Yankees' Luis Severino leads 2nd straight Box-Toppers season player rankings report

Here are the top 10 players by category (AL & NL pitching & batting) in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2018 season through the games of July 15.

AL PITCHERS POS TEAM BTP NL PITCHERS POS TEAM BTP
1 Severino, Luis 3567 pi sp nyy al 16.7 1 Scherzer, Max 2588 pi sp dc nl 16.4
2 Berrios, Jose 3791 pi sp min al 15.1 2 Nola, Aaron 3569 pi sp phi nl 14.4
3 Paxton, James 3280 pi sp sea al 14.0 3 Corbin, Patrick 3027 pi sp ari nl 11.0
4 Sale, Chris 2806 pi sp bos al 13.7 4 Pivetta, Nick 3825 pi sp phi nl 9.7
5 Cole, Gerrit 3232 pi sp hou al 13.0 5 Teheran, Julio 3176 pi sp atl nl 9.7
6 Snell, Blake 3688 pi sp tb al 12.7 6 Greinke, Zack 1871 pi sp ari nl 9.0
7 Verlander, Justin 2112 pi sp hou al 12.4 7 Maeda, Kenta 3609 pi sp lad nl 8.7
8 Morton, Charlie 2503 pi sp hou al 11.8 8 Foltynewicz, Mike 3455 pi sp atl nl 8.7
9 Kluber, Corey 3200 pi sp cle al 10.7 9 Stripling, Ross 3629 pi sp lad nl 8.7
10 McCullers, Lance 3488 pi sp hou al 10.7 10 deGrom, Jacob 3343 pi sp nym nl 8.4
AL BATTERS POS TEAM BTP NL BATTERS POS TEAM BTP
1 Martinez, J.D. 2922 lf dh rf bos al 8.5 1 Suarez, Eugenio 3355 3b cin nl 7.5
2 Lindor, Francisco 3586 ss cle al 7.9 2 Crawford, Brandon 2878 ss sf nl 7.5
3 Betts, Mookie 3404 rf bos al 7.2 3 Freeman, Freddie 2887 1b atl nl 6.5
4 Mazara, Nomar 3614 rf tex al 7.0 4 Anderson, Brian W. 3954 rf fla nl 6.5
5 Encarnacion, Edwin 2098 dh cle al 6.5 5 Baez, Javier 3395 2b ss 3b chi nl 6.0
6 Rosario, Eddie 3542 lf min al 6.5 6 Reynolds, Mark 2297 1b 3b dc nl 6.0
7 Haniger, Mitch 3772 rf sea al 6.5 7 Peralta, David 3370 lf ari nl 5.5
8 Healy, Ryon 3685 1b sea al 5.5 8 Winker, Jesse 3988 rf lf ph cin nl 5.5
9 Trout, Mike 2949 cf ana al 5.5 9 Shaw, Travis 3544 3b mil nl 5.0
10 Gardner, Brett 2486 cf lf nyy al 5.5 10 Yelich, Christian 3334 rf lf mil nl 5.0
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(This post was edited Thursday, November 22, 2018, 2018, to correct an error in the Box-Toppers point total of Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom . During the 2018 season, an extra, unearned point was added to his total. There is more information about this at the bottom of the post.)

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2018 season through the games of July 15:  
 

Player Pos Team BTP
1 Severino, Luis 3567 pi sp nyy al 16.7
2 Scherzer, Max 2588 pi sp dc nl 16.4
3 Berrios, Jose 3791 pi sp min al 15.1
4 Nola, Aaron 3569 pi sp phi nl 14.4
5 Paxton, James 3280 pi sp sea al 14.0
6 Sale, Chris 2806 pi sp bos al 13.7
7 Cole, Gerrit 3232 pi sp hou al 13.0
8 Snell, Blake 3688 pi sp tb al 12.7
9 Verlander, Justin 2112 pi sp hou al 12.4
10 Morton, Charlie 2503 pi sp hou al 11.8
What are those numbers after players' names?
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations

Yankees pitcher Luis Severino maintains his lead in Box-Toppers season player rankings.

Severino has 16.7 Box-Toppers points at the All-Star break through the game of July 15. He picked up no points since the last player rankings report July 5 and continues his lead over second-place player, Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer (16.4 points).

Also since the last player rankings report July 5, all four points category leaders remain the same—Severino leads American League pitchers, Scherzer leads National League pitchers, J.D. Martinez of the Red Sox leads AL batters and Eugenio Suarez of the Reds leads NL batters.

American League pitchers—Severino (16.7 points) leads the category for the 12th straight week, ahead of second-place player Jose Berrios of the Twins (15.1 points).

National League pitchers—Scherzer (16.4 points), who picked up no points since the last report, leads the category for the 11th straight week, 3.0 points ahead of the second-place player Aaron Nola of the Phillies (14.4 points).

American League batters—Martinez (8.5 points) leads the category for the third week in a row, picking up no points since the last player rankings report July 5. He leads second-place player Francisco Lindor of the Indians (7.9 points). Martinez ranks 26th among all players.

National League batters—Suarez (7.5 points) leads the category for the eighth week in a row, picking up no points in the past week. He leads second-place player Brandon Crawford of the Giants (7.5). Though both Suarez and Crawford have 7.5 Box-Toppers points for the season, Suarez ranks ahead because he had more 2017 Box-Toppers points—3.5 vs. 1.7. Suarez ranks 34th among all players.

So far this season, 579 different players have earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors. There are 270 players who have more than 2.0 Box-Toppers points. There are 99 players who have made their Box-Toppers debut so far this season (including 11 since the last player rankings report July 5) the first time in their career they earned Player of the Game honors.

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.

Box-Toppers strives for accuracy. See a mistake in a post? A wrong name, wrong team, grammar error, spelling goof, etc.? Thanks for pointing it out! Contact Box-Toppers here. Let's fix it and make it right.

Last week’s player rankings report

NOTE ABOUT JACOB DEGROM: After this post was published, Box-Toppers discovered an error: Jacob deGrom was credited with 1.0 more Box-Toppers point than he actually earned in 2018. This post has been changed to include deGrom’s actual Box-Toppers point total and player ranking position at the time of this post. Subtracting a point from deGrom’s season total meant he had 16.8 Box-Toppers points, rather than 17.8. Despite the change, he still finished third among National League pitchers. However, the change moves him from ninth place to 12th place in overall season player rankings, moving him out of the top 10 and keeping Yankees pitcher Luis Severino (17.7 points) in the top 10 for the season, in 10th place.

This is made all the more odd and awkward because the error was discovered while compiling the post about deGrom winning the NL Cy Young Award on Wednesday, Nov. 14. deGrom was the near-unanimous choice for the award, but even with his higher, incorrect Box-Toppers point total (17.8), Box-Toppers had him ranked third among NL pitchers, needing nearly 50 percent more points to catch the NL pitching leader, Max Scherzer of the Nationals (25.1).

My post was about how Scherzer was more deserving of the award than the widely acclaimed deGrom because Scherzer actually helped his team win more games. Despite deGrom’s great performances, the Mets lost most of the games he pitched. Since winning is the name of the game and since Box-Toppers points are only awarded in wins, deGrom’s point total was far lower—but it was still remarkable, given all the losses, that he reached as high as third place among NL pitchers. While writing about how deGrom wasn’t as deserving of the award, I found the error (the extra point), and correcting the record (subtracting the point), I found he was even more undeserving.