Astros’ Justin Verlander leads Box-Toppers player rankings for 10th week

Here are the top 10 players by category (AL & NL pitching & batting) in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2019 season through the games of July 25.

	AL PITCHERS	POS	TEAM	BTP			NL PITCHERS	POS	TEAM	BTP
1	Verlander, Justin 2112	pi sp	hou al	16.8		1	Hader, Josh 3881	pi cp	mil nl	15.7
2	Cole, Gerrit 3232	pi sp	hou al	16.1		2	Scherzer, Max 2588	pi sp	dc nl	14.4
3	Morton, Charlie 2503	pi sp	tb al	15.8		3	Strasburg, Stephen 2736	pi sp	dc nl	13.7
4	Bieber, Shane 4005	pi sp	cle al	14.1		4	Greinke, Zack 1871	pi sp	ari nl	13.2
5	Giolito, Lucas 3900	pi sp	chi al	11.7		5	Ryu, Hyun-Jin 3139	pi sp	lad nl	12.7
6	Bauer, Trevor 3065	pi sp	cle al	10.4		6	Corbin, Patrick 3027	pi sp	dc nl	12.4
7	Snell, Blake 3688	pi sp	tb al	10.0		7	Paddack, Chris 4093	pi sp	sd nl	12.4
8	Odorizzi, Jake 3291	pi sp	min al	9.4		8	Castillo, Luis Miguel 3840	pi sp	cin nl	10.4
9	Sale, Chris 2806	pi sp	bos al	9.0		9	Buehler, Walker 3943	pi sp	lad nl	8.7
10	Minor, Mike 2894	pi sp	tex al	9.0		10	Hendricks, Kyle 3386	pi sp	chi nl	8.7
	AL BATTERS	POS	TEAM	BTP			NL BATTERS	POS	TEAM	BTP
1	Pujols, Albert 1438	1b	ana al	8.0		1	Bell, Josh E. 3682	1b	pit nl	9.7
2	Bregman, Alex 3721	3b	hou al	7.0		2	Bellinger, Cody 3781	rf	lad nl	9.2
3	Gardner, Brett 2486	cf	nyy al	7.0		3	Arenado, Nolan 3306	3b	col nl	8.0
4	Devers, Rafael 4038	3b	bos al	7.0		4	Ozuna, Marcell 3190	lf	stl nl	8.0
5	Trout, Mike 2949	cf	ana al	6.7		5	Yelich, Christian 3334	rf	mil nl	6.5
6	Kepler, Max 3664	cf rf	min al	6.7		6	Donaldson, Josh 3144	3b	atl nl	6.5
7	Semien, Marcus 3302	ss	oak al	6.7		7	Marte, Ketel 3630	2b cf	ari nl	6.0
8	Garver, Mitch 3950	ca	min al	6.5		8	Dahl, David 3714	rf cf lf	col nl	6.0
9	Jimenez, Eloy 4107	lf	chi al	6.5		9	Escobar, Eduardo 3135	3b	ari nl	5.5
10	Gallo, Joey 3485	lf cf	tex al	6.0		10	Albies, Ozzie 3953	2b	atl nl	5.5

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Astros pitcher Justin Verlander maintains the lead in Box-Toppers weekly player rankings report for the 10th straight week.

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2019 season through the games of July 25.

 

	Player	Pos	Team	BTP
1	Verlander, Justin 2112	pi sp	hou al	16.8
2	Cole, Gerrit 3232	pi sp	hou al	16.1
3	Morton, Charlie 2503	pi sp	tb al	15.8
4	Hader, Josh 3881	pi cp	mil nl	15.7
5	Scherzer, Max 2588	pi sp	dc nl	14.4
6	Bieber, Shane 4005	pi sp	cle al	14.1
7	Strasburg, Stephen 2736	pi sp	dc nl	13.7
8	Greinke, Zack 1871	pi sp	ari nl	13.2
9	Ryu, Hyun-Jin 3139	pi sp	lad nl	12.7
10	Corbin, Patrick 3027	sp pi	dc nl	12.4

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About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations

Meanwhile, Albert Pujols of the Angels rises to lead American League batters in Box-Toppers season player rankings this week, passing last week’s leader, Alex Bregman of the Astros.

Plus, Josh Hader of the Brewers continues to lead National League pitchers and Josh Bell of the Pirates continues to lead NL batters.

Verlander leads all players and all AL pitchers with 16.8 Box-Toppers points, picking up 2.0 points in the past week. While Verlander has led for 10 straight weekly player rankings reports, he lost the lead for two days this week, when teammate Gerrit Cole passed him Monday before Verlander regained the lead Wednesday. Verlander leads second-place Cole (16.1) in both overall rankings and among American League pitchers.

American League batters—Albert Pujols of the Angels rises past Alex Bregman of the Astros. Pujols now has 8.0 Box-Toppers points on the season, 30th among all players, ahead of second-place Bregman (7.0 points).

National League pitchers—Hader continues to lead for the 10th straight week with 15.7 Box-Toppers points, picking up 1.0 point in the past week. He falls from third to fourth place in overall rankings. He leads second-place NL pitcher Max Scherzer of the Nationals (14.4). Scherzer leads all NL starting pitchers. Hader already has the third-most Box-Toppers points in a single-season by a closing pitcher since 1998.

National League batters—Josh Bell of the Pirates leads NL batters for the third week with 9.7 Box-Toppers points, picking up no points in the past week. Bell, who ranks 16th overall, is ahead of second-place NL batter Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers (9.2). There was no movement among Box-Toppers top 10 NL batters in the past week, with none of the 10 earning any points and no NL batters rising onto the top 10 list.

Top 10 changes—Nationals pitcher Patrick Corbin rises into Box-Toppers overall season player rankings top 10 list this week. Corbin, with 12.4 points, rises to 10th place.

He displaces Padres pitcher Chris Paddack, who with 12.4 points, falls to 11th.

The #BT40—The Box-Toppers 40 (#BT40) is made up of the 40 players on Box-Toppers’ four top 10 category lists—AL and NL pitchers and batters. The #BT40 are listed in the chart at the top of this page.

Three players joined the #BT40 this week:

• Chris Sale of the Red Sox rises to ninth place among AL pitchers with 9.0 points.

• Mitch Garver of the Twins rises to eighth place among AL batters with 6.5 points.

• Walker Buehler of the Dodgers rises to ninth place among NL batters with 8.7 points.

Those three displaced these three players: Rangers pitcher Lance Lynn, Shohei Ohtani of the Angels and Padres pitcher Joey Lucchesi.

It should be noted that the #BT40 are not the overall top 40 players, but the top 10 in each of four categories. The lowest-ranking player among the #BT40 is Ozzie Albies of the Braves (5.5 points, 10th among NL batters), who ranks 87th overall.

So far this season, 1,539 games have been completed (63.3 percent of all 2,430 scheduled), with 1,836.2 total Box-Toppers points awarded to 611 different players, who have earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors. There are 280 players who have more than 2.0 Box-Toppers points. There are 111 players who have made their Box-Toppers debut so far this season (seven 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.

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Last week’s player rankings report