Oakland Athletics, top AL team 6 straight weeks, reclaims Box-Toppers team rankings lead

The Oakland Athletics have regained the top spot in Box-Toppers team rankings.

Athletics players have accumulated 35.9 Box-Toppers points this season, including 5.5 points this past week, rising from third place last week. They pass last week’s top team, the San Francisco Giants, which fell to fourth place overall.

Top 10 teams

Here are Box-Toppers' Top 10 teams, through the games of Thursday, May 22. 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 during the past week.

522	Teams	BTP	BTP /wk	Last  week  rank
1	Athletics	35.9	5.5	3
2	Marlins	34.9	5.0	4
3	Rockies	34.5	3.7	2
4	Giants	33.7	2.7	1
5	Blue Jays	32.9	8.0	15
6	Angels	32.8	5.4	6
7	Braves	31.3	5.2	9
8	Brewers	31.2	3.0	5
9	White Sox	31.0	6.0	13
10	Cardinals	30.0	6.0	17

BTP: Box-Toppers points

The Athletics have led all American League teams for six straight weeks and previously led all teams the week of May 1. They are led by pitchers Scott Kazmir and Jesse Chavez, both of whom have 5.7 Box-Toppers points each. Kazmir is ranked 13th and Chavez 14th among AL pitchers in Box-Toppers points.

The Athletics also have baseball’s best winning percentage (.638).

The Miami Marlins are the top National League team with 34.9 Box-Toppers points. They are in second place overall, rising from fourth place a week ago.

The Marlins top players are pitcher Jose Fernandez (7.0 Box-Toppers points, but out for the season) and pitcher Henderson Alvarez (5.0 Box-Toppers points). Fernandez is ranked third among NL pitchers and Alvarez is 10th.

The Toronto Blue Jays are the hottest team of the past week, picking up 8.0 Box-Toppers points. They rose from 15th to fifth place in team rankings, with 32.9 Box-Toppers points for the season.

The Blue Jays rose into the top 10 teams along with the White Sox and the Cardinals. The Dodgers, Tigers and Yankees all fell out of the top 10 this week.

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.