The Boston Red Sox maintain their lead in Box-Toppers team rankings for the second straight week.
Team rankings
Here are Box-Toppers 2018 season team rankings, through the games of Thursday, Aug. 9. 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 Aug. 3 to Aug. 9. The column Wk ago shows the team's rank as of Aug. 2.| Teams | BTP | BTP/wk | Wk ago | |
| 1 | Red Sox | 107.5 | 6.5 | 1 |
| 2 | Yankees | 98.6 | 5.0 | 2 |
| 3 | Astros | 95.6 | 4.0 | 3 |
| 4 | Indians | 91.6 | 6.0 | 4 |
| 5 | Dodgers | 87.9 | 3.0 | 5 |
| 6 | Diamondbacks | 85.9 | 6.0 | 7 |
| 7 | Athletics | 85.6 | 11.7 | 12 |
| 8 | Cubs | 85.6 | 4.0 | 6 |
| 9 | Brewers | 84.6 | 7.0 | 9 |
| 10 | Mariners | 83.8 | 4.0 | 8 |
| 11 | Nationals | 79.6 | 4.0 | 10 |
| 12 | Braves | 79.4 | 4.5 | 11 |
| 13 | Phillies | 78.9 | 5.7 | 13 |
| 14 | Cardinals | 74.8 | 10.7 | 16 |
| 15 | Rockies | 73.0 | 2.7 | 14 |
| 16 | Pirates | 71.1 | 4.0 | 15 |
| 17 | Giants | 65.5 | 1.5 | 17 |
| 18 | Twins | 60.7 | 3.5 | 18 |
| 19 | Angels | 59.8 | 4.5 | 19 |
| 20 | Marlins | 55.6 | 1.0 | 20 |
| 21 | Rays | 53.2 | 3.0 | 21 |
| 22 | Reds | 50.0 | 2.0 | 23 |
| 23 | Rangers | 49.2 | 4.5 | 24 |
| 24 | Mets | 48.8 | 4.2 | 25 |
| 25 | Tigers | 44.7 | -4.0 | 22 |
| 26 | Blue Jays | 44.6 | 3.0 | 27 |
| 27 | White Sox | 41.6 | 3.0 | 28 |
| 28 | Padres | 38.7 | -5.6 | 26 |
| 29 | Royals | 34.7 | 1.0 | 29 |
| 30 | Orioles | 34.4 | 2.5 | 30 |
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Dodgers maintain their lead among National League teams and the Oakland Athletics are Box-Toppers’ hottest team of the past week.
Red Sox players have accumulated 107.5 Box-Toppers points through the games of Aug. 9, picking up 6.5 points in the past week. They have baseball’s best winning percentage (.698).
The Red Sox are led by pitcher Chris Sale with 18.1 Box-Toppers points, who ranks second among all players. Top batter is J.D. Martinez (10.0 points), who ranks first among American League batters. Twenty different Red Sox players have earned Player of the Game honors so far this season.
The Los Angeles Dodgers maintain the lead among NL teams with 87.9 Box-Toppers points, holding steady at fifth place among all teams. The Dodgers picked up 3.0 points in the past week.
Top player for the Dodgers is pitcher Kenta Maeda (8.7 Box-Toppers points), who ranks 12th among NL pitchers. Joc Pederson leads Dodgers batters with 5.0 Box-Toppers points, 20th among NL batters. Twenty-five different Dodgers players have earned Box-Toppers points so far in 2018.
The Oakland Athletics picked up the most Box-Toppers points of any team in the past week (11.7), earning 5.7 in their four wins and the other 6.0 points by acquiring two players since last week—starting pitcher Mike Fiers (who had earned 4.0 points with the Tigers) and closing pitcher Fernando Rodney (who had earned 2.0 points with the Twins). Fiers has since earned another 1.7 points since joining the Athletics, giving him 5.7 for the season.
The Athletics now have 85.6 Box-Toppers points and rise from 12th to seventh place in team rankings. The five-spot rise is also the most of any team this week.
With the Athletics rise into the top 10 of team rankings, the Washington Nationals fall out of the top 10, from 10th to 11th with 79.6 Box-Toppers points, picking up 4.0 points in the past week.
The Athletics’ gain of Fiers is also the Detroit Tigers’ loss. They fall three spots in rankings, most of any team, from 22nd to 25th place with 44.7 Box-Toppers points, with a net loss of 4.0 points in the past week. The Tigers lost all six games they played in the past week and so gained no new Box-Toppers points and lost the 4.0 points Fiers earned with them this season after he was traded to the Athletics.
One other team had a net loss in points this week: The San Diego Padres had a net loss of 5.6 points, most of any team, falling from 26th to 28th place with 38.7 Box-Toppers points. The Padres traded away two players this past week who had earned a combined 10.0 Box-Toppers points for them this season—starting pitcher Tyson Ross (6.0) to the Cardinals and reliever Jordan Lyles (4.0) to the Brewers. The Cardinals had the second-biggest point gain of any team this past week (+10.7, rising from 16th to 14th with 74.8). The Brewers had the third-biggest gain this week (+7.0, holding steady at ninth place with 84.6).
The Baltimore Orioles remain in 30th and last place for the third straight week with 34.4 Box-Toppers points, picking up 2.5 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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