The Pittsburgh Pirates are atop Box-Toppers team rankings for the third straight week.
Meanwhile, the Kansas City Royals remain the top American League team for the sixth straight week. Plus, the Chicago Cubs were the hottest team of the past week, picking up 6.7 Box-Toppers points.
Team rankings
Here are Box-Toppers' team rankings, through the games of Thursday, Sept. 24. The column BTP shows the number of Box-Toppers points players on the team have accumulated so far this season. The column BTP/wk shows have many points teams have accumulated since the previous report through the games of Thursday, Sept. 17. The column Wk ago shows the team's rank as of Sept. 17.9/24 |
Teams |
BTP |
BTP /wk |
Wk ago |
| 1 | Pirates | 124.1 | 6.5 | 1 |
| 2 | Royals | 121.5 | 4.0 | 2 |
| 3 | Cardinals | 120.8 | 5.7 | 3 |
| 4 | Blue Jays | 117.6 | 3.7 | 5 |
| 5 | Mets | 117.3 | 3.0 | 4 |
| 6 | Dodgers | 116.5 | 3.0 | 6 |
| 7 | Cubs | 116.4 | 6.7 | 7 |
| 8 | Astros | 110.5 | 3.0 | 8 |
| 9 | Giants | 105.3 | 2.0 | 9 |
| 10 | Rangers | 101.5 | 6.0 | 10 |
| 11 | Nationals | 98.7 | 3.5 | 11 |
| 12 | Yankees | 96.8 | 4.0 | 12 |
| 13 | Orioles | 92.9 | 4.0 | 13 |
| 14 | Angels | 92.7 | 4.0 | 14 |
| 15 | Twins | 89.5 | 4.0 | 15 |
| 16 | Indians | 88.1 | 3.0 | 16 |
| 17 | Mariners | 86.9 | 3.7 | 17 |
| 18 | White Sox | 85.3 | 4.0 | 18 |
| 19 | Rays | 83.0 | 5.5 | 19 |
| 20 | Padres | 79.3 | 3.0 | 20 |
| 21 | Dbacks | 76.0 | 4.7 | 22 |
| 22 | Athletics | 74.3 | 1.5 | 21 |
| 23 | Red Sox | 69.9 | 3.5 | 23 |
| 24 | Rockies | 67.9 | 2.5 | 24 |
| 25 | Marlins | 67.1 | 3.0 | 25 |
| 26 | Tigers | 60.4 | 5.2 | 28 |
| 27 | Brewers | 58.3 | 2.0 | 26 |
| 28 | Reds | 57.7 | 2.0 | 27 |
| 29 | Braves | 56.6 | 5.7 | 29 |
| 30 | Phillies | 49.8 | 1.5 | 30 |
The Pirates lead the next-to-last (and also penultimate) Box-Toppers team rankings report of the season—players have accumulated 124.1 points and picked up 6.5 points over the past week. They are led by pitcher Gerrit Cole (18.0 Box-Toppers points). Top batter is Andrew McCutchen (9.5 points). Twenty-four different Pirates players have earned Player of the Game honors this season.
Pirates have baseball’s second-best winning percentage (.608), behind their division rival St. Louis Cardinals (.634). The Pirates are actually 4.0 games behind St. Louis in the NL Central. The Cardinals rank third among all teams with 120.8 Box-Toppers points.
The Royals maintain their lead among AL teams with 121.5 Box-Toppers points. They are led by pitcher Johnny Cueto (12.8 Box-Toppers points). Top batter is Eric Hosmer (9.0 Box-Toppers points). Twenty-six different Royals players have earned Player of the Game honors this season.
The Chicago Cubs were the hottest team of the week, picking up 6.7 Box-Toppers points and maintaining their rank of seventh among all teams with 116.4 points.
As the season winds to a close, very few teams are shifting spots in rankings. Only seven of the 30 teams changed their spot from last week’s rankings and only one, the Detroit Tigers, moved more than one spot. The Tigers rose from 28th to 26th with 60.4 Box-Toppers points, picking up 5.2 over the past week.
The Philadelphia Phillies remain in 30th and last place among all teams for the 15th straight week. The Phillies have 49.8 Box-Toppers points and were tied (with the Oakland Athletics) for the worst week among all teams, picking up 1.5 Box-Toppers points. Twenty-two different Phillies players have earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors this season.
There will be no team rankings report next Friday before the final weekend of the season. The next and final team rankings of the season will be at the end of the regular season on Monday, Oct. 5.
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.