The Tampa Bay Rays visit the Oakland Athletics in the American League one-game Wild Card playoff game Wednesday.
Starting pitchers are:
Rays—Charlie Morton, 18.8 Box-Toppers points in 2019, fifth among all players and third among American League pitchers. Morton is also the top Rays player in 2019’s Box-Toppers season player rankings.
Athletics—Sean Manaea, 3.7 Box-Toppers points in 2019, 265th among all players and 66th among AL pitchers. Manaea missed five months of the season on the injured list, recovering from shoulder surgery, making his first appearance Sept. 1 and appearing in just five games. In 2018 with the Athletics, he had 8.7 points, 28th among AL pitchers.
The Rays rank sixth in Box-Toppers team rankings with its players accumulating 123.2 Box-Toppers points during the season, fourth among all AL teams.
The Athletics rank fourth among all teams with 124.9 points, second among AL teams. Though the Athletics rank two spots higher than the Rays, they only have 1.7 more points.
Despite the Athletics having more overall points, they only have one player with 10 or more Box-Toppers points—pitcher Homer Bailey (10.4 points, who ranks 42nd among all players and 18th among AL pitchers).
The Rays have three players with 10 or more points:
Bailey, Wednesday’s starter with 18.8.
Pitcher Ryan Yarbrough, 12.4 points, 28th among all players and 13th among AL pitchers.
Pitcher Blake Snell, 10.0 points, 45th among all players and 19th among AL pitchers. In 2018, Snell was Box-Toppers Player of the Year, the player with the most Box-Toppers points (27.2). He also won the AL Cy Young award.
Athletics top batter is third baseman Matt Chapman (9.0 Box-Toppers points, seventh among AL batters).
Rays top batter is catcher Travis d'Arnaud (6.2 points, 25th among AL batters).
The Rays were slightly hotter in the final 10 days of the season, earning 6.7 Box-Toppers points from Sept. 20-29. The Athletics earned 5.7 in that span.
The winner of the AL Wild Card game will face the Astros in the best-of-five AL Division Series beginning Friday in Houston. The Astros are Box-Toppers top-ranked team overall with 158.1 Box-Toppers points.
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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Rays vs. Athletics
Here are players for both teams in the AL Wild Card Game Tuesday. Players are listed for both teams ranked by Box-Toppers points earned in 2019. 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.| Tampa Bay Rays | Oakland Athletics | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Pos | BTP | Player | Pos | BTP | |
| Morton, Charlie 2503 | pi sp | 18.8 | Bailey, Homer 2324 | pi sp | 10.4 | |
| Yarbrough, Ryan 3962 | pi sp mr | 12.4 | Fiers, Mike 3029 | pi sp | 9.7 | |
| Snell, Blake 3688 | pi sp | 10.0 | Montas, Frankie 3803 | pi sp | 9.4 | |
| Glasnow, Tyler 3948 | pi sp | 9.7 | Chapman, Matt 3849 | 3b | 9.0 | |
| Chirinos, Yonny 4039 | pi sp | 7.0 | Semien, Marcus 3302 | ss | 8.7 | |
| d’Arnaud, Travis 3384 | ca | 6.2 | Roark, Tanner 3261 | pi sp | 7.7 | |
| Kiermaier, Kevin 3373 | cf | 6.0 | Hendriks, Liam 3339 | pi cp | 7.0 | |
| Choi, Ji-Man 3990 | 1b | 4.2 | Bassitt, Chris 3413 | pi sp mr | 6.7 | |
| Anderson, Nick 4145 | pi mr | 4.0 | Treinen, Blake 3495 | pi cp | 6.0 | |
| Beeks, Jalen 4047 | pi mr | 3.7 | Phegley, Josh 3269 | ca | 5.5 | |
| Pham, Thomas 3596 | lf | 3.5 | Piscotty, Stephen 3570 | rf | 4.5 | |
| Garcia, Avisail 3256 | rf | 3.5 | Olson, Matt 3836 | 1b | 4.0 | |
| Meadows, Austin 4079 | dh lf | 3.5 | Petit, Yusmeiro 2337 | pi mr | 4.0 | |
| Richards, Trevor 3945 | pi sp | 3.0 | Manaea, Sean 3637 | pi sp | 3.7 | |
| Sogard, Eric 3174 | 2b dh ph | 3.0 | Laureano, Ramon 4054 | cf | 3.7 | |
| McKay, Brendan 4182 | pi sp | 3.0 | Brown, Seth 4239 | lf ph | 3.5 | |
| Aguilar, Jesus 3787 | 1b | 2.5 | Profar, Jurickson 3665 | 2b ss 3b 1b | 3.2 | |
| Castillo, Diego 3995 | pi cp mr | 2.0 | Anderson, Brett 2597 | pi sp | 3.0 | |
| Adames, Willy 4041 | ss | 2.0 | Pinder, Chad 3871 | rf lf ph | 3.0 | |
| Zunino, Mike 3390 | ca | 2.0 | Trivino, Lou 3939 | pi mr cp | 2.7 | |
| Pagan, Emilio 3876 | pi mr cp | 2.0 | Mengden, Daniel 3741 | pi sp | 2.0 | |
| Pruitt, Austin 3773 | pi sp cp mr | 1.7 | Murphy, Sean 4246 | ca | 1.5 | |
| Brosseau, Mike 4185 | 3b | 1.5 | Harvey, Matt 3075 | pi sp | 1.0 | |
| Alvarado, Jose 3797 | pi cp mr | 1.0 | Davis, Khris 3242 | dh ph | 1.0 | |
| Diaz, Yandy 3896 | 3b dh | 1.0 | Soria, Joakim 2258 | pi cp | 1.0 | |
| Heredia, Guillermo 3859 | lf | 1.0 | Canha, Mark 3454 | rf 1b | 1.0 | |
| Roe, Chaz 3597 | pi mr | 1.0 | Wendelken, J.B. 4089 | pi mr | 1.0 | |
| Duffy, Matt 3504 | 3b | 1.0 | Puk, A.J. 4253 | pi mr | 1.0 | |
| Drake, Oliver 3826 | pi cp | 1.0 | ||||
| Lowe, Brandon 4108 | 2b | 1.0 | ||||
| Poche, Colin 4165 | pi mr | 1.0 | ||||
| Totals | 123.2 | Totals | 124.9 | |||