| AL PITCHERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | NL PITCHERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |||
| 1 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 17.1 | 1 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 20.1 | |
| 2 | Severino, Luis 3567 | pi sp | nyy al | 16.7 | 2 | Nola, Aaron 3569 | pi sp | phi nl | 14.4 | |
| 3 | Berrios, Jose 3791 | pi sp | min al | 16.1 | 3 | Corbin, Patrick 3027 | pi sp | ari nl | 14.0 | |
| 4 | Paxton, James 3280 | pi sp | sea al | 16.0 | 4 | Greinke, Zack 1871 | pi sp | ari nl | 12.0 | |
| 5 | Verlander, Justin 2112 | pi sp | hou al | 15.4 | 5 | Pivetta, Nick 3825 | pi sp | phi nl | 11.7 | |
| 6 | Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | hou al | 14.0 | 6 | Teheran, Julio 3176 | pi sp | atl nl | 9.7 | |
| 7 | Morton, Charlie 2503 | pi sp | hou al | 13.8 | 7 | Gray, Jon 3634 | pi sp | col nl | 9.7 | |
| 8 | Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 13.7 | 8 | deGrom, Jacob 3343 | pi sp | nym nl | 9.4 | |
| 9 | Bauer, Trevor 3065 | pi sp | cle al | 13.1 | 9 | Quintana, Jose 3040 | pi sp | chi nl | 9.1 | |
| 10 | Snell, Blake 3688 | pi sp | tb al | 12.7 | 10 | Chacin, Jhoulys 2711 | pi sp | mil nl | 9.0 | |
| AL BATTERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | NL BATTERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |||
| 1 | Martinez, J.D. 2922 | lf dh rf | bos al | 10.0 | 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 | Peralta, David 3370 | lf | ari nl | 7.0 | |
| 4 | Healy, Ryon 3685 | 1b | sea al | 7.0 | 4 | Freeman, Freddie 2887 | 1b | atl nl | 6.5 | |
| 5 | Mazara, Nomar 3614 | rf | tex al | 7.0 | 5 | Anderson, Brian W. 3954 | rf | fla nl | 6.5 | |
| 6 | Encarnacion, Edwin 2098 | dh | cle al | 6.5 | 6 | Polanco, Gregory 3361 | rf | pit nl | 6.0 | |
| 7 | Rosario, Eddie 3542 | lf | min al | 6.5 | 7 | Baez, Javier 3395 | 2b ss 3b | chi nl | 6.0 | |
| 8 | Choo, Shin-Soo 2267 | dh | tex al | 6.5 | 8 | Reynolds, Mark 2297 | 1b 3b | dc nl | 6.0 | |
| 9 | Haniger, Mitch 3772 | rf | sea al | 6.5 | 9 | Martinez, Jose 3830 | 1b | stl nl | 6.0 | |
| 10 | Odor, Rougned 3336 | 2b | tex al | 6.0 | 10 | Gonzalez, Carlos 2460 | rf | col nl | 5.5 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
(This post was edited Wednesday, November 21, 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.)
Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer leads Box-Toppers season player rankings for the second straight week.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2018 season through the games of Aug. 9:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 20.1 |
| 2 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 17.1 |
| 3 | Severino, Luis 3567 | pi sp | nyy al | 16.7 |
| 4 | Berrios, Jose 3791 | pi sp | min al | 16.1 |
| 5 | Paxton, James 3280 | pi sp | sea al | 16.0 |
| 6 | Verlander, Justin 2112 | pi sp | hou al | 15.4 |
| 7 | Nola, Aaron 3569 | pi sp | phi nl | 14.4 |
| 8 | Corbin, Patrick 3027 | pi sp | ari nl | 14.0 |
| 9 | Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | hou al | 14.0 |
| 10 | Morton, Charlie 2503 | pi sp | hou al | 13.8 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
Scherzer and all other major category points leaders maintain their leads from last week: Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale leads American League players, J.D. Martinez of the Red Sox leads American League batters and Eugenio Suarez of the Reds leads National League batters.
Scherzer has 20.1 Box-Toppers points, unchanged from last week, maintaining his lead over second-place player Sale (17.1 points). Scherzer also leads among National League pitchers for the 14th straight week, 5.7 points ahead of second-place player Aaron Nola of the Phillies (14.4), who ranks seventh overall.
American League pitcher—Sale leads the category for the second week with 18.1 points, ranking second overall. He leads second-place AL pitcher Luis Severino of the Yankees (16.7) by 1.4 points. Sale picked up no points in the past week.
American League batters—Martinez (10.0 points, picking up 1.5 in the past week) leads the category for the sixth week in a row. He leads second-place player Francisco Lindor of the Indians (7.9 points). Martinez ranks 20th among all players.
National League batters—Suarez (7.5 points) leads the category for the 11th 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 47th among all players.
So far this season, 632 different players have earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors. There are 320 players who have more than 2.0 Box-Toppers points. There are 120 players who have made their Box-Toppers debut so far this season (including six in the past week) 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.
Box-Toppers
Tracking who most helps their teams win the most games, based on box score stats. A method to measure & compare baseball's top players.
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.