| AL PITCHERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | NL PITCHERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |||
| 1 | Verlander, Justin 2112 | pi sp | hou al | 22.0 | 1 | Alcantara, Sandy 4061 | pi sp | fla nl | 18.1 | |
| 2 | Ohtani, Shohei 3933 | pi sp dh | ana al | 20.0 | 2 | Urias, Julio 3652 | pi sp | lad nl | 16.4 | |
| 3 | Cease, Dylan 4231 | pi sp | chi al | 16.7 | 3 | Musgrove, Joe 3705 | pi sp | sd nl | 15.4 | |
| 4 | McClanahan, Shane 4399 | pi sp | tb al | 15.4 | 4 | Rodon, Carlos 3494 | pi sp | sf nl | 15.4 | |
| 5 | Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | nyy al | 13.4 | 5 | Fried, Max 4011 | pi sp | atl nl | 15.0 | |
| 6 | Ray, Robbie 3502 | pi sp | sea al | 13.4 | 6 | Gallen, Zac 4171 | pi sp | ari nl | 14.7 | |
| 7 | Valdez, Framber 4048 | pi sp | hou al | 12.0 | 7 | Woodruff, Brandon 3868 | pi sp | mil nl | 14.1 | |
| 8 | Gausman, Kevin 3191 | pi sp | tor al | 11.7 | 8 | Wright, Kyle 4349 | pi sp | atl nl | 12.4 | |
| 9 | Cortes, Nestor 4160 | pi sp | nyy al | 11.4 | 9 | Nola, Aaron 3569 | pi sp | phi nl | 12.0 | |
| 10 | Gray, Sonny 3259 | pi sp | min al | 11.1 | 10 | Wheeler, Zack 3204 | pi sp | phi nl | 11.7 | |
| AL BATTERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | NL BATTERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |||
| 1 | Ohtani, Shohei 3933 | pi sp dh | ana al | 20.0 | 1 | Alonso, Pete 4118 | 1b | nym nl | 13.2 | |
| 2 | Ramirez, Jose 3436 | 3b | cle al | 10.7 | 2 | Betts, Mookie 3404 | rf | lad nl | 10.7 | |
| 3 | Judge, Aaron 3767 | rf cf | nyy al | 9.2 | 3 | Tellez, Rowdy 4078 | 1b | mil nl | 8.2 | |
| 4 | Alvarez, Yordan 4209 | dh | hou al | 8.7 | 4 | Riley, Austin 4144 | 3b | atl nl | 8.0 | |
| 5 | Suarez, Eugenio 3355 | 3b | sea al | 8.0 | 5 | Canha, Mark 3454 | lf | nym nl | 7.7 | |
| 6 | Bregman, Alex 3721 | 3b | hou al | 7.7 | 6 | Goldschmidt, Paul 2935 | 1b | stl nl | 7.5 | |
| 7 | Rodriguez, Julio 4590 | cf | sea al | 7.5 | 7 | Arenado, Nolan 3306 | 3b | stl nl | 7.0 | |
| 8 | Bogaerts, Xander 3383 | ss | bos al | 7.0 | 8 | Cron, C.J. 3338 | 1b | col nl | 7.0 | |
| 9 | France, Ty 4243 | 1b | sea al | 7.0 | 9 | O’Neill, Tyler 4074 | lf | stl nl | 6.0 | |
| 10 | Semien, Marcus 3302 | 2b | tex al | 7.0 | 10 | Harper, Bryce 3011 | dh | phi nl | 6.0 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
Astros pitcher Justin Verlander leads Box-Toppers weekly player rankings report for the fifth straight week.
Meanwhile, Shohei Ohtani of the Angels catapults to regain the lead among American League batters after qualifying again to rank among batters in Box-Toppers standings.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 in Box-Toppers season player rankings for 2022. Players are ranked by Box-Toppers points (BTP) earned this season through Thursday, Sept. 1.| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Verlander, Justin 2112 | pi sp | hou al | 22.0 |
| 2 | Ohtani, Shohei 3933 | pi sp dh | ana al | 20.0 |
| 3 | Alcantara, Sandy 4061 | pi sp | fla nl | 18.1 |
| 4 | Cease, Dylan 4231 | pi sp | chi al | 16.7 |
| 5 | Urias, Julio 3652 | pi sp | lad nl | 16.4 |
| 6 | Musgrove, Joe 3705 | pi sp | sd nl | 15.4 |
| 7 | Rodon, Carlos 3494 | pi sp | sf nl | 15.4 |
| 8 | McClanahan, Shane 4399 | pi sp | tb al | 15.4 |
| 9 | Fried, Max 4011 | pi sp | atl nl | 15.0 |
| 10 | Gallen, Zac 4171 | pi sp | ari nl | 14.7 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
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Plus: Sandy Alcantara of the Marlins continues to lead National League pitchers and Pete Alonso of the Mets continues to lead NL batters.
Overall leader—Verlander leads all players with 22.0 Box-Toppers points, picking up 1.0 point in the past week. He ranks ahead of Shohei Ohtani (20.0 points) and also ranks ahead of Ohtani among AL pitchers.
Verlander was placed on the 15-day injured list Aug. 30 with a right calf injury. He returned to pitch this season after missing most of 2020 and all of 2021 after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
American League batters—Shohei Ohtani of the Angels regains the lead with 20.0 Box-Toppers points after again qualifying to be ranked among AL batters.
Ohtani led AL batters in Box-Toppers points most of the season until Aug. 9, when he lost his status to be ranked among batters because he earned an overwhelming share of his Player of the Game honors as a starting pitcher (9 of 12).
That gave the AL batting lead to Jose Ramirez of the Guardians. But when Ohtani earned Player of the Game honors as a designated hitter on Aug. 28, he regained his status to be ranked among batters since he again had more than 25 percent of his Player of the Game honors as a batter (4 of 14, 28.6 percent). Ramirez again fell to second place with 10.7 Box-Toppers points.
While this technicality causes Ohtani to lead AL batters in Box-Toppers points, he has earned only 5.0 of his Box-Toppers points in 2022 as a batter, which by itself, would rank him only 19th among AL batters.
Ohtani ranks second overall and also ranks second among AL pitchers.
National League pitchers—Sandy Alcantara of the Marlins leads for the seventh week with 18.1 Box-Toppers points, picking up 1.0 point in the past week. He leads ahead of second-place Julio Urias of the Dodgers (16.4 points). Alcantara ranks third among all players.
National League batters—Pete Alonso of the Mets leads for the 12th week with 13.2 Box-Toppers points, picking up no points in the past week, ahead of second-place Mookie Betts of the Dodgers (10.7). Alonso ranks 14th among all players, up from 10th place last week.
Box-Toppers almanac
Players who have earned Box-Toppers points so far in 2022—711 (there were 695 a week ago).
Players with more than 2.0 Box-Toppers points—334 (there were 318 a week ago).
Players with 10.0 or more Box-Toppers points—34 (there were 31 a week ago). In 2021, 49 players had 10.0 or more Box-Toppers points.
Players who’ve made their Box-Toppers debut so far in 2022 (earning their first career Player of the Game honor)—157 (there were 148 a week ago).
Games completed so far in 2021—1,959 an average of 130.6 per team.
Percentage of scheduled season completed—80.6.
In the 91 games completed from Aug. 26 to Sept. 1, pitchers won Player of the Game honors 52 times (57.1 percent) compared to 39 times for batters (42.9 percent). Batters’ overall percentage of Player of the Game honors earned for the season increased from 38.81 last week to 39.00 this week (764 out of 1,959 games). There have been 2,333.5 total Box-Toppers points awarded to all Player of the Game winners in 2022 (including bonus points for the day’s top players). Pitchers have won 60.90 percent of that total (1,421.1), while batters have won 39.10 percent (912.4). That is on pace to break the record for the all-time record-low for share of a season Box-Toppers points won by batters (39.14 percent in 2014). Last year, in 2021, batters won just 39.15 percent of all Box-Toppers points awarded, the second-lowest in any season since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995.
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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