Astros’ Justin Verlander maintains lead in Box-Toppers player rankings for 13th straight week

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 Aug. 15.

	AL PITCHERS	POS	TEAM	BTP			NL PITCHERS	POS	TEAM	BTP
1	Verlander, Justin 2112	pi sp	hou al	20.8		1	Hader, Josh 3881	pi cp	mil nl	15.7
2	Cole, Gerrit 3232	pi sp	hou al	18.8		2	Strasburg, Stephen 2736	pi sp	dc nl	15.7
3	Bieber, Shane 4005	pi sp	cle al	16.1		3	Ryu, Hyun-Jin 3139	pi sp	lad nl	15.4
4	Morton, Charlie 2503	pi sp	tb al	15.8		4	Scherzer, Max 2588	pi sp	dc nl	14.4
5	Greinke, Zack 1871	pi sp	hou al	13.2		5	Corbin, Patrick 3027	pi sp	dc nl	13.4
6	Minor, Mike 2894	pi sp	tex al	12.7		6	Castillo, Luis Miguel 3840	pi sp	cin nl	13.4
7	Lynn, Lance 2992	pi sp	tex al	12.0		7	Paddack, Chris 4093	pi sp	sd nl	12.4
8	Giolito, Lucas 3900	pi sp	chi al	11.7		8	Bauer, Trevor 3065	pi sp	cin nl	12.1
9	Sale, Chris 2806	pi sp	bos al	11.0		9	Kershaw, Clayton 2494	pi sp	lad nl	11.7
10	Clevinger, Mike 3707	pi sp	cle al	10.4		10	Buehler, Walker 3943	pi sp	lad nl	10.7
	AL BATTERS	POS	TEAM	BTP			NL BATTERS	POS	TEAM	BTP
1	Cruz, Nelson Ramon 2224	dh	min al	9.5		1	Bellinger, Cody 3781	rf	lad nl	10.2
2	Torres, Gleyber 3972	ss	nyy al	9.5		2	Bell, Josh E. 3682	1b	pit nl	9.7
3	Pujols, Albert 1438	1b	ana al	9.0		3	Yelich, Christian 3334	rf	mil nl	8.0
4	Trout, Mike 2949	cf	ana al	8.7		4	Arenado, Nolan 3306	3b	col nl	8.0
5	Bregman, Alex 3721	3b	hou al	8.0		5	Escobar, Eduardo 3135	3b 2b	ari nl	8.0
6	Devers, Rafael 4038	3b	bos al	8.0		6	Ozuna, Marcell 3190	lf	stl nl	8.0
7	Urshela, Gio 4135	3b	nyy al	7.5		7	Goldschmidt, Paul 2935	1b	stl nl	6.5
8	Soler, Jorge 3403	dh	kc al	7.2		8	Albies, Ozzie 3953	2b	atl nl	6.5
9	Betts, Mookie 3404	rf	bos al	7.0		9	McMahon, Ryan 4004	2b 3b	col nl	6.5
10	Gardner, Brett 2486	cf	nyy al	7.0		10	Donaldson, Josh 3144	3b	atl nl	6.5

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Astros pitcher Justin Verlander maintains the lead in Box-Toppers weekly player rankings report for the 13th straight week.

Meanwhile, all category leaders remain the same as last week: Verlander leads American League pitchers, Josh Hader of the Brewers leads National League pitchers, Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers leads NL batters and Nelson Cruz of the Twins leads AL batters.

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2019 season through the games of Aug. 15.

 

	Player	Pos	Team	BTP
1	Verlander, Justin 2112	pi sp	hou al	20.8
2	Cole, Gerrit 3232	pi sp	hou al	18.8
3	Bieber, Shane 4005	pi sp	cle al	16.1
4	Morton, Charlie 2503	pi sp	tb al	15.8
5	Hader, Josh 3881	pi cp	mil nl	15.7
6	Strasburg, Stephen 2736	pi sp	dc nl	15.7
7	Ryu, Hyun-Jin 3139	pi sp	lad nl	15.4
8	Scherzer, Max 2588	pi sp	dc nl	14.4
9	Corbin, Patrick 3027	sp pi	dc nl	13.4
10	Castillo, Luis Miguel 3840	pi sp	cin nl	13.4

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

Verlander leads all players and all AL pitchers with 20.8 Box-Toppers points, picking up no points in the past week. He leads second-place player, teammate Gerrit Cole (18.8). Verlander leads Cole in both overall rankings and among AL pitchers.

National League pitchers—Josh Hader of the Brewers continues to lead for the 13th straight week with 15.7 Box-Toppers points, picking up no points in the past week. He falls from fourth to fifth place in overall rankings. He leads second-place NL pitcher Stephen Strasburg (15.7) on a tiebreaker—though both Hader and Strasburg have the same 2019 point total, Hader ranks ahead because he has more 2018 points—11.7 vs. 6.7. Strasburg leads all NL starting pitchers. 

Hader has the third-most Box-Toppers points in a single-season by a closing pitcher since 1998. Earlier this season, Hader seemed poised to shatter the record for most points by a closer in a season (19.7 points set by Eric Gagne of the Dodgers in 2004), but he has only earned 1.0 point in the last six weeks with about six weeks to go in the season—at that rate, Hader would finish the season short of Gagne’s record. Despite Hader’s lack of points in recent weeks, no NL pitcher has passed him in season player rankings.

National League batters—Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers leads for the third straight week with 10.2 Box-Toppers points, picking up no points in the past week. He leads second-place NL batter Josh Bell of the Pirates (9.7). Bellinger ranks 25th among all players.

American League batters—Nelson Cruz of the Twins leads AL batters for the second week with 9.5 Box-Toppers points. Gleyber Torres of the Yankees, second among AL batters, also has 9.5 points, but Cruz ranks ahead on a tiebreaker because he has more 2018 Box-Toppers points—2.5 vs. 1.5. Cruz ranks 28th among all players.

Top 10 changes—No new players entered the overall top 10 list in season player rankings this week.

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.

Six players joined the #BT40 this week:

• Gio Urshela of the Yankees rises to seventh place among AL batters with 7.5 points.

• Jorge Soler of the Royals rises to eighth place among AL batters with 7.2 points.

• Trevor Bauer of the Reds rises to eighth place among NL pitchers with 12.1 points.

• Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers rises to ninth place among NL pitchers with 11.7 points.

• Paul Goldschmidt of the Cardinals rises to seventh place among NL batters with 6.5 points.

• Ryan McMahon of the Rockies rises to ninth place among NL batters with 6.5 points.

Those six displaced these six players: Max Kepler of the Twins, Marcus Semien of the Athletics, Cubs pitcher Kyle Hendricks, Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom, Freddie Freeman of the Braves and Michael Conforto of the Mets.

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 Josh Donaldson of the Braves (6.5 points, 10th among NL batters), who ranks 86th overall.

So far this season, 1,819 games have been completed (74.9 percent of all 2,430 scheduled), with 2,167.9 total Box-Toppers points awarded to 659 different players, who have earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors. There are 322 players who have more than 2.0 Box-Toppers points. There are 132 players who have made their Box-Toppers debut so far this season (five in the past week), 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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Last week’s player rankings report