| AL PITCHERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | NL PITCHERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |||
| 1 | Ohtani, Shohei 3933 | pi sp | ana al | 24.7 | 1 | Alcantara, Sandy 4061 | pi sp | fla nl | 21.1 | |
| 2 | Verlander, Justin 2112 | pi sp | hou al | 24.0 | 2 | Woodruff, Brandon 3868 | pi sp | mil nl | 19.8 | |
| 3 | Cease, Dylan 4231 | pi sp | chi al | 20.4 | 3 | Rodon, Carlos 3494 | pi sp | sf nl | 19.8 | |
| 4 | McClanahan, Shane 4399 | pi sp | tb al | 16.4 | 4 | Urias, Julio 3652 | pi sp | lad nl | 19.4 | |
| 5 | McKenzie, Triston 4303 | pi sp | cle al | 15.7 | 5 | Gallen, Zac 4171 | pi sp | ari nl | 18.7 | |
| 6 | Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | nyy al | 15.4 | 6 | Darvish, Yu 3003 | pi sp | sd nl | 16.8 | |
| 7 | Javier, Cristian 4290 | pi sp | hou al | 14.7 | 7 | Musgrove, Joe 3705 | pi sp | sd nl | 16.4 | |
| 8 | Ray, Robbie 3502 | pi sp | sea al | 14.4 | 8 | Fried, Max 4011 | pi sp | atl nl | 16.0 | |
| 9 | Valdez, Framber 4048 | pi sp | hou al | 14.0 | 9 | Wright, Kyle 4349 | pi sp | atl nl | 14.4 | |
| 10 | Bieber, Shane 4005 | pi sp | cle al | 13.7 | 10 | Nola, Aaron 3569 | pi sp | phi nl | 14.0 | |
| AL BATTERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | NL BATTERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |||
| 1 | Judge, Aaron 3767 | rf cf | nyy al | 13.2 | 1 | Alonso, Pete 4118 | 1b | nym nl | 14.9 | |
| 2 | Ramirez, Jose 3436 | 3b | cle al | 11.7 | 2 | Betts, Mookie 3404 | rf | lad nl | 11.7 | |
| 3 | Alvarez, Yordan 4209 | dh | hou al | 8.7 | 3 | Tellez, Rowdy 4078 | 1b | mil nl | 8.2 | |
| 4 | Bregman, Alex 3721 | 3b | hou al | 8.7 | 4 | Riley, Austin 4144 | 3b | atl nl | 8.0 | |
| 5 | Springer, George 3337 | cf rf | tor al | 8.0 | 5 | Canha, Mark 3454 | lf | nym nl | 7.7 | |
| 6 | Suarez, Eugenio 3355 | 3b | sea al | 8.0 | 6 | Goldschmidt, Paul 2935 | 1b | stl nl | 7.5 | |
| 7 | Raleigh, Cal 4481 | ca ph | sea al | 7.5 | 7 | Freeman, Freddie 2887 | 1b | lad nl | 7.5 | |
| 8 | Rodriguez, Julio 4590 | cf | sea al | 7.5 | 8 | Muncy, Max 3969 | 3b | lad nl | 7.2 | |
| 9 | Bogaerts, Xander 3383 | ss | bos al | 7.0 | 9 | Arenado, Nolan 3306 | 3b | stl nl | 7.0 | |
| 10 | France, Ty 4243 | 1b | sea al | 7.0 | 10 | Cron, C.J. 3338 | 1b | col nl | 7.0 |
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Angels pitcher Shohei Ohtani regains the lead in this week’s Box-Toppers player rankings report, passing Astros pitcher Justin Verlander, who led for eight straight weeks.
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, Sept. 29.| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ohtani, Shohei 3933 | pi sp | ana al | 24.7 |
| 2 | Verlander, Justin 2112 | pi sp | hou al | 24.0 |
| 3 | Alcantara, Sandy 4061 | pi sp | fla nl | 21.1 |
| 4 | Cease, Dylan 4231 | pi sp | chi al | 20.4 |
| 5 | Woodruff, Brandon 3868 | pi sp | mil nl | 19.8 |
| 6 | Rodon, Carlos 3494 | pi sp | sf nl | 19.8 |
| 7 | Urias, Julio 3652 | pi sp | lad nl | 19.4 |
| 8 | Gallen, Zac 4171 | pi sp | ari nl | 18.7 |
| 9 | Darvish, Yu 3003 | pi sp | sd nl | 16.8 |
| 10 | Musgrove, Joe 3705 | pi sp | sd nl | 16.4 |
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Ohtani also takes the lead among American League pitchers from Verlander. Meanwhile, the other three category leaders remain the same: Sandy Alcantara of the Marlins leads National League pitchers, Pete Alonso of the Mets leads NL batters and Aaron Judge of the Yankees leads AL batters.
Overall leader—Ohtani rose to the lead this week with 24.7 Box-Toppers points compared to 24.0 for Verlander, who falls to second overall and second among AL pitchers behind Ohtani.
Ohtani took the lead Thursday for the fourth time this season and did it with just one week to go in the regular season. With Ohtani taking the lead Sept. 29, it is the latest date in the season on which a player has risen the Box-Toppers points lead since 1999, when Diamondbacks pitcher Randy Johnson (31.5 points) took the lead from Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez (31.4) on Sept. 30. (The season lasted until Oct. 4 that year; it goes until Oct. 5 this year.) That was both Johnson’s and Martinez’s final point total for the 1999 season and they finished as the top two players that season.
It should be noted that Ohtani has earned 5.0 of his points as a designated hitter and 19.7 as a starting pitcher. So as a starting pitcher, Verlander and one other AL pitcher (Dylan Cease of the White Sox with 20.4) have more points than Ohtani for pitching.
National League pitchers—Sandy Alcantara of the Marlins maintains the lead for the second week with 21.1 Box-Toppers points, ahead of Brandon Woodruff of the Brewers (19.8).
Alcantara ranks third among all players.
National League batters—Pete Alonso of the Mets leads for the 16th week with 14.9 Box-Toppers points, picking up 1.7 points in the past week, ahead of second-place Mookie Betts of the Dodgers (11.7). Alonso ranks 15th among all players, up from 22nd place last week.
American League batters—Aaron Judge of the Yankees leads for the second week with 13.2 Box-Toppers points, picking up 1.0 point in the past week, ahead of second-place AL batter Jose Ramirez of the Guardians (11.7) and ranks 26th among all players.
While Shohei Ohtani of the Angels currently has more Box-Toppers points in 2022 (24.7), he does not currently qualify to rank among batters because he has earned the overwhelming majority of his Player of the Game honors as a pitcher in 2022. Ohtani has earned just four of his 17 Player of the Game honors as a designated hitter. To rank at a position, a player must have more than 25 percent of their Player of the Game honors at that position. Currently, Ohtani has 23.5 percent of his Player of the Game honors as a batter.
Box-Toppers almanac
Players who have earned Box-Toppers points so far in 2022—772 (there were 757 a week ago).
Players with more than 2.0 Box-Toppers points—387 (there were 379 a week ago).
Players with 10.0 or more Box-Toppers points—51 (there were 48 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)—184 (there were 175 a week ago).
Games completed so far in 2022—2,337 an average of 155.8 per team.
Percentage of scheduled season completed—96.2.
In the 89 games completed from Sept. 23 to Sept. 29, pitchers won Player of the Game honors 53 times (59.6 percent) compared to 36 times for batters (40.4 percent). Batters’ overall percentage of Player of the Game honors earned for the season increased from 38.30 last week to 38.38 this week (897 out of 2,337 games). There have been 2,784.1 total Box-Toppers points awarded to all Player of the Game winners in 2022 (including bonus points for the day’s top players). Pitchers have won 61.51 percent of that total (1,712.6), while batters have won 38.49 percent (1,071.5). While batters made a slight gain from last week, they are still on pace to break the all-time record-low for share of a season Box-Toppers points won by batters (39.14 percent in 2014). Last year, in 2021, batters won just 39.15 percent of all Box-Toppers points awarded, 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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