th among NL pitchers.
The Rockies rank 13th in overall Box-Toppers team rankings with its players accumulating 106.0 Box-Toppers points in 2018, seventh among NL teams and lowest among all 10 teams qualifying for the postseason. They rank below three teams that did not qualify for the postseason—the St. Louis Cardinals (ranked 10th with 110.2 points), the Arizona Diamondbacks (ranked 11th with 109.1) and the Seattle Mariners (ranked 12th with 108.0).
The Cubs rank seventh in overall Box-Toppers team rankings with its players accumulating 122.5 Box-Toppers points in 2018, third among NL teams.
The Rockies finished the season slightly better than the Cubs, picking up 9.0 Box-Toppers points since Sept. 20. The Cubs picked up 7.0 points in that span.
The highest-ranking player on either team is Rockies pitcher German Marquez (14.7 Box-Toppers points, ranked 17th among all players, sixth among NL pitchers) who started Monday’s NL tiebreaker game loss against the Los Angeles Dodgers to determine NL West champion. Marquez picked up the loss in that game (4.2IP 5H 4R 2ER 2BB 9K L).
Rockies top batter is Nolan Arenado (5.0 Box-Toppers points), who ranks 180th among all players, 31st among NL batters.
The highest-ranking player on the Cubs is pitcher Cole Hamels (11.1 Box-Toppers points, ranked 37th among all players and 18th among NL pitchers). Hamels last appeared Saturday, Sept. 29, picking up the loss against the Cardinals.
Cubs top batter is first baseman Anthony Rizzo. His 10.0 Box-Toppers points ranks 50th among all players and second among NL batters.
Note: Third basemen Kris Bryant does not appear among the list of Cubs below because the 2016 NL MVP did not earn Box-Toppers points in 2018. Bryant, who was injured much of this season, played in just 102 games in 2018.
The winner of the NL Wild Card game will face the Brewers in the best-of-five NL Division Series beginning Thursday in Milwaukee. The Brewers are Box-Toppers top-ranked NL team with 132.4 Box-Toppers points. They rank third overall.
About Box-Toppers—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. In regular season games, 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.
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Rockies vs. Cubs
Here are players for both teams in the NL Wild Card Game Tuesday. Players are listed for both teams ranked by Box-Toppers points earned in 2018. All players listed were on active Major or Minor League rosters at the end of the season—not necessarily all of them will be included on postseason rosters.| Colorado Rockies | Chicago Cubs | |||||
| Player | Pos | BTP | Player | Pos | BTP | |
| Marquez, German 3788 | pi sp | 14.7 | Hamels, Cole 2135 | pi sp | 11.1 | |
| Freeland, Kyle 3763 | pi sp | 12.4 | Lester, Jon 2173 | pi sp | 10.7 | |
| Gray, Jon 3634 | pi sp | 11.7 | Quintana, Jose 3040 | pi sp | 10.1 | |
| Anderson, Tyler 3656 | pi sp | 8.0 | Rizzo, Anthony 3063 | 1b | 10.0 | |
| Davis, Wade 2681 | pi cp | 7.0 | Baez, Javier 3395 | ss 2b 3b | 10.0 | |
| Story, Trevor 3607 | ss | 6.0 | Hendricks, Kyle 3386 | pi sp | 8.7 | |
| Arenado, Nolan 3306 | 3b | 5.0 | Darvish, Yu 3003 | pi sp | 5.4 | |
| Gonzalez, Carlos 2460 | rf | 4.5 | Contreras, Willson 3776 | ca | 5.0 | |
| Senzatela, Antonio 3760 | pi sp mr | 4.0 | Strop, Pedro 3005 | pi mr cp | 5.0 | |
| Oberg, Scott 4024 | pi mr | 4.0 | Schwarber, Kyle 3536 | lf | 4.0 | |
| LeMahieu, DJ 3091 | 2b | 3.5 | Zobrist, Ben 2216 | lf 2b rf 1b | 4.0 | |
| Dahl, David 3714 | rf cf | 3.5 | La Stella, Tommy 3367 | 2b ph | 4.0 | |
| Bettis, Chad 3481 | pi sp | 3.0 | Bote, David 4032 | 2b 3b | 4.0 | |
| Ottavino, Adam 3054 | pi mr cp | 3.0 | Montgomery, Mike 3513 | pi sp | 3.0 | |
| Blackmon, Charlie 2891 | cf | 2.5 | Happ, Ian 3798 | lf cf | 3.0 | |
| Desmond, Ian 2673 | 1b | 2.5 | Rosario, Randy 3980 | pi mr | 3.0 | |
| Parra, Gerardo 2746 | lf ph | 2.0 | Murphy, Daniel 2589 | 2b | 2.5 | |
| McGee, Jake 3385 | pi mr | 2.0 | Garcia, Jaime 2508 | pi sp mr | 2.0 | |
| McMahon, Ryan 4004 | ph | 1.7 | Chavez, Jesse 2780 | pi cp sp | 2.0 | |
| Oh, Seunghwan 3693 | pi cp | 1.0 | Cishek, Steve 2997 | pi mr | 2.0 | |
| Cuevas, Noel 4015 | rf | 1.0 | Heyward, Jason 2695 | rf | 2.0 | |
| Murphy, Tom 4030 | ph | 1.0 | Caratini, Victor 4026 | ca | 2.0 | |
| Chatwood, Tyler 2856 | pi sp | 1.0 | ||||
| Kintzler, Brandon 3150 | pi cp | 1.0 | ||||
| Wilson, Justin 3140 | pi mr cp | 1.0 | ||||
| Edwards, Carl Jr. 3775 | pi mr | 1.0 | ||||
| Russell, Addison 3559 | ss | 1.0 | ||||
| Almora, Albert Jr. 3764 | cf | 1.0 | ||||
| Wilson, Bobby 3071 | ca | 1.0 | ||||
| Bass, Anthony 2974 | pi mr | 1.0 | ||||
| Mills, Alec 4052 | pi sp | 1.0 | ||||
| Totals | 106.0 | Totals | 122.5 | |||