| AL PITCHERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | NL PITCHERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |||
| 1 | Verlander, Justin 2112 | pi sp | hou al | 24.0 | 1 | Alcantara, Sandy 4061 | pi sp | fla nl | 19.1 | |
| 2 | Ohtani, Shohei 3933 | pi sp | ana al | 22.7 | 2 | Urias, Julio 3652 | pi sp | lad nl | 18.4 | |
| 3 | Cease, Dylan 4231 | pi sp | chi al | 20.4 | 3 | Rodon, Carlos 3494 | pi sp | sf nl | 18.1 | |
| 4 | McClanahan, Shane 4399 | pi sp | tb al | 16.4 | 4 | Woodruff, Brandon 3868 | pi sp | mil nl | 17.8 | |
| 5 | Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | nyy al | 15.4 | 5 | Gallen, Zac 4171 | pi sp | ari nl | 17.7 | |
| 6 | McKenzie, Triston 4303 | pi sp | cle al | 14.7 | 6 | Musgrove, Joe 3705 | pi sp | sd nl | 16.4 | |
| 7 | Ray, Robbie 3502 | pi sp | sea al | 14.4 | 7 | Fried, Max 4011 | pi sp | atl nl | 16.0 | |
| 8 | Valdez, Framber 4048 | pi sp | hou al | 14.0 | 8 | Darvish, Yu 3003 | pi sp | sd nl | 15.8 | |
| 9 | Bieber, Shane 4005 | pi sp | cle al | 13.7 | 9 | Burnes, Corbin 4029 | pi sp | mil nl | 13.4 | |
| 10 | Ryan, Joe 4539 | pi sp | min al | 13.7 | 10 | Wright, Kyle 4349 | pi sp | atl nl | 13.4 | |
| AL BATTERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | NL BATTERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |||
| 1 | Judge, Aaron 3767 | rf cf | nyy al | 12.2 | 1 | Alonso, Pete 4118 | 1b | nym nl | 13.2 | |
| 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 | Suarez, Eugenio 3355 | 3b | sea al | 8.0 | 5 | Canha, Mark 3454 | lf | nym nl | 7.7 | |
| 6 | Rodriguez, Julio 4590 | cf | sea al | 7.5 | 6 | Goldschmidt, Paul 2935 | 1b | stl nl | 7.5 | |
| 7 | Bogaerts, Xander 3383 | ss | bos al | 7.0 | 7 | Freeman, Freddie 2887 | 1b | lad nl | 7.5 | |
| 8 | France, Ty 4243 | 1b | sea al | 7.0 | 8 | Muncy, Max 3969 | 3b | lad nl | 7.2 | |
| 9 | Story, Trevor 3607 | 2b | bos al | 7.0 | 9 | Arenado, Nolan 3306 | 3b | stl nl | 7.0 | |
| 10 | Semien, Marcus 3302 | 2b | tex al | 7.0 | 10 | Cron, C.J. 3338 | 1b | col nl | 7.0 |
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Astros pitcher Justin Verlander leads Box-Toppers weekly player rankings report for the eighth straight week.
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. 22.| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Verlander, Justin 2112 | pi sp | hou al | 24.0 |
| 2 | Ohtani, Shohei 3933 | pi sp | ana al | 22.7 |
| 3 | Cease, Dylan 4231 | pi sp | chi al | 20.4 |
| 4 | Alcantara, Sandy 4061 | pi sp | fla nl | 19.1 |
| 5 | Urias, Julio 3652 | pi sp | lad nl | 18.4 |
| 6 | Rodon, Carlos 3494 | pi sp | sf nl | 18.1 |
| 7 | Woodruff, Brandon 3868 | pi sp | mil nl | 17.8 |
| 8 | Gallen, Zac 4171 | pi sp | ari nl | 17.7 |
| 9 | Musgrove, Joe 3705 | pi sp | sd nl | 16.4 |
| 10 | McClanahan, Shane 4399 | pi sp | tb al | 16.4 |
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Meanwhile, Sandy Alcantara of the Marlins rises to regain the lead among National League pitchers and Aaron Judge of the Yankees rises to lead American League batters after previous leader, Shohei Ohtani of the Angels, no longer qualified to rank among batters.
Overall leader—Verlander leads all players with 24.0 Box-Toppers points, picking up 2.0 points in the past week. He ranks ahead of Shohei Ohtani of the Angels (22.7 points) and also ranks ahead of Ohtani among AL pitchers.
National League pitchers—Sandy Alcantara of the Marlins regains the lead with 19.1 Box-Toppers points, passing last week’s leader Carlos Rodon of the Giants, who falls to third place with 18.1 points. Alcantra leads NL pitchers ahead of second-place Julio Urias of the Dodgers (18.4 points).
Alcantara ranks fourth among all players.
American League batters—Aaron Judge of the Yankees rises to first place with 12.2 Box-Toppers points, passing last week’s leader Shohei Ohtani, who has more Box-Toppers points (22.7), but who currently does not qualify to rank among batters.
Judge now ranks ahead of second-place AL batter Jose Ramirez of the Guardians (11.7) and ranks 29th among all players.
Ohtani had led AL batters in Box-Toppers points, but lost his status to rank among batters with his Player of the Game honor Saturday. Ohtani earned his 16th Player of the Game honors of 2022, his 12th as a starting pitcher (earning 17.7 total points) compared to just four as a designated hitter (earning 5.0 total points). To qualify to rank at a certain position, a player must have more than 25 percent of their Player of the Game honors at that position. With Ohtani earning exactly 25 percent of his honors as a batter, he lost his status to be ranked as a batter.
Ohtani led AL batters in Box-Toppers points most of the season until Aug. 9, when he first lost his status to be ranked among batters because he earned an overwhelming share of his Player of the Game honors as a starting pitcher (9 of 12). But he regained his status to be ranked among batters Aug. 28, when he earned Player of the Game honors as a batter, giving him four of his 14 honors as a batter, 28.6 percent.
Ohtani earned 16.1 Box-Toppers points in 2021, third among AL pitchers. While Ohtani also played as both a designated hitter and a starting pitcher in 2021, he was ranked only as a pitcher that season because he earned such an overwhelming majority of his Player of the Game honors as a pitcher (nine of 12).
National League batters—Pete Alonso of the Mets leads for the 15th week with 13.2 Box-Toppers points, picking up no points in the past week, ahead of second-place Mookie Betts of the Dodgers (11.7). Alonso ranks 22nd among all players, down from 18th place last week.
Box-Toppers almanac
Players who have earned Box-Toppers points so far in 2022—757 (there were 744 a week ago).
Players with more than 2.0 Box-Toppers points—379 (there were 361 a week ago).
Players with 10.0 or more Box-Toppers points—48 (there were 44 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)—175 (there were 174 a week ago).
Games completed so far in 2022—2,248 an average of 149.9 per team.
Percentage of scheduled season completed—92.5.
In the 100 games completed from Sept. 16 to Sept. 22, pitchers won Player of the Game honors 73 times (73.0 percent) compared to 27 times for batters (27.0 percent). (That is the most dominant week for pitchers since the first week of the 2021 season—April 1 to 8—when pitchers won 76.3 percent of the 97 games.) Batters’ overall percentage of Player of the Game honors earned for the season decreased from 38.83 last week to 38.30 this week (861 out of 2,248 games). There have been 2,678.2 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 61.57 percent of that total (1,649.1), while batters have won 38.43 percent (1,029.1). That is 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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