| AL PITCHERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | NL PITCHERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | nyy al | 16.4 | 1 | Wheeler, Zack 3204 | pi sp | phi nl | 17.1 | |
| 2 | Bassitt, Chris 3413 | pi sp | oak al | 13.7 | 2 | deGrom, Jacob 3343 | pi sp | nym nl | 16.7 | |
| 3 | Ohtani, Shohei 3933 | pi sp dh | ana al | 13.4 | 3 | Marquez, German 3788 | pi sp | col nl | 15.4 | |
| 4 | Glasnow, Tyler 3948 | pi sp | tb al | 12.7 | 4 | Woodruff, Brandon 3868 | pi sp | mil nl | 14.4 | |
| 5 | Manaea, Sean 3637 | pi sp | oak al | 12.7 | 5 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | lad nl | 14.4 | |
| 6 | Lynn, Lance 2992 | pi sp | chi al | 10.7 | 6 | Peralta, Freddy 3965 | pi sp | mil nl | 12.7 | |
| 7 | Civale, Aaron 4173 | pi sp | cle al | 9.7 | 7 | Darvish, Yu 3003 | pi sp | sd nl | 12.1 | |
| 8 | Rodon, Carlos 3494 | pi sp | chi al | 9.7 | 8 | Burnes, Corbin 4029 | pi sp | mil nl | 12.1 | |
| 9 | Ray, Robbie 3502 | pi sp | tor al | 9.0 | 9 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 11.4 | |
| 10 | Giolito, Lucas 3900 | pi sp | chi al | 8.7 | 10 | Musgrove, Joe 3705 | pi sp | sd nl | 11.4 | |
| AL BATTERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | NL BATTERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |||
| 1 | Ohtani, Shohei 3933 | pi sp dh | ana al | 13.4 | 1 | Duvall, Adam 3573 | rf lf | atl nl | 8.0 | |
| 2 | Martinez, J.D. 2922 | dh | bos al | 9.7 | 2 | Castellanos, Nicholas 3349 | rf | cin nl | 8.0 | |
| 3 | Ramirez, Jose 3436 | 3b | cle al | 7.5 | 3 | Votto, Joey 2366 | 1b | cin nl | 8.0 | |
| 4 | Abreu, Jose 3308 | 1b | chi al | 7.0 | 4 | Tatis, Fernando Jr. 4101 | ss | sd nl | 7.5 | |
| 5 | Olson, Matt 3836 | 1b | oak al | 7.0 | 5 | Winker, Jesse 3988 | lf | cin nl | 7.5 | |
| 6 | Devers, Rafael 4038 | 3b | bos al | 6.5 | 6 | Reynolds, Bryan 4169 | cf | pit nl | 7.0 | |
| 7 | Bogaerts, Xander 3383 | ss | bos al | 6.5 | 7 | Crawford, Brandon 2878 | ss | sf nl | 6.5 | |
| 8 | Alvarez, Yordan 4209 | dh lf | hou al | 6.0 | 8 | Machado, Manny 3087 | 3b | sd nl | 5.9 | |
| 9 | Lowe, Brandon 4108 | 2b | tb al | 6.0 | 9 | Story, Trevor 3607 | ss | col nl | 5.7 | |
| 10 | Grichuk, Randal 3474 | dh cf rf | tor al | 5.5 | 10 | Riley, Austin 4144 | 3b | atl nl | 5.5 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler rises to lead Box-Toppers player rankings this week, passing Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom, who had led since late June.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 in Box-Toppers season player rankings for 2021. Players are ranked by Box-Toppers points (BTP) earned this season through Thursday, Aug. 12.| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wheeler, Zack 3204 | pi sp | phi nl | 17.1 |
| 2 | deGrom, Jacob 3343 | pi sp | nym nl | 16.7 |
| 3 | Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | nyy al | 16.4 |
| 4 | Marquez, German 3788 | pi sp | col nl | 15.4 |
| 5 | Woodruff, Brandon 3868 | pi sp | mil nl | 14.4 |
| 6 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | lad nl | 14.4 |
| 7 | Bassitt, Chris 3413 | pi sp | oak al | 13.7 |
| 8 | Ohtani, Shohei 3933 | pi sp dh | ana al | 13.4 |
| 9 | Glasnow, Tyler 3948 | pi sp | tb al | 12.7 |
| 10 | Peralta, Freddy 3965 | pi sp | mil nl | 12.7 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
Meanwhile, Adam Duvall of the Braves rises to lead National League batters in Box-Toppers rankings. Both American League leaders remain the same as last week—Gerrit Cole of the Yankees leads AL pitchers and Shohei Ohtani of the Angels leads AL batters.
Wheeler has 17.1 Box-Toppers points, passing deGrom (16.7), who falls to second place. Wheeler also passes deGrom for the lead among NL pitchers. deGrom had led for six straight player rankings reports, dating back to June 24, maintaining the lead more than a month since his last pitching appearance July 7 while on the injured list.
National League batters—Duvall rises to the lead with 8.0 Box-Toppers points, passing Nick Castellanos of the Reds (8.0), who led for five straight player rankings reports. While Duvall, Castellanos and third-place NL batter Joey Votto of the Reds all have 8.0 Box-Toppers points for the season, Duvall ranks first because he has the most 2020 Box-Toppers points (4.0), Castellanos has the second-most (1.0) and Votto has the fewest (0.0).
Duvall ranks 39th among all players in 2021 Box-Toppers points.
American League pitchers—Cole leads the category for the seventh straight report with 16.4 points, picking up no points in the past week. He ranks ahead of second-place Chris Bassitt of the Athletics (13.7). Cole falls from second overall last week to third place overall this week.
American League batters—Shohei Ohtani of the Angels leads for the third straight week with 13.4 Box-Toppers points, picking up 1.0 point in the past week. He ranks ahead of second-place J.D. Martinez of the Red Sox (9.7).
Ohtani ranks eighth among all players, the only batter among the overall top 10.
Ohtani has earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors 10 times in 2021, three as a designated hitter and the other seven as a starting pitcher. Uniquely, Ohtani qualifies in Box-Toppers rankings among both batters and pitchers (ranking third among AL pitchers).
Top 10 list exits and entrances—Brewers pitcher Freddy Peralta rises to 10th place this week with 12.7 Box-Toppers points, displacing Athletics pitcher Sean Manaea from the top 10. Manaea ranked 10th last week and falls to 11th this week with 12.7 Box-Toppers points.
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.
Six players joined the #BT40 this week:
Lucas Giolito of the White Sox rises to 10th place among AL pitchers with 8.7 points.
Brandon Lowe of the Rays rises to ninth place among AL batters with 6.0 points.
Corbin Burnes of the Brewers rises to eighth place among NL pitchers with 12.1 points.
Joe Musgrove of the Padres rises to 10th place among NL pitchers with 11.4 points.
Jesse Winker of the Reds rises to fifth place among NL batters with 7.5 points.
Brandon Crawford of the Giants rises to sixth place among NL batters with 6.5 points.
Those six displace these six players: White Sox pitcher Dylan Cease, Bo Bichette of the Blue Jays, Dodgers pitcher Julio Urias, Giants pitcher Kevin Gausman, Dansby Swanson of the Braves and Eduardo Escobar of the Brewers.
It should be noted that the #BT40 are not the overall top 40 players, but the top 10 in each of four categories (in fact, with Ohtani’s inclusion on two top 10 lists, it actually includes 39 total players). The lowest-ranking player among the #BT40 is Austin Riley of the Braves (5.5 points, 10th among AL batters), who ranks 92nd overall.
Box-Toppers almanac
Players who have earned Box-Toppers points so far in 2021—678 (it was 664 as of last week).
Players with more than 2.0 Box-Toppers points—302 (it was 283 as of last week).
Players who’ve made their Box-Toppers debut so far in 2021 (earning their first career Player of the Game honor)—142 (it was 136 as of last week).
Games completed so far in 2021—1,727, an average of 115.1 per team.
Percentage of scheduled season completed—71.1.
Pitchers have won 62.1 percent of all Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors compared to 37.9 percent won by batters. (Through games of Aug. 5, pitchers had won Player of the Game honors in 61.9 percent of all games played.)
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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