Astros’ Gerrit Cole passes teammate Justin Verlander to 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. 29.

	AL PITCHERS	POS	TEAM	BTP			NL PITCHERS	POS	TEAM	BTP
1	Cole, Gerrit 3232	pi sp	hou al	22.5		1	Strasburg, Stephen 2736	pi sp	dc nl	16.7
2	Verlander, Justin 2112	pi sp	hou al	21.8		2	Hader, Josh 3881	pi cp	mil 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	Clevinger, Mike 3707	pi sp	cle al	14.4		5	Corbin, Patrick 3027	pi sp	dc nl	14.4
6	Giolito, Lucas 3900	pi sp	chi al	13.7		6	Buehler, Walker 3943	pi sp	lad nl	14.4
7	Greinke, Zack 1871	pi sp	hou al	13.2		7	Castillo, Luis Miguel 3840	pi sp	cin nl	14.4
8	Minor, Mike 2894	pi sp	tex al	12.7		8	Paddack, Chris 4093	pi sp	sd nl	14.1
9	Lynn, Lance 2992	pi sp	tex al	12.0		9	Gray, Sonny 3259	pi sp	cin nl	12.4
10	Yarbrough, Ryan 3962	pi sp mr	tb al	11.4		10	Hendricks, Kyle 3386	pi sp	chi 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	Bregman, Alex 3721	3b ss	hou al	10.0		3	Bell, Josh E. 3682	1b	pit nl	9.7
4	Devers, Rafael 4038	3b	bos al	9.5		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	Freeman, Freddie 2887	1b	atl nl	8.5
7	Chapman, Matt 3849	3b	oak al	8.0		7	Escobar, Eduardo 3135	3b 2b	ari nl	8.0
8	Martinez, J.D. 2922	dh rf	bos al	7.5		8	Goldschmidt, Paul 2935	1b	stl nl	7.5
9	Urshela, Gio 4135	3b	nyy al	7.5		9	Cabrera, Asdrubal 2362	3b	dc nl	7.5
10	Soler, Jorge 3403	dh	kc al	7.2		10	Harper, Bryce 3011	rf	phi nl	7.0

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Astros pitcher Gerrit Cole rises to lead Box-Toppers weekly player rankings report, passing teammate Justin Verlander, who had led for the past 14 weeks.

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2019 season through the games of Aug. 29.

 

	Player	Pos	Team	BTP
1	Cole, Gerrit 3232	pi sp	hou al	22.5
2	Verlander, Justin 2112	pi sp	hou al	21.8
3	Strasburg, Stephen 2736	pi sp	dc nl	16.7
4	Bieber, Shane 4005	pi sp	cle al	16.1
5	Morton, Charlie 2503	pi sp	tb al	15.8
6	Hader, Josh 3881	pi cp	mil 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	Buehler, Walker 3943	pi sp	lad nl	14.4

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

In addition, this week, Stephen Strasburg of the Nationals rises to lead National League pitchers in Box-Toppers season player rankings, passing Josh Hader of the Brewers, who had also led NL pitchers for the past 14 weeks.

Meanwhile, Nelson Cruz of the Twins continues to lead American League batters and Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers continues to lead NL batters.

Cole now has 22.5 Box-Toppers points, passing previous leader Verlander (21.8). Cole also ranks first among AL pitchers, passing Verlander.

Cole has earned Player of the Game honors 15 times this season, including earning overall Player of the Day honors (worth 2.0 points) four times and AL Player of the Day honors (worth 1.7 points) five times. He has earned Player of the Game honors in a no-decision (without earning a win) three times, including Wednesday, the day he took the Box-Toppers point lead.

Verlander has earned Player of the Game honors 14 times this season, including earning overall Player of the Day honors (worth 2.0 points) five times and AL Player of the Day honors (worth 1.7 points) four times. Despite losing the season points lead, Verlander did earn 1.0 point this week, earning Player of the Game honors Tuesday.

National League pitchers—Strasburg is the new leader among NL pitchers with 16.7, passing Hader (15.7), who now ranks second.

Strasburg ranks third among all players.

With about four weeks left in the season, it is possible that a new record could be set in this category: 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. Strasburg needs 2.4 points to reach 19.1.

American League batters—Nelson Cruz of the Twins leads AL batters for the fourth straight week with 11.0 Box-Toppers points, picking up no points in the past week. Cruz leads second-place AL batter, Gleyber Torres of the Yankees (10.5 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 fifth 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 total 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—Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler joins the top 10 in season player rankings this week, rising to 10th place with 14.4 Box-Toppers points. He displaces Luis Castillo of the Reds (14.4.), who falls to 12th. (Though both Buehler and Castillo have 14.4 points, Buehler ranks higher because he has more 2018 Box-Toppers points—15.1 vs. 8.0.)

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.

Two players joined the #BT40 this week:

• J.D. Martinez of the Red Sox rises to eighth place among AL batters with 7.5 points.

• Asdrubal Cabrera of the Nationals rises to ninth place among NL batters with 7.5 points.

Those two displaced these two players: Mookie Betts of the Red Sox and Pete Alonso 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 Bryce Harper of the Phillies (7.0 points, 10th among NL batters), who ranks 78th overall.

So far this season, 2,006 games have been completed (82.6 percent of all 2,430 scheduled), with 2,390.2 total Box-Toppers points awarded to 690 different players, who have earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors. There are 350 players who have more than 2.0 Box-Toppers points. There are 151 players who have made their Box-Toppers debut so far this season (10 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