The Houston Astros visit the New York Yankees Tuesday in the American League one-game Wild Card playoff game.
Starting pitchers are:
Astros—Dallas Keuchel, 21.4 Box-Toppers points, ranked first among AL pitchers, fourth overall.
Yankees—Masahiro Tanaka, 8.0 Box-Toppers points, ranked 28th among AL pitchers, 77th overall.
The Yankees hold home-field advantage because they have one more win on the season than the Astros (87-75 vs. 86-76). But the Astros players have accumulated more Box-Toppers points—118.4 vs. 99.8. The Astros rank eighth in team Box-Toppers rankings, third among AL teams, while the Yankees rank 13th, sixth among AL teams. The Yankees are Box-Toppers’ lowest-ranked playoff team and finished behind three teams that did not qualify for the postseason—the San Francisco Giants, the Washington Nationals and the Los Angeles Angels.
The winner of the AL Wild Card game will face the Kansas City Royals in the best-of-five AL Division Series beginning Thursday in Kansas City. The Royals have the AL’s best record and also have the most Box-Toppers points among AL teams, 127.5, ranked second overall, behind the Pittsburgh Pirates (129.6).
Notable—Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia will not be available for the postseason after it was announced Monday that he will enter alcohol rehabilitation. In 2015, Sabathia had 5.7 Box-Toppers points, his best season since 2012, when he had 15.1. Sabathia is Box-Toppers active leader among pitchers in career points with 179.0. He ranks fifth among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers record keeping began. Sabathia, 35, had eight straight seasons with more than 13.0 Box-Toppers points per season from 2005 to 2012. In 2013, he had 4.7 points. In 2014, he had 1.0 point.
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.
Astros vs. Yankees
Here are players for both teams in the AL Wild Card Game Tuesday. Players are listed for both teams ranked by Box-Toppers points earned in 2015. All players listed were on active Major or Minor League rosters at the end of the season—not necessarily all of them will be included on postseason rosters. Players who earned no Box-Toppers points in 2015 are not included.| Houston Astros | New York Yankees | |||||
| Player | Pos | BTP | Player | Pos | BTP | |
| Keuchel, Dallas 3050 | pi sp | 21.4 | Pineda, Michael 2841 | pi sp | 10.7 | |
| Kazmir, Scott 1947 | pi sp | 12.7 | Tanaka, Masahiro 3305 | pi sp | 8.0 | |
| McHugh, Collin 3316 | pi sp | 9.7 | Drew, Stephen 2210 | 2b | 8.0 | |
| Correa, Carlos 3506 | ss | 7.2 | Rodriguez, Alex | dh | 7.7 | |
| Fiers, Michael 3029 | pi sp | 7.0 | Teixeira, Mark 1738 | 1b | 7.5 | |
| Altuve, Jose 3007 | 2b | 7.0 | McCann, Brian 2179 | ca | 6.5 | |
| McCullers, Lance 3488 | pi sp | 6.7 | Sabathia, C.C. 1492 | pi sp | 5.7 | |
| Gomez, Carlos 2397 | cf | 6.0 | Young, Chris B. 2270 | rf cf lf | 4.5 | |
| Rasmus, Colby 2608 | lf rf cf | 6.0 | Betances, Dellin 3333 | pi cp mr | 4.0 | |
| Gregerson, Luke 2563 | pi cp | 6.0 | Miller, Andrew 2436 | pi cp | 4.0 | |
| Valbuena, Luis 2600 | 3b | 4.5 | Warren, Adam 3169 | pi sp mr | 3.7 | |
| Gattis, Evan 3179 | dh | 4.0 | Beltran, Carlos 1194 | rf ph | 3.5 | |
| Harris, Will 3093 | pi mr cp | 3.7 | Gardner, Brett 2486 | lf cf | 3.5 | |
| Qualls, Chad 1958 | pi mr cp | 3.0 | Ellsbury, Jacoby 2365 | cf | 3.0 | |
| Lowrie, Jed 2437 | ss dh | 2.5 | Bird, Greg 3562 | 1b | 3.0 | |
| Feldman, Scott 2632 | pi sp cp | 2.0 | Severino, Luis 3567 | pi sp | 3.0 | |
| Marisnick, Jake 3428 | cf | 2.0 | Gregorius, Didi 3184 | ss | 2.5 | |
| Tucker, Preston 3525 | rf lf | 2.0 | Eovaldi, Nathan 2928 | pi sp | 2.0 | |
| Carter, Chris 2828 | dh | 1.0 | Headley, Chase 2552 | 3b | 2.0 | |
| Springer, George 3337 | rf | 1.0 | Shreve, Chasen 3482 | pi mr | 2.0 | |
| Fields, Josh 3247 | pi mr | 1.0 | Ackley, Dustin 2921 | lf ph | 1.0 | |
| Conger, Hank 2843 | ca | 1.0 | Wilson, Justin 3140 | pi mr | 1.0 | |
| Oberholtzer, Brett 3244 | pi sp | 1.0 | Nova, Ivan 2796 | pi sp | 1.0 | |
| Petit, Gregorio 2562 | 2b | 1.0 | ||||
| Moreno, Diego 3540 | pi mr | 1.0 | ||||
| Totals | 118.4 | Totals | 99.8 | |||