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Tracking who most helps their teams win the most games, based on box score stats. A method to measure & compare baseball's top players.
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Brewers’ Misiorowski leads player rankings for 8th week; Cease leads AL pitchers

Shawn Plank September 4, 2026
Here are standings of the top 10 players by category (AL & NL pitching & batting) in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2026 season through games of Thursday, Sept. 3:
  AL PITCHERS POS TEAM BTP     NL PITCHERS POS TEAM BTP
1 Dylan Cease pi sp Blue Jays 20.4   1 Jacob Misiorowski pi sp Brewers 21.4
2 Cam Schlittler pi sp Yankees 18.7   2 Jesus Luzardo pi sp Phillies 21.0
3 Gavin Williams pi sp Guardians 15.7   3 Cristopher Sanchez pi sp Phillies 17.7
4 Jacob deGrom pi sp Rangers 15.4   4 Braxton Ashcraft pi sp Pirates 16.4
5 Bryan Woo pi sp Mariners 14.4   5 Shohei Ohtani pi sp dh Dodgers 15.7
6 Taj Bradley pi sp Twins 14.4   6 Zack Wheeler pi sp Phillies 14.0
7 Logan Gilbert pi sp Mariners 13   7 Kyle Harrison pi sp Brewers 13.7
8 Drew Rasmussen pi sp Rays 13   8 Yoshinobu Yamamoto pi sp Dodgers 13.4
9 Sean Burke pi sp White Sox 12.1   9 Chris Sale pi sp Braves 13.4
10 Sonny Gray pi sp Red Sox 12   10 Paul Skenes pi sp Pirates 12.7
     
  AL BATTERS POS TEAM BTP     NL BATTERS POS TEAM BTP
1 Pete Alonso 1b Orioles 8.2   1 Shohei Ohtani pi sp dh Dodgers 15.7
2 Yordan Alvarez dh Astros 7.5   2 Sal Stewart 1b Reds 13.0
3 Yandy Diaz dh Rays 7.5   3 Dansby Swanson ss Cubs 9.2
4 Willson Contreras 1b Red Sox 7.0   4 Jake McCarthy cf lf rf Rockies 8.7
5 Nick Kurtz 1b Athletics 7.0   5 Pete Crow‑Armstrong cf Cubs 8.5
6 Kody Clemens 1b rf Twins 7.0   6 Michael Harris cf ph Braves 8.5
7 Munetaka Murakami 1b White Sox 7.0   7 Ty France 1b Padres 8.5
8 Jac Caglianone 1b Royals 6.9   8 Alec Burleson 1b Cardinals 8.5
9 Jazz Chisholm Jr. 2b Yankees 6.5   9 Daylen Lile lf Nationals 8.2
10 Dillon Dingler ca Tigers 6.5   10 CJ Abrams ss Nationals 8.0
What are those numbers after players' names?
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations

Brewers pitcher Jacob Misiorowski leads Box-Toppers overall player rankings for an eighth consecutive week.

All Box-Toppers category leaders remain unchanged since last week:

  • AL Pitchers: Dylan Cease, Blue Jays

  • NL Batters: Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers

  • AL Batters: Pete Alonso, Orioles

Misiorowski leads all players and National League pitchers with 21.4 Box-Toppers points, picking up no points in the past week. He stays ahead of Jesús Luzardo of the Phillies (21.0 points), who ranks second to Misiorowski overall and among NL pitchers.

American League pitchers

Dylan Cease of the Blue Jays leads AL pitchers for the eighth consecutive week with 20.4 Box-Toppers points, gaining 2.0 points in the past week. He stays ahead of Cam Schlittler of the Yankees (18.7 points). Cease ranks third overall.

National League batters

Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers leads for the 15th straight report with 15.7 Box-Toppers points, picking up no points in the past week. He leads second-place NL batter Sal Stewart of the Reds (13.0 points).

Ohtani ranks eighth overall.

Ohtani has earned Player of the Game honors 13 times this season—six as a batter (7.0 points) and seven as a starting pitcher (8.7 points). Because at least 25% of his honors came from each role (46.2% batting, 53.8% pitching), he qualifies to rank at both positions with his full 15.7-point total.

Looked at individually, his 8.7 points as a pitcher would rank 18th among NL pitchers and his 7.0 points as a designated hitter would rank 11th among NL batters.

American League batters

Pete Alonso of the Orioles leads for the second week with 8.2 Box-Toppers points, picking up no points in the past week. He ranks ahead of second-place Yordan Alvarez of the Astros (7.5 points). Alonso ranks 48th overall.

AL batters continue to lag significantly behind NL batters in total points earned this season (468.1 vs. 537.4)—in fact, eight of the top 10 NL batters have higher point totals than Alonso.

With three weeks remaining, the top AL batter is on pace to potentially set a record for the lowest point total to lead a category in a full season since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995. The record low was set last season when George Springer of the Blue Jays led AL batters with 9.7 points; Alonso needs 1.5 more points to reach that mark.

Box-Toppers almanac

After winning a majority of Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors last week for the first time this season, batters fell back to earth this week. Batters won in 38 of the 97 games played (39.2%), while pitchers won in 59 (60.8%).

Batters’ overall share of points this season decreased from 40.2% last week to 40.1% this week.

Batters have won fewer than 40% of all Box-Toppers points awarded in four of the past five seasons (surpassing that mark only in 2023 at 40.7%) and set a record-low share of 37.2% in 2024.

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.

About Box-Toppers

Box-Toppers tracks who contributes most to their team’s victory. Using standard box score statistics, we identify the Player of the Game for every MLB contest. In the regular season, winners earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point, with bonus points awarded to the top overall and league-specific players of the day. More on how Box-Toppers works.

Help us stay accurate! Spot a mistake? Contact Box-Toppers here so we can fix it.

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Related

Last week’s Box-Toppers player rankings report

TagsBox-Toppers Player Rankings, Jacob Misiorowski, Dylan Cease, Shohei Ohtani, Pete Alonso, Jesus Luzardo, Cam Schlittler, Sal Stewart, Yordan Alvarez, George Springer
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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.

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