The Boston Red Sox maintain their lead in Box-Toppers team rankings for the third straight week and are also the week’s hottest team.
Team rankings
Here are Box-Toppers 2018 season team rankings, through the games of Thursday, Aug. 16. 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. 10 to Aug. 16. The column Wk ago shows the team's rank as of Aug. 9.| Teams | BTP | BTP/wk | Wk ago | |
| 1 | Red Sox | 116.5 | 9.0 | 1 |
| 2 | Yankees | 101.6 | 3.0 | 2 |
| 3 | Astros | 97.6 | 2.0 | 3 |
| 4 | Indians | 96.6 | 5.0 | 4 |
| 5 | Cubs | 90.3 | 4.7 | 8 |
| 6 | Athletics | 89.6 | 4.0 | 7 |
| 7 | Diamondbacks | 89.4 | 3.5 | 6 |
| 8 | Dodgers | 89.6 | 1.7 | 5 |
| 9 | Mariners | 87.8 | 4.0 | 10 |
| 10 | Brewers | 87.3 | 2.7 | 9 |
| 11 | Phillies | 86.9 | 8.0 | 13 |
| 12 | Braves | 86.4 | 7.0 | 12 |
| 13 | Nationals | 82.3 | 2.7 | 11 |
| 14 | Cardinals | 80.8 | 6.0 | 14 |
| 15 | Rockies | 78.0 | 5.0 | 15 |
| 16 | Pirates | 72.1 | 1.0 | 16 |
| 17 | Giants | 70.0 | 4.5 | 17 |
| 18 | Twins | 65.2 | 4.5 | 18 |
| 19 | Angels | 64.8 | 5.0 | 19 |
| 20 | Mets | 56.0 | 7.2 | 24 |
| 21 | Marlins | 54.6 | -1.0 | 20 |
| 22 | Rays | 53.9 | 0.7 | 21 |
| 23 | Reds | 53.0 | 3.0 | 22 |
| 24 | Rangers | 52.2 | 3.0 | 23 |
| 25 | Tigers | 48.7 | 4.0 | 25 |
| 26 | Blue Jays | 47.6 | 3.0 | 26 |
| 27 | White Sox | 45.8 | 4.2 | 27 |
| 28 | Padres | 40.7 | 2.0 | 28 |
| 29 | Royals | 36.7 | 2.0 | 29 |
| 30 | Orioles | 34.4 | 0.0 | 30 |
Meanwhile, the Chicago Cubs rise past the Los Angeles Dodgers to top National League teams in rankings.
Red Sox players have accumulated 116.5 Box-Toppers points through the games of Aug. 16, picking up 9.0 points in the past week, most of any team. They have baseball’s best winning percentage (.705).
The Red Sox are led by pitcher Chris Sale with 20.1 Box-Toppers points, who ranks first in Box-Toppers season player rankings. Top batter is J.D. Martinez (11.5 points), who ranks first among American League batters. Twenty-one different Red Sox players have earned Player of the Game honors so far this season.
The Chicago Cubs are the top NL team with 90.3 accumulated Box-Toppers points, picking up 4.7 points in the past week. The Cubs rise from eighth to fifth place in overall rankings and pass last week’s top NL team, the Dodgers, who fall to third among NL teams and fall from fifth to eighth overall with 89.6 Box-Toppers points, picking up 1.7 points in the past week.
Top player for the Cubs is pitcher Jose Quintana (9.1 Box-Toppers points), who ranks 12th among NL pitchers. Javier Baez leads Cubs batters with 6.0 Box-Toppers points, 10th among NL batters. Twenty-eight different Cubs players have earned Box-Toppers points so far in 2018.
The Dodgers fall from fifth to eighth—a three-spot drop—was the biggest among teams this past week. The New York Mets had the biggest climb, rising four spots from 24th to 20th place with 56.0 Box-Toppers points, picking up 7.2 points in the past week.
The Baltimore Orioles remain in 30th and last place for the fourth straight week with 34.4 Box-Toppers points, picking up no 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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