Astros’ Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole lead Box-Toppers player rankings

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. 22.

	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	20.8		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	Giolito, Lucas 3900	pi sp	chi al	13.7		5	Corbin, Patrick 3027	pi sp	dc nl	14.4
6	Greinke, Zack 1871	pi sp	hou al	13.2		6	Castillo, Luis Miguel 3840	pi sp	cin nl	14.4
7	Minor, Mike 2894	pi sp	tex al	12.7		7	Buehler, Walker 3943	pi sp	lad nl	12.4
8	Lynn, Lance 2992	pi sp	tex al	12.0		8	Gray, Sonny 3259	pi sp	cin nl	12.4
9	Clevinger, Mike 3707	pi sp	cle al	11.4		9	Hendricks, Kyle 3386	pi sp	chi nl	12.4
10	Yarbrough, Ryan 3962	pi mr sp	tb al	11.4		10	Paddack, Chris 4093	pi sp	sd nl	12.4
	AL BATTERS	POS	TEAM	BTP			NL BATTERS	POS	TEAM	BTP
1	Cruz, Nelson Ramon 2224	dh	min al	11.0		1	Bellinger, Cody 3781	rf	lad nl	10.2
2	Torres, Gleyber 3972	ss	nyy al	10.5		2	Yelich, Christian 3334	rf	mil nl	9.7
3	Devers, Rafael 4038	3b	bos al	9.5		3	Bell, Josh E. 3682	1b	pit nl	9.7
4	Bregman, Alex 3721	3b	hou al	9.0		4	Arenado, Nolan 3306	3b	col nl	9.0
5	Pujols, Albert 1438	1b	ana al	9.0		5	Ozuna, Marcell 3190	lf	stl nl	9.0
6	Trout, Mike 2949	cf	ana al	8.7		6	Escobar, Eduardo 3135	3b 2b	ari nl	8.0
7	Chapman, Matt 3849	3b	oak al	8.0		7	Goldschmidt, Paul 2935	1b	stl nl	7.5
8	Urshela, Gio 4135	3b	nyy al	7.5		8	Freeman, Freddie 2887	1b	atl nl	7.5
9	Soler, Jorge 3403	dh	kc al	7.2		9	Harper, Bryce 3011	rf	phi nl	7.0
10	Betts, Mookie 3404	rf	bos al	7.0		10	Alonso, Pete 4118	1b	nym nl	7.0

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Astros pitcher Justin Verlander maintains the lead in Box-Toppers weekly player rankings report for the 14th straight week.

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2019 season through the games of Aug. 22.

 

	Player	Pos	Team	BTP
1	Verlander, Justin 2112	pi sp	hou al	20.8
2	Cole, Gerrit 3232	pi sp	hou al	20.8
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	14.4
10	Castillo, Luis Miguel 3840	pi sp	cin nl	14.4

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

However, teammate Gerrit Cole has caught up to Verlander this week in total Box-Toppers points for the season (20.8). But Verlander still ranks ahead on a tiebreaker because he has more 2018 Box-Toppers points—24.1 vs. 18.0.

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.

Verlander leads all players and all AL pitchers with 20.8 Box-Toppers points, picking up no points in the past week. He leads Cole on the aforementioned tiebreaker among all players and among AL pitchers.

National League pitchers—Josh Hader of the Brewers continues to lead for the 14th straight week with 15.7 Box-Toppers points, picking up no points in the past week. He maintains his fifth place rank 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 and Strasburg have each had 15.7 Box-Toppers points for four straight weeks. Hader last earned Player of the Game honors July 24.

With about five weeks left in the season and very little movement in points among NL pitching leaders, it’s getting to the point to mention that the lowest Box-Toppers point total to lead NL pitchers in a single season is 19.1 by John Smoltz of the Braves in 2006. The lowest point total for any pitcher to lead a league in Box-Toppers points is 15.7 (the total Hader and Strasburg have now), which is what Chuck Finley of the Angels had in 1996 to lead AL pitchers.

American League batters—Nelson Cruz of the Twins leads AL batters for the third straight week with 11.0 Box-Toppers points, picking up 1.5 points in the past week. Cruz leads second-place AL batter, Gleyber Torres of the Yankees (9.5 points). Cruz ranks 25th among all players.

The lowest Box-Toppers point total to lead AL batters in a season is 12.1 by Edwin Encarnacion of the Indians in 2017.

National League batters—Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers leads for the fourth straight week with 10.2 Box-Toppers points, picking up no points in the past week. He leads second-place NL batter Christian Yelich of the Brewers (9.7). Bellinger ranks 30th among all players.

The lowest Box-Toppers point to lead NL batters in a season is 10.7 by Nolan Arenado of the Rockies in 2016. It is also the lowest point total to lead any major category (AL and NL pitching and batting) in a single season.

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

In fact, this week there were no changes in any placement from first to 10th place, though three of the 10 earned points (Cole, Nationals pitcher Patrick Corbin and Reds pitcher Luis Castillo), all maintained the spot they held last 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.

Seven players joined the #BT40 this week:

• Ryan Yarbrough of the Rays rises to 10th place among AL pitchers with 11.4 points.

• Matt Chapman of the Athletics rises to seventh place among AL batters with 8.0 points.

• Sonny Gray of the Reds rises to eighth place among NL pitchers with 12.4 points.

• Kyle Hendricks of the Cubs rises to ninth place among NL pitchers with 12.4 points.

• Freddie Freeman of the Braves rises to eighth place among NL batters with 7.5 points.

• Bryce Harper of the Phillies rises to ninth place among NL batters with 7.0 points.

• Pete Alonso of the Mets rises to 10th place among NL batters with 7.0 points.

Those seven displaced these seven players: Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale, Brett Gardner of the Yankees, Reds pitcher Trevor Bauer, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, Ozzie Albies of the Braves, Ryan McMahon of the Rockies and Josh Donaldson of the Braves.

Notably, Brett Gardner of the Yankees, who fell out of the AL batting top 10, led all AL batters in the July 7 player rankings report. 

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 Pete Alonso of the Mets (7.0 points, 10th among NL batters), who ranks 79th overall.

So far this season, 1,915 games have been completed (78.8 percent of all 2,430 scheduled), with 2,281.3 total Box-Toppers points awarded to 677 different players, who have earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors. There are 335 players who have more than 2.0 Box-Toppers points. There are 141 players who have made their Box-Toppers debut so far this season (nine 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