| AL PITCHERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | NL PITCHERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |||
| 1 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 19.1 | 1 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 21.1 | |
| 2 | Snell, Blake 3688 | pi sp | tb al | 18.8 | 2 | Nola, Aaron 3569 | pi sp | phi nl | 19.1 | |
| 3 | Severino, Luis 3567 | pi sp | nyy al | 16.7 | 3 | Corbin, Patrick 3027 | pi sp | ari nl | 15.0 | |
| 4 | Carrasco, Carlos 2885 | pi sp | cle al | 16.4 | 4 | Flaherty, Jack 3971 | pi sp | stl nl | 13.1 | |
| 5 | Berrios, Jose 3791 | pi sp | min al | 16.1 | 5 | Greinke, Zack 1871 | pi sp | ari nl | 13.0 | |
| 6 | Paxton, James 3280 | pi sp | sea al | 16.0 | 6 | deGrom, Jacob 3343 | pi sp | nym nl | 12.8 | |
| 7 | Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | hou al | 16.0 | 7 | Chacin, Jhoulys 2711 | pi sp | mil nl | 11.7 | |
| 8 | Verlander, Justin 2112 | pi sp | hou al | 15.4 | 8 | Pivetta, Nick 3825 | pi sp | phi nl | 11.7 | |
| 9 | Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 14.7 | 9 | Hamels, Cole 2135 | pi sp | chi nl | 11.1 | |
| 10 | Bauer, Trevor 3065 | pi sp | cle al | 14.1 | 10 | Godley, Zack 3538 | pi sp | ari nl | 10.7 | |
| AL BATTERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | NL BATTERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |||
| 1 | Martinez, J.D. 2922 | lf dh rf | bos al | 11.5 | 1 | Peralta, David 3370 | lf | ari nl | 8.5 | |
| 2 | Betts, Mookie 3404 | rf | bos al | 8.9 | 2 | Goldschmidt, Paul 2935 | 1b | ari nl | 7.5 | |
| 3 | Lindor, Francisco 3586 | ss | cle al | 7.9 | 3 | Baez, Javier 3395 | 2b ss 3b | chi nl | 7.5 | |
| 4 | Davidson, Matt 3292 | 3b dh 1b | chi al | 7.7 | 4 | Reynolds, Mark 2297 | 1b 3b 2b ph | dc nl | 7.5 | |
| 5 | Odor, Rougned 3336 | 2b | tex al | 7.5 | 5 | Suarez, Eugenio 3355 | 3b | cin nl | 7.5 | |
| 6 | Rosario, Eddie 3542 | lf | min al | 7.5 | 6 | Crawford, Brandon 2878 | ss | sf nl | 7.5 | |
| 7 | Healy, Ryon 3685 | 1b | sea al | 7.0 | 7 | Rizzo, Anthony 3063 | 1b | chi nl | 7.0 | |
| 8 | Mazara, Nomar 3614 | rf | tex al | 7.0 | 8 | Yelich, Christian 3334 | rf lf cf | mil nl | 6.5 | |
| 9 | Granderson, Curtis 2051 | dh rf | tor al | 6.7 | 9 | Freeman, Freddie 2887 | 1b | atl nl | 6.5 | |
| 10 | Encarnacion, Edwin 2098 | dh | cle al | 6.5 | 10 | Carpenter, Matt 2987 | 1b | stl nl | 6.5 |
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.)
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2018 season through the games of Aug. 30:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 21.1 |
| 2 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 19.1 |
| 3 | Nola, Aaron 3569 | pi sp | phi nl | 19.1 |
| 4 | Snell, Blake 3688 | pi sp | tb al | 18.8 |
| 5 | Severino, Luis 3567 | pi sp | nyy al | 16.7 |
| 6 | Carrasco, Carlos 2885 | pi sp | cle al | 16.4 |
| 7 | Berrios, Jose 3791 | pi sp | min al | 16.1 |
| 8 | Paxton, James 3280 | pi sp | sea al | 16.0 |
| 9 | Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | hou al | 16.0 |
| 10 | Verlander, Justin 2112 | pi sp | hou al | 15.4 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer maintains top spot in Box-Toppers season player rankings this week.
Meanwhile, all of last week’s category leaders remain the same, even though none of them picked up any points in the past week:
Scherzer still leads NL pitchers.
Chris Sale of the Red Sox still leads American League pitchers.
J.D. Martinez of the Red Sox still leads AL batters.
David Peralta of the Diamondbacks still leads NL batters.
Scherzer has 21.1 Box-Toppers points on the season, earning no points in the past week. He leads second place player Sale (19.1) by 2.0 points.
National League pitchers—Scherzer maintains his lead among NL pitchers for the 17th straight week, 2.0 points ahead of second-place Aaron Nola of the Phillies (19.1), who ranks third overall.
American League pitchers—Sale leads the category for the fifth week with 19.1 points, picking up no points in the past week. He leads second-place AL pitcher Blake Snell of the Rays (18.8) by 0.3 points.
American League batters—Martinez (11.5 points, picking up no points in the past week) leads the category for the eighth week in a row. He leads second-place AL batter and teammate Mookie Betts (8.9 points). Martinez ranks 23rd among all players.
National League batters—David Peralta of the Diamondbacks leads NL batters for the second straight week with 8.5 Box-Toppers points, picking up no points in the past week. Peralta leads over second-place NL batter and teammate Paul Goldschmidt (7.5 points). Peralta ranks 48th among all players.
So far this season, 677 different players have earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors. There are 351 players who have more than 2.0 Box-Toppers points. There are 138 players who have made their Box-Toppers debut so far this season (including five 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.