| AL PITCHERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | NL PITCHERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |||
| 1 | Skubal, Tarik 4414 | pi sp | det al | 19.1 | 1 | Wheeler, Zack 3204 | pi sp | phi nl | 21.4 | |
| 2 | Gil, Luis 4498 | pi sp | nyy al | 17.4 | 2 | Cease, Dylan 4231 | pi sp | sd nl | 21.1 | |
| 3 | Valdez, Framber 4048 | pi sp | hou al | 15.4 | 3 | Imanaga, Shota 4960 | pi sp | chi nl | 19.7 | |
| 4 | Cortes, Nestor 4160 | pi sp | nyy al | 15.4 | 4 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | atl nl | 19.1 | |
| 5 | Lugo, Seth 3729 | pi sp | kc al | 14.1 | 5 | Manaea, Sean 3637 | pi sp | nym nl | 14.4 | |
| 6 | Kirby, George 4595 | pi sp | sea al | 13.7 | 6 | Snell, Blake 3688 | pi sp | sf nl | 13.7 | |
| 7 | Miller, Bryce 4797 | pi sp | sea al | 13.7 | 7 | Peralta, Freddy 3965 | pi sp | mil nl | 13.4 | |
| 8 | Ober, Bailey 4441 | pi sp | min al | 13.4 | 8 | Nola, Aaron 3569 | pi sp | phi nl | 13.4 | |
| 9 | Bibee, Tanner 4792 | pi sp | cle al | 13.0 | 9 | King, Michael 4549 | pi sp | sd nl | 12.7 | |
| 10 | Houck, Tanner 4342 | pi sp | bos al | 12.4 | 10 | Gray, Sonny 3259 | pi sp | stl nl | 12.4 | |
| AL BATTERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | NL BATTERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |||
| 1 | Judge, Aaron 3767 | dh cf | nyy al | 13.0 | 1 | Adames, Willy 4041 | ss | mil nl | 10.5 | |
| 2 | Soto, Juan 3994 | rf | nyy al | 11.0 | 2 | Doyle, Brenton 4803 | cf | col nl | 9.7 | |
| 3 | Naylor, Josh 4154 | 1b | cle al | 9.0 | 3 | Lindor, Francisco 3586 | ss | nym nl | 9.4 | |
| 4 | Witt, Bobby Jr. 4592 | ss | kc al | 8.9 | 4 | Harper, Bryce 3011 | 1b | phi nl | 8.7 | |
| 5 | Mountcastle, Ryan 4325 | 1b | bal al | 8.0 | 5 | Suarez, Eugenio 3355 | 3b | ari nl | 8.5 | |
| 6 | Alvarez, Yordan 4209 | dh | hou al | 7.5 | 6 | Ohtani, Shohei 3933 | dh | lad nl | 7.5 | |
| 7 | Ramirez, Jose 3436 | 3b | cle al | 7.4 | 7 | Ozuna, Marcell 3190 | dh | atl nl | 7.5 | |
| 8 | Lowe, Brandon 4108 | dh 2b | tb al | 7.0 | 8 | Happ, Ian 3798 | lf | chi nl | 7.5 | |
| 9 | Neto, Zach 4821 | ss | ana al | 7.0 | 9 | Chapman, Matt 3849 | 3b | sf nl | 7.5 | |
| 10 | Rooker, Brent 4795 | dh | oak al | 6.5 | 10 | Burleson, Alec 4874 | dh | stl nl | 7.5 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler leads Box-Toppers season player rankings for the second week.
Meanwhile, Willy Adames of the Brewers rises to lead National League batters in 2024 Box-Toppers points. Other category leaders remain unchanged: Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal leads American League pitchers and Aaron Judge of the Yankees leads AL batters.
Wheeler leads
Wheeler has 21.4 Box-Toppers points to lead all players, picking up 1.0 point in the past week, to lead for the second week, ahead of second-place player, Padres pitcher Dylan Cease (21.1 points). Wheeler also leads NL pitchers ahead of Cease.
National League batters
Willy Adames of the Brewers rises to lead NL batters this week with 10.5 Box-Toppers points, passing Brenton Doyle of the Rockies, who led for nine straight weeks. Doyle falls to second among NL batters with 9.7 points.
Adames ranks 42nd among all players.
With just a little more than one week left in the season, Adames could set the record for the lowest Box-Toppers point total to lead any category. The current record low to lead a category is 10.7 by Nolan Arenado of the Rockies, who led NL batters in 2016.
Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers rises into the top 10 among NL batters for the first time this season after earning 1.5 Box-Toppers points as NL Batter of the Day Thursday, giving him 7.5 for the season, sixth among NL batters. While Ohtani is widely considered the consensus, unanimous choice as NL Most Valuable Player in 2024, he hasn’t fared as well in Box-Toppers rankings this season, as other Dodgers players have more often been key contributors in team wins. (Ohtani ranked among the top three AL pitchers in Box-Toppers points in 2021, 2022 and 2023 when he was with the Angels and also led AL batters in 2023.)
American League pitchers
Tarik Skubal of the Tigers leads AL pitchers for the eighth week with 19.1 Box-Toppers points, picking up 1.0 point in the past week. He leads over second-place AL pitcher Luis Gil of the Yankees (17.4 points).
Skubal ranks fourth overall.
American League batters
Aaron Judge of the Yankees leads AL batters for the 14th straight week with 13.0 Box-Toppers points, picking up 1.0 point in the past week. He is ahead of second-place AL batter Juan Soto of the Yankees (11.0 points).
Judge ranks 17th overall.
Fewest batters with 10 points
This season could set the record for the fewest number of batters to reach 10 Box-Toppers points in a season since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995.
There are only three batters who have earned 10 or more Box-Toppers points in 2024: Aaron Judge (13.0), Juan Soto (11.0) and Willy Adames (10.5).
The fewest number of batters with 10 points in a season is four (2022). In 2023, seven of the 53 players with 10 points were batters. There are currently six batters with between 8.5 and 9.7 points who could attain 10 points for 2024 with one Player of the Game or Batter of the Day honor in the final 10 days of the season.
There are 54 players with 10 Box-Toppers points in 2024, 51 pitchers and three batters.
It should be noted that in the early days of Box-Toppers tracking, which began in 1995, there were often more batters than pitchers with 10 Box-Toppers points in a season. For example, in 2000, of the 47 players with 10 or more points, 28 were batters and 19 were pitchers.
Box-Toppers almanac
Batters will almost certainly set a new record for the lowest share of Box-Toppers points earned in a season in 2024 after another lackluster week at the plate.
Batters won Player of the Game honors 37 times in 97 games this week (38.1 percent) compared to 60 times for pitchers (61.9 percent). While that was an improvement over last week and increased batters’ share of Player of the Game honors won for the season, they still lag far behind pitchers.
Batters have now won 37.0 percent of all Player of the Game honors in 2024 (849 times in 2,296 games), increasing from 36.9 percent last week. Pitchers have won 1,447 Player of the Game honors, 63.0 percent.
Batters’ share of total Box-Toppers points for the season increased slightly from 37.09 percent last week to 37.14 percent this week. Batters have earned 1,014.4 of the total 2,731.2 points awarded, while pitchers have won 1,716.8 (62.9 percent).
Box-Toppers estimates that batters would need to win more than 55 percent of the season’s remaining Box-Toppers points to avoid breaking the all-time record low share of points won by batters in a season (38.1 percent in 2022). While it is possible batters could win more than half of the remaining Player of the Game honors this season, it is not likely given batters’ performance all season. Batters did win 50 percent of Player of the Game honors one week this season, the week ending Aug. 1.
The record low 38.1 percent was set in 2022, the year prior to rules changes, which some thought might help batters and perhaps even the playing field. And in fact, in 2023, rules changes such as the elimination of the radical infield shift did improve things, but only slightly—batters had 40.7 percent of all points in 2023. But 2024 now proves that either pitchers have better adapted to those rules changes or that those rules changes were entirely ineffectual in terms of helping batters.
While batters have struggled to reach parity with pitchers in recent seasons, it wasn’t always this way: From 1995 to 2009, batters generally won half or more of all Box-Toppers points each season. But their share of points dropped precipitously after 2009.
Note
This is the next-to-last (and also penultimate) Box-Toppers player rankings report for 2024. There will be no rankings report next Friday, Sept. 27, as we will wait until after the end of the season a few days later, Sunday, Sept. 29, to post final player rankings.
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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