The Houston Astros maintain the lead in Box-Toppers team rankings, leading for the fifth straight week.

Team rankings
Here are Box-Toppers 2019 season team rankings, through the games of Thursday, Aug. 22. 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. 16 to Aug. 22. The column Wk ago shows the team's rank as of Aug. 15.



  
    
    Teams
    BTP
    BTP/wk
    Wk ago
  

    1
    Astros
    122.8
    +5.0
    1
  

    2
    Nationals
    107.9
    +6.5
    2
  

    3
    Dodgers
    105.4
    +4.7
    3
  

    4
    Rays
    99.3
    +5.5
    5
  

    5
    Athletics
    98.0
    +6.2
    6
  

    6
    Yankees
    96.6
    +2.0
    4
  

    7
    Twins
    90.0
    +4.5
    8
  

    8
    Indians
    89.6
    +1.0
    7
  

    9
    Cubs
    88.9
    +6.4
    10
  

    10
    Braves
    88.8
    +6.5
    11
  

    11
    Phillies
    87.5
    +3.0
    9
  

    12
    Red Sox
    84.6
    +4.5
    12
  

    13
    Mets
    81.8
    +5.0
    13
  

    14
    Brewers
    79.9
    +3.2
    14
  

    15
    Reds
    77.1
    +3.7
    15
  

    16
    Cardinals
    76.6
    +6.0
    16
  

    17
    Rockies
    69.7
    +5.0
    19
  

    18
    Diamondbacks
    68.3
    +3.0
    18
  

    19
    Rangers
    67.9
    +2.0
    17
  

    20
    White Sox
    67.4
    +5.5
    22
  

    21
    Angels
    67.4
    +5.0
    21
  

    22
    Padres
    66.0
    +3.0
    20
  

    23
    Giants
    61.7
    +1.5
    23
  

    24
    Mariners
    54.4
    +5.7
    24
  

    25
    Pirates
    50.4
    +2.0
    25
  

    26
    Blue Jays
    47.5
    +2.0
    27
  

    27
    Marlins
    47.1
    0.0
    26
  

    28
    Royals
    45.7
    +2.0
    28
  

    29
    Orioles
    42.4
    +2.0
    29
  

    30
    Tigers
    37.4
    +2.0
    30
  
This chart is sortable. Click or tap the column headers to sort columns, especially useful to see which teams gained or lost the most points in the past week or to sort teams by last week’s rankings.


  
  

Meanwhile, the Washington Nationals maintain their lead among National League teams and the Nationals and Atlanta Braves are the hottest teams of the past week.

Astros players have accumulated 122.8 Box-Toppers points, picking up 5.0 in the past week. They lead the second-place Nationals by 14.9 points (their lead narrowed from 16.4 points last week). The Astros have baseball’s third-best winning percentage (.636) behind the Los Angeles Dodgers (.659) and New York Yankees (.643). The Dodgers are third in Box-Toppers team rankings (105.4) and the Yankees are sixth (96.6).

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 (20.8 points). (While both Verlander and Cole have 20.8 points, Verlander ranks ahead on a tiebreaker because he has more 2018 Box-Toppers points—24.1 vs. 18.0.) Top batter is Alex Bregman (9.0 points, fourth among AL batters). Twenty-five different Astros players have earned Box-Toppers points so far this season.

This is the seventh straight week the Astros have led AL teams. They’ve led AL teams 13 of the past 14 weeks, including leading all teams for five straight weeks from May 16 to June 13.

The Nationals lead NL teams for the third week with 107.9 Box-Toppers points, picking up 6.5 points over the past week, tied for the most among all teams. 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 (.551), behind the Dodgers (.659) and the Atlanta Braves (.597). The Nationals are second in the NL East, six games behind the Braves, but currently hold the top NL Wild Card position. The Dodgers rank third among all teams in Box-Toppers points (107.9), while the Braves rank 10th (88.8).

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 14.4. Nationals’ top batter is Asdrubal Cabrera (6.5 Box-Toppers points), who ranks 11th among NL batters. Twenty-six different Nationals players have earned Box-Toppers points so far this season.

The Atlanta Braves also picked up 6.5 Box-Toppers points in the past week, tied with the Nationals for the most among all teams, rising from 11th to 10th place overall with 88.8 points.

The Detroit Tigers maintain 30th and last place in Box-Toppers team rankings for the fifth straight week with 37.4 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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Last week’s team rankings report