Astros’ Verlander leads player rankings for 9th week, but four within 1.0 Box-Toppers point

Here are the top 10 players by category (AL & NL pitching & batting) in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2019 season through the games of July 18.

	AL PITCHERS	POS	TEAM	BTP			NL PITCHERS	POS	TEAM	BTP
1	Verlander, Justin 2112	pi sp	hou al	14.8		1	Hader, Josh 3881	pi cp	mil nl	14.7
2	Morton, Charlie 2503	pi sp	tb al	14.8		2	Scherzer, Max 2588	pi sp	dc nl	14.4
3	Cole, Gerrit 3232	pi sp	hou al	14.1		3	Greinke, Zack 1871	pi sp	ari nl	13.2
4	Bieber, Shane 4005	pi sp	cle al	12.1		4	Strasburg, Stephen 2736	pi sp	dc nl	12.7
5	Giolito, Lucas 3900	pi sp	chi al	10.7		5	Paddack, Chris 4093	pi sp	sd nl	12.4
6	Bauer, Trevor 3065	pi sp	cle al	10.4		6	Ryu, Hyun-Jin 3139	pi sp	lad nl	11.7
7	Odorizzi, Jake 3291	pi sp	min al	9.4		7	Corbin, Patrick 3027	pi sp	dc nl	11.4
8	Snell, Blake 3688	pi sp	tb al	9.0		8	Castillo, Luis Miguel 3840	pi sp	cin nl	10.4
9	Minor, Mike 2894	pi sp	tex al	9.0		9	Hendricks, Kyle 3386	pi sp	chi nl	8.7
10	Lynn, Lance 2992	pi sp	tex al	9.0		10	Lucchesi, Joey 3936	pi sp	sd nl	8.4
	AL BATTERS	POS	TEAM	BTP			NL BATTERS	POS	TEAM	BTP
1	Bregman, Alex 3721	3b	hou al	7.0		1	Bell, Josh E. 3682	1b	pit nl	9.7
2	Gardner, Brett 2486	cf	nyy al	7.0		2	Bellinger, Cody 3781	rf	lad nl	9.2
3	Pujols, Albert 1438	1b	ana al	7.0		3	Arenado, Nolan 3306	3b	col nl	8.0
4	Devers, Rafael 4038	3b	bos al	7.0		4	Ozuna, Marcell 3190	lf	stl nl	8.0
5	Trout, Mike 2949	cf	ana al	6.7		5	Yelich, Christian 3334	rf	mil nl	6.5
6	Semien, Marcus 3302	ss	oak al	6.7		6	Donaldson, Josh 3144	3b	atl nl	6.5
7	Jimenez, Eloy 4107	lf	chi al	6.5		7	Marte, Ketel 3630	2b cf	ari nl	6.0
8	Gallo, Joey 3485	lf cf	tex al	6.0		8	Dahl, David 3714	rf cf lf	col nl	6.0
9	Kepler, Max 3664	cf rf	min al	5.7		9	Escobar, Eduardo 3135	3b	ari nl	5.5
10	Ohtani, Shohei 3933	dh	ana al	5.5		10	Albies, Ozzie 3953	2b	atl nl	5.5

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Astros pitcher Justin Verlander maintains the lead in Box-Toppers weekly team rankings report for the ninth straight week.

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2019 season through the games of July 18.

 

	Player	Pos	Team	BTP
1	Verlander, Justin 2112	pi sp	hou al	14.8
2	Morton, Charlie 2503	pi sp	tb al	14.8
3	Hader, Josh 3881	pi cp	mil nl	14.7
4	Scherzer, Max 2588	pi sp	dc nl	14.4
5	Cole, Gerrit 3232	pi sp	hou al	14.1
6	Greinke, Zack 1871	pi sp	ari nl	13.2
7	Strasburg, Stephen 2736	pi sp	dc nl	12.7
8	Paddack, Chris 4093	sp pi	sd nl	12.4
9	Bieber, Shane 4005	pi sp	cle al	12.1
10	Ryu, Hyun-Jin 3139	pi sp	lad nl	11.7

What are those numbers after players' names?
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations

Meanwhile, Alex Bregman of the Astros rises to lead American League batters in Box-Toppers season player rankings this week, passing Brett Gardner of the Yankees, who led at the last player rankings report on July 7.

Plus, Josh Hader of the Brewers continues to lead National League pitchers and Josh Bell of the Pirates continues to lead NL batters.

Verlander leads all players and all AL pitchers with 14.8 Box-Toppers points, but Rays pitcher Charlie Morton also has 14.8 Box-Toppers points. Verlander holds the tiebreaking edge because he has more 2018 Box-Toppers points—24.1 vs. 14.8. Morton ranks second both overall and among AL pitchers.

Both Verlander and Morton have had 14.8 points since July 7. Verlander, who has led players in Box-Toppers points since May 10, has not earned points since June 23.

This is the ninth straight week Verlander has been in first place overall and among AL pitchers.

American League batters—Alex Bregman of the Astros rises past Brett Gardner of the Yankees. While Bregman’s 7.0 Box-Toppers points is tied with three other AL batters—Gardner, Albert Pujols of the Angels and Rafael Devers of the Red Sox—Bregman holds the tiebreaking advantage because he has the most 2018 Box-Toppers points, 6.2. (Gardner has the second-most with 5.5.) Bregman ranks 34th among all players.

National League pitchers—Hader continues to lead for the ninth straight week with 14.7 Box-Toppers points, picking up no points since July 7. He maintains his third-place spot overall  and leads second-place NL pitcher Max Scherzer of the Nationals (14.4) by just 0.3 points. Scherzer leads all NL starting pitchers. Hader already has the fifth-most Box-Toppers points in a single-season by a closing pitcher since 1998.

National League batters—Josh Bell of the Pirates leads NL batters for the second week with 9.7 Box-Toppers points, picking up no points since July 7. Bell, who ranks 15th overall, is ahead of second-place NL batter Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers (9.2).

Top 10 changes—Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg and Padres pitcher Chris Paddack rise into Box-Toppers overall season player rankings top 10 list this week. Strasburg, with 12.7 points, rises to seventh place and Paddack, with 12.4 points, rises to eighth.

They displace Nationals pitcher Patrick Corbin and White Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito from the top 10. Corbin falls from ninth to 11th with 11.4 points. Giolito falls from 10th to 12th with 10.7 points.

The #BT40—The Box-Toppers 40 (#BT40) is made up of the 40 players on Box-Toppers’ four top 10 category lists—AL and NL pitchers and batters. The #BT40 are listed in the chart at the top of this page.

Four players joined the #BT40 this week:

• Lance Lynn of the Rangers rises to 10th among place AL pitchers with 9.0 points.

• Albert Pujols of the Angels rises to third among AL batters with 7.0 points.

• Josh Donaldson of the Braves rises to sixth place among NL batters with 6.5 points.

• Eduardo Escobar of the Diamondbacks rises to ninth place among NL batters with 5.5 points.

Those four displaced these four players: Athletics pitcher Frankie Montas (who is serving a half-season suspension for violating baseball’s performance enhancing drug policy), Jose Abreu of the White Sox, Austin Riley of the Braves and Colin Moran of the Pirates.

It should be noted that the #BT40 are not the overall top 40 players, but the top 10 in each of four categories. The lowest-ranking player among the #BT40 is Ozzie Albies of the Braves (5.5 points, 10th among NL batters), who ranks 82nd overall.

So far this season, 1,444 games have been completed (59.4 percent of all 2,430 scheduled), with 1,722.3 total Box-Toppers points awarded to 592 different players, who have earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors. There are 260 players who have more than 2.0 Box-Toppers points. There are 104 players who have made their Box-Toppers debut so far this season (nine since July 7), the first time in their career they earned Player of the Game honors.

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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Previous player rankings report, July 7