| AL PITCHERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | NL PITCHERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |||
| 1 | Snell, Blake 3688 | pi sp | tb al | 19.8 | 1 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 22.1 | |
| 2 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 19.1 | 2 | Nola, Aaron 3569 | pi sp | phi nl | 19.1 | |
| 3 | Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 18.7 | 3 | Corbin, Patrick 3027 | pi sp | ari nl | 15.0 | |
| 4 | Severino, Luis 3567 | pi sp | nyy al | 17.7 | 4 | deGrom, Jacob 3343 | pi sp | nym nl | 13.8 | |
| 5 | Carrasco, Carlos 2885 | pi sp | cle al | 16.4 | 5 | Flaherty, Jack 3971 | pi sp | stl nl | 13.1 | |
| 6 | Verlander, Justin 2112 | pi sp | hou al | 16.4 | 6 | Greinke, Zack 1871 | pi sp | ari nl | 13.0 | |
| 7 | Berrios, Jose 3791 | pi sp | min al | 16.1 | 7 | Chacin, Jhoulys 2711 | pi sp | mil nl | 12.7 | |
| 8 | Paxton, James 3280 | pi sp | sea al | 16.0 | 8 | Pivetta, Nick 3825 | pi sp | phi nl | 11.7 | |
| 9 | Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | hou al | 16.0 | 9 | Teheran, Julio 3176 | pi sp | atl nl | 11.7 | |
| 10 | Bauer, Trevor 3065 | pi sp | cle al | 14.1 | 10 | Marquez, German 3788 | pi sp | col nl | 11.7 | |
| AL BATTERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | NL BATTERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |||
| 1 | Martinez, J.D. 2922 | lf dh rf | bos al | 11.5 | 1 | Rizzo, Anthony 3063 | 1b | chi nl | 8.5 | |
| 2 | Lindor, Francisco 3586 | ss | cle al | 9.6 | 2 | Peralta, David 3370 | lf | ari nl | 8.5 | |
| 3 | Betts, Mookie 3404 | rf | bos al | 8.9 | 3 | Goldschmidt, Paul 2935 | 1b | ari nl | 7.5 | |
| 4 | Davidson, Matt 3292 | 3b dh 1b | chi al | 8.7 | 4 | Baez, Javier 3395 | 2b ss 3b | chi nl | 7.5 | |
| 5 | Ohtani, Shohei 3933 | pi sp dh | ana al | 8.0 | 5 | Reynolds, Mark 2297 | 1b 3b 2b ph | dc nl | 7.5 | |
| 6 | Odor, Rougned 3336 | 2b | tex al | 7.5 | 6 | Suarez, Eugenio 3355 | 3b | cin nl | 7.5 | |
| 7 | Rosario, Eddie 3542 | lf | min al | 7.5 | 7 | Crawford, Brandon 2878 | ss | sf nl | 7.5 | |
| 8 | Healy, Ryon 3685 | 1b | sea al | 7.0 | 8 | Granderson, Curtis 2051 | dh rf | mil nl | 6.7 | |
| 9 | Mazara, Nomar 3614 | rf | tex al | 7.0 | 9 | Yelich, Christian 3334 | rf lf cf | mil nl | 6.5 | |
| 10 | Encarnacion, Edwin 2098 | dh | cle al | 6.5 | 10 | Freeman, Freddie 2887 | 1b | atl nl | 6.5 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
(This post was edited Monday, November 19, 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 maintains top spot in Box-Toppers season player rankings this week.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2018 season through the games of Sept. 6:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 22.1 |
| 2 | Snell, Blake 3688 | pi sp | tb al | 19.8 |
| 3 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 19.1 |
| 4 | Nola, Aaron 3569 | pi sp | phi nl | 19.1 |
| 5 | Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 18.7 |
| 6 | Severino, Luis 3567 | pi sp | nyy al | 17.7 |
| 7 | Carrasco, Carlos 2885 | pi sp | cle al | 16.4 |
| 8 | Verlander, Justin 2112 | pi sp | hou al | 16.4 |
| 9 | Berrios, Jose 3791 | pi sp | min al | 16.1 |
| 10 | Paxton, James 3280 | pi sp | sea al | 16.0 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
Meanwhile, Rays pitcher Blake Snell is this week’s new leader among American League players in 2018 Box-Toppers points and Anthony Rizzo of the Cubs is this week’s new leader among National League batters (Rizzo also led NL batters in 2017).
Scherzer has 22.1 Box-Toppers points on the season, earning 1.0 points in the past week. He leads second place player, Snell (19.8).
American League pitchers—Snell rises to lead AL pitchers with 19.8 Box-Toppers points, passing Chris Sale of the Red Sox (19.1), who led for the past five weeks. Sale, who last earned points Aug. 12, has been on the disabled list with shoulder inflammation.
National League batters—Rizzo rises to lead NL batters with 8.5 Box-Toppers points, passing last week’s leader David Peralta of the Diamondbacks. While Peralta also has 8.5 Box-Toppers points, Rizzo holds the tiebreaker to lead because he had more 2017 Box-Toppers points—15.5 vs. 2.0. Rizzo ranks 53rd among all players. He led all NL batters in 2017 with 15.5 points.
National League pitchers—Scherzer maintains his lead among NL pitchers for the 18th straight week, 3.0 points ahead of second-place Aaron Nola of the Phillies (19.1), who ranks fourth overall.
American League batters—J.D. Martinez of the Red Sox (11.5 points, picking up no points in the past week) leads the category for the ninth week in a row. Martinez has not earned points since Aug. 11. Martinez leads second-place AL batter Francisco Lindor of the Indians (9.6) by 1.9 points. Martinez ranks 25th among all players.
Shohei Ohtani of the Angels has risen to fifth place among American League batters in Box-Toppers points with 8.0. However, Ohtani is a special case because he’s earned half of his Box-Toppers points (4.0) from pitching and the other half batting as a designated hitter (4.0). Still, by Box-Toppers classifications, he’s both a pitcher and a batter and so his Box-Toppers total for the season ranks among both (his 8.0 points ranks 28th among AL pitchers).
So far this season, 692 different players have earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors. There are 358 players who have more than 2.0 Box-Toppers points. There are 144 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.