| AL PITCHERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | NL PITCHERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |||
| 1 | Verlander, Justin 2112 | pi sp | hou al | 19.0 | 1 | Alcantara, Sandy 4061 | pi sp | fla nl | 15.4 | |
| 2 | Ohtani, Shohei 3933 | pi sp dh | ana al | 17.0 | 2 | Fried, Max 4011 | pi sp | atl nl | 13.0 | |
| 3 | Cease, Dylan 4231 | pi sp | chi al | 15.7 | 3 | Urias, Julio 3652 | pi sp | lad nl | 12.7 | |
| 4 | McClanahan, Shane 4399 | pi sp | tb al | 14.4 | 4 | Rodon, Carlos 3494 | pi sp | sf nl | 12.7 | |
| 5 | Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | nyy al | 11.4 | 5 | Musgrove, Joe 3705 | pi sp | sd nl | 12.4 | |
| 6 | Skubal, Tarik 4414 | pi sp | det al | 10.7 | 6 | Woodruff, Brandon 3868 | pi sp | mil nl | 11.4 | |
| 7 | Cortes, Nestor 4160 | pi sp | nyy al | 10.4 | 7 | Wheeler, Zack 3204 | pi sp | phi nl | 10.7 | |
| 8 | Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | tb al | 10.0 | 8 | Burnes, Corbin 4029 | pi sp | mil nl | 10.4 | |
| 9 | Ryan, Joe 4539 | pi sp | min al | 9.7 | 9 | Darvish, Yu 3003 | pi sp | sd nl | 10.1 | |
| 10 | Ray, Robbie 3502 | pi sp | sea al | 9.4 | 10 | Nola, Aaron 3569 | pi sp | phi nl | 10.0 | |
| AL BATTERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | NL BATTERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |||
| 1 | Ohtani, Shohei 3933 | pi sp dh | ana al | 17.0 | 1 | Alonso, Pete 4118 | 1b | nym nl | 12.2 | |
| 2 | Ramirez, Jose 3436 | 3b | cle al | 9.7 | 2 | Betts, Mookie 3404 | rf | lad nl | 9.0 | |
| 3 | Alvarez, Yordan 4209 | dh | hou al | 8.7 | 3 | Tellez, Rowdy 4078 | 1b | mil nl | 8.2 | |
| 4 | Judge, Aaron 3767 | rf cf | nyy al | 8.2 | 4 | Riley, Austin 4144 | 3b | atl nl | 7.0 | |
| 5 | Rodriguez, Julio 4590 | cf | sea al | 7.5 | 5 | Cron, C.J. 3338 | 1b | col nl | 7.0 | |
| 6 | France, Ty 4243 | 1b | sea al | 7.0 | 6 | Aguilar, Jesus 3787 | 1b dh | fla nl | 7.0 | |
| 7 | Suarez, Eugenio 3355 | 3b | sea al | 7.0 | 7 | Harper, Bryce 3011 | dh | phi nl | 6.0 | |
| 8 | Gurriel, Lourdes Jr. 4148 | lf | tor al | 6.5 | 8 | Freeman, Freddie 2887 | 1b | lad nl | 6.0 | |
| 9 | Semien, Marcus 3302 | 2b | tex al | 6.0 | 9 | Canha, Mark 3454 | lf cf 1b | nym nl | 5.7 | |
| 10 | Story, Trevor 3607 | 2b | bos al | 5.5 | 10 | Machado, Manny 3087 | 3b | sd nl | 5.5 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
Astros pitcher Justin Verlander rises to lead Box-Toppers weekly player rankings, passing Angels pitcher Shohei Ohtani, who has led the past five weeks.
Meanwhile, Ohtani continues to lead American League batters, Sandy Alcantara of the Marlins continues to lead National League pitchers and Pete Alonso of the Mets continues to lead NL batters.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 in Box-Toppers season player rankings for 2022. Players are ranked by Box-Toppers points (BTP) earned this season through Thursday, Aug. 4.| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Verlander, Justin 2112 | pi sp | hou al | 19.0 |
| 2 | Ohtani, Shohei 3933 | pi sp dh | ana al | 17.0 |
| 3 | Cease, Dylan 4231 | pi sp | chi al | 15.7 |
| 4 | Alcantara, Sandy 4061 | pi sp | fla nl | 15.4 |
| 5 | McClanahan, Shane 4399 | pi sp | tb al | 14.4 |
| 6 | Fried, Max 4011 | pi sp | atl nl | 13.0 |
| 7 | Urias, Julio 3652 | pi sp | lad nl | 12.7 |
| 8 | Rodon, Carlos 3494 | pi sp | sf nl | 12.7 |
| 9 | Musgrove, Joe 3705 | pi sp | sd nl | 12.4 |
| 10 | Alonso, Pete 4118 | 1b | nym nl | 12.2 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
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Overall leader—Verlander rose past Ohtani on Thursday to lead all players with 19.0 Box-Toppers points. Ohtani falls to second with 17.0 points. Verlander also passes Ohtani for first place among AL pitchers.
American League batters—While Ohtani loses the overall lead, he still lead among AL batters for the 15th straight week with his 17.0 Box-Toppers points, picking up no points in the past week. He ranks ahead of second-place AL batter Jose Ramirez of the Guardians (9.7 points).
Ohtani has won Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors 11 times this season, eight as a starting pitcher (13.0 total points) and three as a designated hitter (4.0 total points). He still qualifies to rank among both pitchers and batters since more than 25 percent of his Player of the Game honors come in both categories. However, if his next Player of the Game honor comes as a pitcher, he will no longer be qualified to rank among batters, as he will only have three of 12 of his Player of the Game honors as a batter (25 percent).
In 2021, Ohtani earned 16.1 Box-Toppers points but was ranked only as a pitcher because he earned such an overwhelming majority of his Player of the Game honors as a pitcher (nine of 12).However, during 2021, Ohtani qualified to be ranked as a batter from July 2 to Sept. 3, a period in which he earned more than 25 percent of his season’s Player of the Game honors as a batter.
National League pitchers—Sandy Alcantara of the Marlins leads for the third week with 15.4 Box-Toppers points, picking up 1.0 point in the past week. He leads ahead of second-place Max Fried of the Braves (13.0 points). Alcantara ranks fourth among all players.
National League batters—Pete Alonso of the Mets leads for the eighth week with 12.2 Box-Toppers points, picking up 1.5 points in the past week, ahead of second-place Mookie Betts of the Dodgers (9.0). Alonso ranks 10th among all players, rising from 12th place last week.
Box-Toppers almanac
Players who have earned Box-Toppers points so far in 2022—642 (there were 623 a week ago).
Players with more than 2.0 Box-Toppers points—276 (there were 262 a week ago).
Players with more than 10.0 Box-Toppers points—19 (there were 16 a week ago). In 2021, 49 players had 10.0 or more Box-Toppers points.
Players who’ve made their Box-Toppers debut so far in 2022 (earning their first career Player of the Game honor)—132 (there were 127 a week ago).
Games completed so far in 2021—1,584 an average of 105.6 per team.
Percentage of scheduled season completed—65.2.
In the 98 games completed from July 29 to Aug. 4, pitchers won Player of the Game honors 63 times (64.3 percent) compared to 35 times for batters (35.7 percent). Batters’ overall percentage of Player of the Game honors earned for the season declined from 39.5 last week to 39.3 this week (622 out of 1,584 games). That’s now just above the all-time record-low for share of Player of the Game honors won by batters (39.14 percent in 2014). Last year, in 2021, batters won just 39.15 percent of all Player of the Game honors, the second-lowest in any season since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995.
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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