The Houston Astros maintain a big lead in Box-Toppers team rankings this week, leading for the fourth straight week.
Meanwhile, the Washington Nationals maintain their lead among National League teams and the New York Yankees are the week’s hottest team for the second straight week.
Team rankings
Here are Box-Toppers 2019 season team rankings, through the games of Thursday, Aug. 15. 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. 9 to Aug. 15. The column Wk ago shows the team's rank as of Aug. 8.| Teams | BTP | BTP/wk | Wk ago | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Astros | 117.8 | +3.5 | 1 |
| 2 | Nationals | 101.4 | +5.5 | 2 |
| 3 | Dodgers | 100.7 | +6.4 | 3 |
| 4 | Yankees | 94.6 | +7.0 | 5 |
| 5 | Rays | 93.8 | +5.0 | 4 |
| 6 | Athletics | 91.8 | +6.7 | 6 |
| 7 | Indians | 88.6 | +4.7 | 7 |
| 8 | Twins | 85.5 | +3.0 | 8 |
| 9 | Phillies | 84.5 | +4.5 | 10 |
| 10 | Cubs | 82.5 | +1.0 | 9 |
| 11 | Braves | 82.3 | +3.0 | 11 |
| 12 | Red Sox | 80.1 | +4.0 | 12 |
| 13 | Mets | 76.8 | +4.5 | 14 |
| 14 | Brewers | 76.7 | +3.0 | 13 |
| 15 | Reds | 73.4 | +4.7 | 15 |
| 16 | Cardinals | 70.6 | +5.5 | 16 |
| 17 | Rangers | 65.9 | +3.0 | 18 |
| 18 | Diamondbacks | 65.3 | +4.2 | 19 |
| 19 | Rockies | 64.7 | 0.0 | 17 |
| 20 | Padres | 63.0 | +3.5 | 20 |
| 21 | Angels | 62.4 | +4.0 | 22 |
| 22 | White Sox | 61.9 | +3.0 | 21 |
| 23 | Giants | 60.2 | +6.0 | 23 |
| 24 | Mariners | 48.7 | +2.7 | 25 |
| 25 | Pirates | 48.4 | +2.0 | 24 |
| 26 | Marlins | 47.1 | +3.0 | 26 |
| 27 | Blue Jays | 45.5 | +3.0 | 27 |
| 28 | Royals | 43.7 | +3.5 | 28 |
| 29 | Orioles | 40.4 | +1.0 | 29 |
| 30 | Tigers | 35.4 | +2.0 | 30 |
Astros players have accumulated 117.8 Box-Toppers points, picking up 3.5 in the past week. They lead the second-place Nationals by 16.4 points (their lead narrowed from 18.4 points last week). The Astros have baseball’s third-best winning percentage (.639) behind the Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers (both with .659). The Dodgers are third in Box-Toppers team rankings (100.7) and the Yankees are fourth (94.6).
The Astros are led by pitcher Justin Verlander, who has 20.8 Box-Toppers points, first among all players and AL pitchers. Astros pitcher Gerrit Cole is second in Box-Toppers player rankings (18.8 points). Top batter is Alex Bregman (8.0 points, fifth among AL batters). Twenty-five different Astros players have earned Box-Toppers points so far this season.
This is the sixth straight week the Astros have led AL teams. They’ve led AL teams 12 of the past 13 weeks, including leading all teams for five straight weeks from May 16 to June 13.
The Nationals lead NL teams for the second week with 101.4 Box-Toppers points, picking up 5.5 points over the past week. The Nationals maintain their second-place overall rank.
Though the Nationals lead NL teams in Box-Toppers points, they are third among NL teams in winning percentage (.542), behind the Dodgers (.659) and the Atlanta Braves (.585). The Nationals are second in the NL East, 5 1/2 games behind the Braves, but currently hold the top NL Wild Card position. The Dodgers rank third among all teams in Box-Toppers points (100.7), while the Braves rank 11th (82.3).
The Nationals are led by pitcher Stephen Strasburg with 15.7 Box-Toppers points, sixth among all players, second among NL pitchers and first among NL starting pitchers. Two other Nationals pitchers rank among Box-Toppers top 10 season player rankings—Max Scherzer is eighth with 14.4 Box-Toppers points and Patrick Corbin is ninth with 13.4. Nationals’ top batter is Asdrubal Cabrera (5.0 Box-Toppers points), who ranks 23rd among NL batters. Twenty-six different Nationals players have earned Box-Toppers points so far this season.
The New York Yankees are the week’s hottest team, picking up 7.0 Box-Toppers points in the past week, rising from fifth to fourth place overall with 94.6 points. The Yankees were also the hottest team last week, picking up 9.0 points, most of any team.
The Colorado Rockies had the biggest decline in Box-Toppers team rankings, falling two spots from 17th to 19th place with 64.7 points, picking up no points in the past week.
The Detroit Tigers maintain 30th and last place in Box-Toppers team rankings for the fourth straight week with 35.4 points, picking up 2.0 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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