The Philadelphia Phillies, last year’s 30th and lowest-ranked team, tops the first Box-Toppers team rankings report of the 2016 season.
Team rankings
Here are Box-Toppers' team rankings, through the games of Thursday, April 14. 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 Thursday, April 7. The column Wk ago shows the team's rank as of April 7.| 4/14 | Teams | BTP | BTP /wk |
Wk ago |
| 1 | Phillies | 9.0 | 9.0 | 28 |
| 2 | Cubs | 9.0 | 5.0 | 2 |
| 3 | Orioles | 8.7 | 5.7 | 7 |
| 4 | Nationals | 8.0 | 5.5 | 12 |
| 5 | Royals | 7.7 | 6.0 | 16 |
| 6 | White Sox | 7.7 | 4.0 | 4 |
| 7 | Giants | 7.5 | 4.0 | 5 |
| 8 | Pirates | 7.5 | 2.5 | 1 |
| 9 | Rangers | 7.4 | 5.7 | 17 |
| 10 | Blue Jays | 7.0 | 4.5 | 10 |
| 11 | Tigers | 7.0 | 4.5 | 11 |
The Phillies are also the hottest team of the week, picking up all of their 9.0 Box-Toppers points of the season within the past week.
Meanwhile, the Baltimore Orioles top American League teams in Box-Toppers rankings with 8.7 points, third place overall.
The Phillies by no means have the best record in the National League—at 5-5, they are three games behind the NL East-leading Washington Nationals—but their players have earned Box-Toppers Player of the Day honors four times in the past week. Each of these players earned 2.0 Box-Toppers points for earning Player of the Day honors in these Phillies wins:
Saturday, April 9—Pitcher Vince Velasquez
Tuesday, April 12—Pitcher Charlie Morton
Wednesday, April 13—Pitcher Jerad Eickhoff
Thursday, April 14—Pitcher Vince Velasquez
Velasquez leads all players in Box-Toppers points with the 4.0 points he earned in the past week, which is also his career Box-Toppers points total.
The Chicago Cubs also have 9.0 Box-Toppers points on the season, but the Phillies rank ahead based on a tiebreaker because they have more team points in the past week—9.0 vs. 5.0. The Cubs have baseball’s best winning percentage (8-1, 0.889).
The Orioles top all AL teams in Box-Toppers points with 8.7, third-most among all teams. They are led by first baseman Chris Davis who has 2.5 Box-Toppers points. The Orioles have the best record among AL teams (7-2), tied with the White Sox and Royals.
The Atlanta Braves and Minnesota Twins rank at the bottom of Box-Toppers team rankings—neither team has won a game and both have 0.0 Box-Toppers points.
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.