Box-Toppers has a new leader in player rankings with only one week left in the season.
Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright takes the lead in the penultimate (and also next-to-last) weekly look at Box-Toppers player rankings. Wainwright has 19.2 Box-Toppers points and passed last week's leader, Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez (19.0).
Wainwright picked up 2.5 Box-Toppers points over the past week, rising from sixth to first in overall Box-Toppers player rankings. The race for the leading player in Box-Toppers points is tight going into the final week of the season, with eight players within 2.5 points of Wainwright.
Wainwright's outright lead and lead among National League pitchers is slim. Three other NL pitchers could pass him in the season's final week—Dodgers Clayton Kershaw or Zack Greinke or Patrick Corbin of the Diamondbacks. (Jose Fernandez of the Marlins was not scheduled to pitch again this season.)
National League players hold down the top five spots in player rankings. The top American League player is Tigers pitcher Max Scherzer, who this week passed previous AL leader Miguel Cabrera, also of the Tigers. Scherzer is in sixth place overall in player rankings with 17.1 Box-Toppers points and Cabrera with 16.9, has fallen from fifth to eight place overall.
Scherzer passed previous AL pitching leader Justin Masterson of the Indians this week. And Scherzer's top spot going into the final week is also not secure, with four other AL pitchers within 1.0 Box-Toppers point of him.
Cabrera maintains his dominance among AL batters. He is the sole batter among the top 10 players and leads second-place AL batter, Alfonso Soriano of the Yankees (12.9), by 4.0 Box-Toppers points.
Paul Goldschmidt of the Diamondbacks continues to lead among NL batters with 13.7 Box-Toppers points. His nearest competitors among NL batters are both 2.2 points behind him—Freddie Freeman of the Braves and Michael Cuddyer of the Rockies both have 11.5 Box-Toppers points.
Previous player rankings report from Sept. 12.
What are those numbers after players' names?
How does Box-Toppers scoring work?
Top players
As of Thursday, Sept. 19
| 2013 LEADERS | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OVERALL LEADERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |
| 1 | Wainwright, Adam 2150 | pi sp | stl nl | 19.2 |
| 2 | Fernandez, Jose 3147 | pi sp | fla nl | 19.0 |
| 3 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 18.7 |
| 4 | Greinke, Zack 1871 | pi sp | lad nl | 18.4 |
| 5 | Corbin, Patrick 3027 | pi sp | ari nl | 17.4 |
| 6 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | det al | 17.1 |
| 7 | Sanchez, Anibal 2187 | pi sp | det al | 17.1 |
| 8 | Cabrera, Miguel 1776 | 3b | det al | 16.9 |
| 9 | Liriano, Francisco 2104 | pi sp | pit nl | 16.7 |
| 10 | Masterson, Justin 2462 | pi sp | cle al | 16.4 |
| AL PITCHERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |
| 1 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | det al | 17.1 |
| 2 | Sanchez, Anibal 2187 | pi sp | det al | 17.1 |
| 3 | Masterson, Justin 2462 | pi sp | cle al | 16.4 |
| 4 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | chi al | 16.1 |
| 5 | Moore, Matt 2975 | pi sp | tb al | 16.1 |
| 6 | Darvish, Yu 3003 | pi sp | tex al | 15.0 |
| 7 | Iwakuma, Hisashi 3048 | pi sp | sea al | 14.4 |
| 8 | Hernandez, Felix 2064 | pi sp | sea al | 13.1 |
| 9 | Jimenez, Ubaldo 2349 | pi sp | cle al | 12.8 |
| 10 | Tillman, Chris 2754 | pi sp | bal al | 12.7 |
| AL BATTERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |
| 1 | Cabrera, Miguel 1776 | 3b | det al | 16.9 |
| 2 | Soriano, Alfonso 1445 | lf | nyy al | 12.9 |
| 3 | Davis, Chris 2478 | 1b | bal al | 12.7 |
| 4 | Cano, Robinson 2092 | 2b | nyy al | 12.5 |
| 5 | Ortiz, David | dh | bos al | 12.4 |
| 6 | Raburn, Ryan 2340 | rf dh lf ph | cle al | 9.5 |
| 7 | Donaldson, Josh 3144 | 3b | oak al | 9.5 |
| 8 | Butler, Billy 2330 | dh | kc al | 9.0 |
| 9 | Encarnacion, Edwin 2098 | 1b dh | tor al | 8.7 |
| 10 | Fielder, Prince 2029 | 1b | det al | 8.5 |
| NL PITCHERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |
| 1 | Wainwright, Adam 2150 | pi sp | stl nl | 19.2 |
| 2 | Fernandez, Jose 3147 | pi sp | fla nl | 19.0 |
| 3 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 18.7 |
| 4 | Greinke, Zack 1871 | pi sp | lad nl | 18.4 |
| 5 | Corbin, Patrick 3027 | pi sp | ari nl | 17.4 |
| 6 | Liriano, Francisco 2104 | pi sp | pit nl | 16.7 |
| 7 | Bumgarner, Madison 2753 | pi sp | sf nl | 15.7 |
| 8 | Miller, Shelby 3134 | pi sp | stl nl | 15.4 |
| 9 | Harvey, Matt 3075 | pi sp | nym nl | 15.0 |
| 10 | Lynn, Lance 2992 | pi sp | stl nl | 14.1 |
| NL BATTERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |
| 1 | Goldschmidt, Paul 2935 | 1b | ari nl | 13.7 |
| 2 | Freeman, Freddie 2887 | 1b | atl nl | 11.5 |
| 3 | Cuddyer, Michael 1826 | rf | col nl | 11.5 |
| 4 | Gonzalez, Carlos 2460 | lf | col nl | 11.0 |
| 5 | Harper, Bryce 3011 | lf | dc nl | 9.4 |
| 6 | Zimmerman, Ryan 2180 | 3b | dc nl | 9.2 |
| 7 | Venable, Will 2621 | rf cf | sd nl | 9.0 |
| 8 | Phillips, Brandon 1691 | 2b | cin nl | 7.5 |
| 9 | Carpenter, Matt 2987 | 2b | stl nl | 7.5 |
| 10 | Murphy, Daniel 2589 | 2b | nym nl | 7.5 |
BTP: Box-Toppers points for 2013 season