| AL PITCHERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | NL PITCHERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |||
| 1 | Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | nyy al | 22.4 | 1 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | lad nl | 25.1 | |
| 2 | Ray, Robbie 3502 | pi sp | tor al | 16.7 | 2 | Wheeler, Zack 3204 | pi sp | phi nl | 21.1 | |
| 3 | Ohtani, Shohei 3933 | pi sp | ana al | 16.1 | 3 | Marquez, German 3788 | pi sp | col nl | 17.4 | |
| 4 | Manaea, Sean 3637 | pi sp | oak al | 14.7 | 4 | Urias, Julio 3652 | pi sp | lad nl | 17.4 | |
| 5 | Bassitt, Chris 3413 | pi sp | oak al | 13.7 | 5 | Burnes, Corbin 4029 | pi sp | mil nl | 17.1 | |
| 6 | Glasnow, Tyler 3948 | pi sp | tb al | 12.7 | 6 | Woodruff, Brandon 3868 | pi sp | mil nl | 17.1 | |
| 7 | Lynn, Lance 2992 | pi sp | chi al | 12.4 | 7 | deGrom, Jacob 3343 | pi sp | nym nl | 16.7 | |
| 8 | Eovaldi, Nathan 2928 | pi sp | bos al | 12.4 | 8 | Musgrove, Joe 3705 | pi sp | sd nl | 15.1 | |
| 9 | Cease, Dylan 4231 | pi sp | chi al | 12.4 | 9 | Buehler, Walker 3943 | pi sp | lad nl | 13.7 | |
| 10 | Flexen, Chris 4368 | pi sp | sea al | 11.7 | 10 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 13.4 | |
| AL BATTERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | NL BATTERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |||
| 1 | Ramirez, Jose 3436 | 3b | cle al | 12.0 | 1 | Castellanos, Nicholas 3349 | rf | cin nl | 10.5 | |
| 2 | Martinez, J.D. 2922 | dh | bos al | 10.7 | 2 | Tatis, Fernando Jr. 4101 | ss | sd nl | 10.2 | |
| 3 | Lowe, Brandon 4108 | 2b | tb al | 9.0 | 3 | Votto, Joey 2366 | 1b | cin nl | 9.7 | |
| 4 | Bogaerts, Xander 3383 | ss | bos al | 8.5 | 4 | Arenado, Nolan 3306 | 3b | stl nl | 9.0 | |
| 5 | Abreu, Jose 3308 | 1b | chi al | 8.0 | 5 | Goldschmidt, Paul 2935 | 1b | stl nl | 9.0 | |
| 6 | Olson, Matt 3836 | 1b | oak al | 8.0 | 6 | Duvall, Adam 3573 | rf lf | atl nl | 8.0 | |
| 7 | Alvarez, Yordan 4209 | dh lf | hou al | 7.0 | 7 | Reynolds, Bryan 4169 | cf | pit nl | 8.0 | |
| 8 | Bichette, Bo 4233 | ss | tor al | 7.0 | 8 | O’Neill, Tyler 4074 | lf | stl nl | 8.0 | |
| 9 | Judge, Aaron 3767 | rf | nyy al | 6.5 | 9 | Riley, Austin 4144 | 3b | atl nl | 7.5 | |
| 10 | Devers, Rafael 4038 | 3b | bos al | 6.5 | 10 | Winker, Jesse 3988 | lf | cin nl | 7.5 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
Dodgers pitcher Max Scherzer leads Box-Toppers season player rankings for the second week.
Meanwhile, Jose Ramirez of the Indians rises to lead American League batters in rankings. Also, Gerrit Cole of the Yankees continues to lead AL pitchers and Nick Castellanos of the Reds continues to lead National League batters.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 in Box-Toppers season player rankings for 2021. Players are ranked by Box-Toppers points (BTP) earned this season through Thursday, Sept. 23.| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | lad nl | 25.1 |
| 2 | Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | nyy al | 22.4 |
| 3 | Wheeler, Zack 3204 | pi sp | phi nl | 21.1 |
| 4 | Marquez, German 3788 | pi sp | col nl | 17.4 |
| 5 | Urias, Julio 3652 | pi sp | lad nl | 17.4 |
| 6 | Burnes, Corbin 4029 | pi sp | mil nl | 17.1 |
| 7 | Woodruff, Brandon 3868 | pi sp | mil nl | 17.1 |
| 8 | deGrom, Jacob 3343 | pi sp | nym nl | 16.7 |
| 9 | Ray, Robbie 3502 | pi sp | tor al | 16.7 |
| 10 | Ohtani, Shohei 3933 | pi sp | ana al | 16.1 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
This is the penultimate (and also next-to-last) player rankings report of the season. The final report will be posted after the completion of regular season games, currently scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 3.
Scherzer has 25.1 Box-Toppers points, earning 2.0 points in the past week. He leads over second-place player, Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole (22.4 points). He leads NL pitchers over second-place Zack Wheeler of the Phillies (21.1).
American League batters—Jose Ramirez of the Indians rose this week to lead the category with 12.0 Box-Toppers points, passing J.D. Martinez of the Red Sox, who falls to second place (10.7). Ramirez ranks 24th among all players.
It should be noted that Shohei Ohtani of the Angels, currently with 16.1 Box-Toppers points, could take the lead among AL batters. Ohtani is currently unranked among AL batters because he’s earned the overwhelming majority of his Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors as a pitcher (nine of 12, the other three coming as a designated hitter). But if Ohtani earns one more Player of the Game honors as a designated hitter, he would again qualify to rank among AL batters and would likely go from completely unranked to taking a dominating lead in the category.
However, Ohtani has not earned Player of the Game honors as a designated hitter since July 28–his last four such honors have been awarded for his pitching performances.
American League pitchers—Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole leads the category for the 13th straight report, dating back to June 17. He has 22.4 Box-Toppers points, earning no points in the past week and ranks second overall behind Scherzer (25.1). Cole leads AL pitchers ahead of second-place Robbie Ray of the Blue Jays (16.7).
National League batters—Nick Castellanos of the Reds leads for the fourth week with 10.5 Box-Toppers points, earning no points in the past week. He leads over second-place NL batter Fernando Tatis Jr. of the Padres (10.2 points) and ranks 38th among all players.
Analysis—With a little more than one week left in the season, both Scherzer and Cole have all but clinched the season lead among pitchers in their respective leagues. Scherzer is 4.0 points ahead of the second-place Wheeler in the NL and Cole is 5.7 points ahead of second-place Ray in the AL. The only question is can Cole pass Scherzer for the overall top spot? He is 2.7 points behind and could earn up to 4.0 more points in two final starts this season (including one scheduled for Friday, Sept. 24).
This year is also shaping up to have potential record-low Box-Toppers points among league batting leaders. The lowest Box-Toppers point total to lead NL batters in a regular 162-game schedule is 10.7 by Nolan Arenado of the Rockies in 2016, which is also the lowest point total to lead any category in a regular-length season. Current NL batting leader Nick Castellanos of the Reds has 10.5 points with one week to go.
The lowest total to lead AL batters in a regular-length season is 12.1 by Edwin Encarnacion of the Indians in 2017. Current AL batting leader Jose Ramirez of the Indians has 12.0 points.
It should be noted that the pandemic-shortened 2020 season produced the lowest point totals to lead all categories.
Top 10 list exits and entrances—The overall top 10 list consists not only of the same 10 players as last week, but each of the top 10 players kept their ranking. In fact, only two players on the top 10 list earned points in the past week—top-ranked Scherzer earned 2.0 points and third-ranked Wheeler earned 2.0 points.
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.
Six players joined the #BT40 this week:
Chris Flexen of the Mariners rises to 10th place among AL pitchers with 11.7 points.
Yordan Alvarez of the Astros rises to seventh place among AL batters with 7.0 points.
Bo Bichette of the Blue Jays rises to eighth place among AL batters with 7.0 points.
Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers rises to 10th place among NL pitchers with 13.4 points.
Paul Goldschmidt of the Cardinals rises to fifth place among NL batters with 9.0 points.
Tyler O'Neill of the Cardinals rises to eighth place among NL batters with 8.0 points.
Those six displace these six players: White Sox pitcher Carlos Rodon, Jared Walsh of the Angels, Mitch Haniger of the Mariners, Padres pitcher Yu Darvish, Dansby Swanson of the Braves and Ozzie Albies of the Braves.
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 Rafael Devers of the Red Sox (6.5 points, 10th among AL batters), who ranks 107th overall.
Box-Toppers almanac
Players who have earned Box-Toppers points so far in 2021—779 (it was 765 as of last week).
Players with more than 2.0 Box-Toppers points—378 (it was 364 as of last week).
Players who’ve made their Box-Toppers debut so far in 2021 (earning their first career Player of the Game honor)—196 (it was 189 as of last week).
Games completed so far in 2021—2,289, an average of 152.6 per team.
Percentage of scheduled season completed—94.2.
Batters struck back against pitchers’ dominance this week, winning a majority of the week’s Player of the Game honors. In the 96 games completed from Sept. 17 to 23, batters won Player of the Game honors in 51 (53.1 percent) while pitchers won in 45 (46.9 percent). That decreased the overall share of Player of the Game honors won by pitchers this season to 61.0 percent of all games (1,397 out of 2,289), compared to 39.0 percent won by batters (892 out of 2,289). (Last week, through games of Sept. 16, pitchers had 61.7 percent of all Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors this season.)
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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