| AL PITCHERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | NL PITCHERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | hou al | 29.2 | 1 | Strasburg, Stephen 2736 | pi sp | dc nl | 18.7 | |
| 2 | Verlander, Justin 2112 | pi sp | hou al | 26.5 | 2 | Hader, Josh 3881 | pi cp | mil nl | 16.7 | |
| 3 | Bieber, Shane 4005 | pi sp | cle al | 17.1 | 3 | Buehler, Walker 3943 | pi sp | lad nl | 16.4 | |
| 4 | Morton, Charlie 2503 | pi sp | tb al | 16.8 | 4 | Paddack, Chris 4093 | pi sp | sd nl | 15.8 | |
| 5 | Clevinger, Mike 3707 | pi sp | cle al | 16.4 | 5 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 15.4 | |
| 6 | Greinke, Zack 1871 | pi sp | hou al | 15.9 | 6 | deGrom, Jacob 3343 | pi sp | nym nl | 15.4 | |
| 7 | Minor, Mike 2894 | pi sp | tex al | 13.7 | 7 | Corbin, Patrick 3027 | pi sp | dc nl | 15.4 | |
| 8 | Giolito, Lucas 3900 | pi sp | chi al | 13.7 | 8 | Ryu, Hyun-Jin 3139 | pi sp | lad nl | 15.4 | |
| 9 | Yarbrough, Ryan 3962 | pi sp mr | tb al | 12.4 | 9 | Flaherty, Jack 3971 | pi sp | stl nl | 14.8 | |
| 10 | Paxton, James 3280 | pi sp | nyy al | 12.1 | 10 | Gray, Sonny 3259 | pi sp | cin nl | 14.4 | |
| AL BATTERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | NL BATTERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |||
| 1 | Cruz, Nelson Ramon 2224 | dh | min al | 12.5 | 1 | Ozuna, Marcell 3190 | lf | stl nl | 12.0 | |
| 2 | Torres, Gleyber 3972 | ss 2b | nyy al | 12.0 | 2 | Yelich, Christian 3334 | rf | mil nl | 11.7 | |
| 3 | Pujols, Albert 1438 | 1b | ana al | 11.0 | 3 | Freeman, Freddie 2887 | 1b | atl nl | 10.2 | |
| 4 | Soler, Jorge 3403 | dh | kc al | 10.2 | 4 | Bellinger, Cody 3781 | rf | lad nl | 10.2 | |
| 5 | Bregman, Alex 3721 | 3b ss | hou al | 10.0 | 5 | Bell, Josh E. 3682 | 1b | pit nl | 9.7 | |
| 6 | Devers, Rafael 4038 | 3b | bos al | 9.5 | 6 | Arenado, Nolan 3306 | 3b | col nl | 9.0 | |
| 7 | Chapman, Matt 3849 | 3b | oak al | 9.0 | 7 | Escobar, Eduardo 3135 | 3b 2b | ari nl | 8.0 | |
| 8 | Betts, Mookie 3404 | rf | bos al | 8.7 | 8 | McMahon, Ryan 4004 | 2b 3b | col nl | 8.0 | |
| 9 | Trout, Mike 2949 | cf | ana al | 8.7 | 9 | Goldschmidt, Paul 2935 | 1b | stl nl | 7.5 | |
| 10 | Gardner, Brett 2486 | cf | nyy al | 8.5 | 10 | Cabrera, Asdrubal 2362 | 3b | dc nl | 7.5 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
Astros pitcher Gerrit Cole leads Box-Toppers weekly player rankings report for the fourth straight week.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2019 season through the games of Sept. 19.| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | hou al | 29.2 |
| 2 | Verlander, Justin 2112 | pi sp | hou al | 26.5 |
| 3 | Strasburg, Stephen 2736 | pi sp | dc nl | 18.7 |
| 4 | Bieber, Shane 4005 | pi sp | cle al | 17.1 |
| 5 | Morton, Charlie 2503 | pi sp | tb al | 16.8 |
| 6 | Hader, Josh 3881 | pi cp | mil nl | 16.7 |
| 7 | Buehler, Walker 3943 | pi sp | lad nl | 16.4 |
| 8 | Clevinger, Mike 3707 | pi sp | cle al | 16.4 |
| 9 | Greinke, Zack 1871 | pi sp | hou al | 15.9 |
| 10 | Paddack, Chris 4093 | pi sp | sd nl | 15.8 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
Meanwhile, Nelson Cruz of the Twins regains the Box-Toppers points lead among American League batters and Marcell Ozuna of the Cardinals rises to lead National League batters in 2019 points.
Plus, Stephen Strasburg of the Nationals continues to lead NL pitchers in Box-Toppers points.
Cole now has 29.2 Box-Toppers points, picking up 3.0 points in the past week. He leads teammate Justin Verlander (26.5) both overall and among AL pitchers. Cole could virtually wrap up Box-Toppers 2019 Player of the Year honors if Verlander fails to earn at least Player of the Game honors in his start Sunday.
American League batters—Nelson Cruz of the Twins regains the lead with 12.5 Box-Toppers points, passing Gleyber Torres of the Yankees (12.0 points), who took the lead from Cruz last week. Cruz ranks 22nd among all players in 2019 Box-Toppers points.
National League batters—Marcell Ozuna of the Cardinals rises to lead NL batters with 12.0 Box-Toppers points, passing previous leader Christian Yelich of the Brewers (11.7), who is out for the season with the fractured right kneecap. Ozuna ranks 26th among all players.
National League pitchers—Strasburg leads NL pitchers for the third week with 18.7 points, picking up no points in the past week. He leads second-place NL pitcher, closer Josh Hader of the Brewers (16.7).
With a little more than one week 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 in 2006 by John Smoltz of the Braves.
Top 10 changes—Astros pitcher Zack Greinke rises into the overall top 10 this week in ninth place with 15.9 Box-Toppers points.
He displaces Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer, who falls to 11th place with 15.4 points. Scherzer had been in the top 10, as high as fourth place, since the week of June 27.
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.
Three players joined the #BT40 this week:
Brett Gardner of the Yankees rises to 10th place among AL batters with 8.5 points.
Jack Flaherty of the Cardinals rises to ninth place among NL pitchers with 14.8 points.
Ryan McMahon of the Rockies rises to eighth place among NL batters with 8.0 points.
Those three displaced these three players: Marcus Semien of the Athletics, Reds pitcher Luis Castillo and Josh Donaldson of the Braves.
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 Asdrubal Cabrera of the Nationals (7.5 points, 10th among NL batters), who ranks 88th overall.
So far this season, 2,292 games have been completed (94.3 percent of all 2,430 scheduled), with 2,729.4 total Box-Toppers points awarded to 739 different players, who have earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors. There are 386 players who have more than 2.0 Box-Toppers points. There are 170 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.
This is the penultimate (and also next-to-last) player rankings report of the 2019 season. While normally posted on Fridays—as this is—next week, we will delay the weekly report, waiting until after the regular season’s final games are finished on Sunday, Sept. 29, to post the final—the ultimate—Box-Toppers season player rankings report of 2019.
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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Box-Toppers
Tracking who most helps their teams win the most games, based on box score stats. A method to measure & compare baseball's top players.
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. Players earn Box-Toppers points 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.