The Houston Astros maintain top spot in Box-Toppers team rankings for the second week.
Team rankings
Here are Box-Toppers 2018 season team rankings, through the games of Thursday, June 21. The column BTP shows the number of Box-Toppers points players on the team accumulated this season. The column BTP/wk shows have many points teams accumulated from June 15 to 21. The column Wk ago shows the team's rank as of June 14.| Teams | BTP | BTP/wk | Wk ago | |
| 1 | Astros | 63.2 | 5.0 | 1 |
| 2 | Yankees | 62.9 | 7.5 | 2 |
| 3 | Mariners | 57.9 | 3.0 | 3 |
| 4 | Nationals | 54.0 | 4.0 | 5 |
| 5 | Red Sox | 54.0 | 2.7 | 4 |
| 6 | Braves | 52.7 | 4.7 | 7 |
| 7 | Indians | 52.3 | 5.7 | 8 |
| 8 | Cubs | 52.2 | 4.0 | 6 |
| 9 | Diamondbacks | 50.0 | 3.5 | 9 |
| 10 | Dodgers | 48.7 | 3.0 | 10 |
| 11 | Brewers | 48.1 | 3.7 | 11 |
| 12 | Angels | 47.6 | 3.7 | 12 |
| 13 | Phillies | 47.5 | 5.5 | 14 |
| 14 | Twins | 44.8 | 4.5 | 15 |
| 15 | Cardinals | 44.4 | 2.0 | 13 |
| 16 | Giants | 43.9 | 5.0 | 17 |
| 17 | Rockies | 43.6 | 5.7 | 19 |
| 18 | Athletics | 43.4 | 4.5 | 18 |
| 19 | Blue Jays | 40.8 | 5.2 | 22 |
| 20 | Padres | 40.6 | 1.5 | 16 |
| 21 | Tigers | 39.0 | 3.0 | 21 |
| 22 | Pirates | 38.2 | 2.0 | 20 |
| 23 | Rangers | 37.1 | 5.5 | 23 |
| 24 | Marlins | 34.4 | 4.5 | 26 |
| 25 | Reds | 33.5 | 4.0 | 27 |
| 26 | Mets | 33.2 | 3.0 | 25 |
| 27 | Rays | 32.7 | 2.0 | 24 |
| 28 | White Sox | 26.4 | 0.0 | 28 |
| 29 | Orioles | 25.9 | 2.0 | 30 |
| 30 | Royals | 24.0 | -1.0 | 29 |
Meanwhile, the Washington Nationals maintain their lead among National League teams and the New York Yankees are the week’s hottest team.
Astros players have accumulated 63.2 Box-Toppers points through the games of June 21, picking up 5.0 points in the past week. The Astros have baseball’s third-best winning percentage (.658), behind the Yankees (.694) and the Boston Red Sox (.658). The Yankees rank second in Box-Toppers team rankings (62.9 points, just 0.3 behind the Astros) and the Red Sox fall from fourth to fifth place (54.0 points).
The Astros are led by pitcher Gerrit Cole with 11.0 Box-Toppers points, who ranks fifth among all players. There are three Astros pitchers among the top 10-ranked American League pitchers—Cole is ranked fourth, Charlie Morton (10.1 points) is ranked sixth and Justin Verlander (8.7 points) is ranked eighth. Evan Gattis leads Astros batters with 4.5 Box-Toppers points, 10th among AL batters. Sixteen different Astros players have earned Player of the Game honors so far this season.
The Nationals top NL teams for the sixth straight week with 54.0 Box-Toppers points, picking up 4.0 points over the past week, rising from fifth to fourth place overall. (While the Nationals and Red Sox both have 54.0 accumulated Box-Toppers points this season, the Nationals rank higher because they earned more points in the past week—4.0 vs. 2.7.)
Top player for the Nationals is pitcher Max Scherzer, who leads all players with 16.4 Box-Toppers points. Outfielder Bryce Harper leads Nationals batters with 3.0 points, 19th among NL batters. Sixteen different Nationals players have earned Box-Toppers points so far in 2018.
The New York Yankees are the past week’s hottest team, picking up 7.5 Box-Toppers points in the past week. While they maintain their second place ranking among teams, they edge to within 0.3 points of the leaders, the Astros, with 62.9 points on the season.
The Toronto Blue Jays had the largest rise among teams in rankings this past week, rising three spots from 22nd to 19th place with 40.8 points, picking up 5.2 points in the past week.
The San Diego Padres had the biggest decline of any team in the past week, dropping four spots from 16th to 20th place with 40.6 Box-Toppers points, picking up 1.5 points in the past week.
The Kansas City Royals had a net loss of 1.0 Box-Toppers point after trading closing pitcher Kelvin Herrera to the Nationals. Herrera earned 1.0 Box-Toppers point this season, which was deducted from the Royals’ team total and added to the Nationals’. The Royals also earned no Box-Toppers points during the past week and have lost nine straight games.
With that, the Royals also slide from 29th to 30th and last place in Box-Toppers team rankings with 24.0 Box-Toppers points. Last week’s lowest-ranked team, the Baltimore Orioles, rise to 29th place with 25.9 points, picking up 2.0 points in the past week.
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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