The Oakland Athletics remain the top team in Box-Toppers team rankings even though no team had fewer Box-Toppers points during the past week.
Athletics players have accumulated 99.5 Box-Toppers points this season, but picked up only 1.0 point during the past week—tied with three other teams for the least points scored during the week.
Top 10 teams
Here are Box-Toppers' Top 10 teams, through the games of Thursday, Aug. 21. 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 in the past week.| 821 | Teams | BTP | BTP /wk |
Last wk rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Athletics | 99.5 | 1.0 | 1 |
| 2 | Angels | 98.5 | 7.5 | 3 |
| 3 | Dodgers | 95.6 | 3.2 | 2 |
| 4 | Cardinals | 92.1 | 5.7 | 4 |
| 5 | Tigers | 89.4 | 4.0 | 5 |
| 6 | Nationals | 87.3 | 8.0 | 7 |
| 7 | Giants | 84.4 | 4.0 | 6 |
| 8 | Brewers | 81.5 | 5.2 | 10 |
| 9 | Orioles | 81.5 | 5.0 | 9 |
| 10 | Royals | 80.6 | 5.0 | 11 |
While the Athletics have led Box-Toppers team rankings since the July 13 report, their lead has never been so narrow. The second-place Los Angeles Angels are only 1.0 Box-Toppers point behind with 98.5. And the National League-leading Los Angeles Dodgers are now just 3.9 points behind, with 95.6.
The Athletics are led by pitchers Scott Kazmir (14.1 Box-Toppers points, ranked seventh among American League pitchers) and Jon Lester (12.0 Box-Toppers points, ranked 12th among AL pitchers). Kazmir scored the Athletics’ lone Box-Toppers point this week.
The Athletics have the second-best record in baseball and the second-best in the American League, behind the Angels. The Athletics have a .587 winning percentage, two games behind the Angels, with .603.
The Angels are led by pitcher Garrett Richards (15.7 Box-Toppers points, ranked eighth among all players). However, Richards suffered a season-ending injury this week (torn knee tendon). Pitcher Matt Shoemaker now has the most points among active Angels players (8.0, ranked 27th among AL pitchers).
The Dodgers continue to lead all NL teams, as they have since the July 3 team rankings report. The Dodgers, who fell from second to third in overall rankings, are led by pitchers Clayton Kershaw (23.8 Box-Toppers points, overall leader) and Zack Greinke (13.8 Box-Toppers points, ranked fifth among NL pitchers).
The Dodgers have the third-best winning percentage in the NL (.558), behind the Washington Nationals (.579) and the Milwaukee Brewers (.559). The Nationals have 87.3 Box-Toppers points, in sixth place overall—they had the best week of all teams, picking up 8.0 Box-Toppers points and rising from seventh to sixth place in team rankings. The Brewers have 81.5 Box-Toppers points and are in eighth place in team rankings.
The Kansas City Royals rose into the top 10 team rankings list, picking up 5.0 Box-Toppers points in the past week, giving him 80.6 for the season, rising from 11th to 10th place. The Toronto Blue Jays fell out of the top 10, falling from eighth to 11th place, picking up only 2.0 Box-Toppers points in the past week, giving them 80.0 for the season.
The Boston Red Sox remain the lowest-ranked team with 50.0 Box-Toppers points.
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.