| AL PITCHERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | NL PITCHERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |||
| 1 | Skubal, Tarik 4414 | pi sp | det al | 18.1 | 1 | Wheeler, Zack 3204 | pi sp | phi nl | 20.4 | |
| 2 | Gil, Luis 4498 | pi sp | nyy al | 17.4 | 2 | Imanaga, Shota 4960 | pi sp | chi nl | 18.7 | |
| 3 | Valdez, Framber 4048 | pi sp | hou al | 15.4 | 3 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | atl nl | 18.1 | |
| 4 | Cortes, Nestor 4160 | pi sp | nyy al | 14.4 | 4 | Cease, Dylan 4231 | pi sp | sd nl | 17.4 | |
| 5 | Lugo, Seth 3729 | pi sp | kc al | 14.1 | 5 | Nola, Aaron 3569 | pi sp | phi nl | 13.4 | |
| 6 | Miller, Bryce 4797 | pi sp | sea al | 13.7 | 6 | Manaea, Sean 3637 | pi sp | nym nl | 13.4 | |
| 7 | Ober, Bailey 4441 | pi sp | min al | 13.4 | 7 | King, Michael 4549 | pi sp | sd nl | 12.7 | |
| 8 | Bibee, Tanner 4792 | pi sp | cle al | 13.0 | 8 | Peralta, Freddy 3965 | pi sp | mil nl | 12.4 | |
| 9 | Houck, Tanner 4342 | pi sp | bos al | 12.4 | 9 | Gray, Sonny 3259 | pi sp | stl nl | 12.4 | |
| 10 | Brown, Hunter 4729 | pi sp | hou al | 12.0 | 10 | Flaherty, Jack 3971 | pi sp | lad nl | 12.0 | |
| AL BATTERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | NL BATTERS | POS | TEAM | BTP | |||
| 1 | Judge, Aaron 3767 | dh cf | nyy al | 12.0 | 1 | Doyle, Brenton 4803 | cf | col nl | 9.7 | |
| 2 | Soto, Juan 3994 | rf | nyy al | 9.5 | 2 | Lindor, Francisco 3586 | ss | nym nl | 9.4 | |
| 3 | Witt, Bobby Jr. 4592 | ss | kc al | 8.9 | 3 | Adames, Willy 4041 | ss | mil nl | 9.0 | |
| 4 | Mountcastle, Ryan 4325 | 1b | bal al | 8.0 | 4 | Suarez, Eugenio 3355 | 3b | ari nl | 8.5 | |
| 5 | Naylor, Josh 4154 | 1b | cle al | 7.5 | 5 | Harper, Bryce 3011 | 1b | phi nl | 7.7 | |
| 6 | Alvarez, Yordan 4209 | dh | hou al | 7.5 | 6 | Happ, Ian 3798 | lf | chi nl | 7.5 | |
| 7 | Ramirez, Jose 3436 | 3b | cle al | 7.4 | 7 | Chapman, Matt 3849 | 3b | sf nl | 7.5 | |
| 8 | Lowe, Brandon 4108 | dh 2b | tb al | 7.0 | 8 | Burleson, Alec 4874 | dh | stl nl | 7.5 | |
| 9 | Neto, Zach 4821 | ss | ana al | 7.0 | 9 | Schwarber, Kyle 3536 | dh | phi nl | 7.0 | |
| 10 | Rooker, Brent 4795 | dh | oak al | 6.5 | 10 | Marte, Ketel 3630 | 2b | ari nl | 7.0 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler rises to lead Box-Toppers season player rankings this week, passing last week’s leader, Cubs pitcher Shota Imanaga.
Wheeler also passes Imanaga to lead National League pitchers. All other category leaders remain unchanged: Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal leads American League pitchers, Aaron Judge of the Yankees leads AL batters and Brenton Doyle of the Rockies leads NL batters.
Wheeler leads
Wheeler has 20.4 Box-Toppers points to lead all players, rising from second place last week. He leads ahead of second-place player, Cubs pitcher Shota Imanaga (18.7 points), who led last week. Wheeler passed Imanaga for the overall lead on Sept. 6.
American League pitchers
Tarik Skubal of the Tigers leads AL pitchers for the seventh week with 18.1 Box-Toppers points, picking up no points in the past week. He leads over second-place AL pitcher Luis Gil of the Yankees (17.4 points).
Skubal ranks third overall.
American League batters
Aaron Judge of the Yankees leads AL batters for the 13th straight week with 12.0 Box-Toppers points, picking up no points in the past week. Judge last earned Player of the Game honors on Aug. 14. He is ahead of second-place AL batter Juan Soto of the Yankees (9.5 points).
Judge ranks 19th overall.
National League batters
Brenton Doyle of the Rockies leads NL batters for the ninth week with 9.7 Box-Toppers points, picking up no points in the past week. Doyle last earned Player of the Game honors on Aug. 9. He leads ahead of second-place Francisco Lindor of the Mets (9.4).
Doyle ranks 50th among all players.
Low point totals
This season, 2024, is shaping up to be a year of lower than normal Box-Toppers point totals for leading players and a much lower total for batters.
Records could be set for the lowest Box-Toppers point totals for several category leaders (in a regular-length season):
The overall lowest total for a player to lead all players in Box-Toppers points in a season is 21.1, set in 2023 by Braves pitcher Spencer Strider. Current 2024 points leader, Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler, has 20.4 points. (Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995.)
The lowest total for a season’s AL batting leader is 12.1, set in 2017 by Edwin Encarnacion of Cleveland. Current 2024 AL batting leader, Aaron Judge of the Yankees, has 12.0 points.
The lowest total for a player to lead any category is 10.7 by Nolan Arenado of the Rockies, who led NL batters in 2016. Current leader Brenton Doyle of the Rockies has 9.7, so would set the record if his lead and point status remain unchanged.
There are 45 players currently with 10 or more points. The average in a regular length season is about 50. The most is 67 in 2001. In 2023, there were 53. However, only one of the 45 players in 2024 with 10 points is a batter (Aaron Judge of the Yankees with 12.0 points) while the other 44 are pitchers. The fewest number of batters with 10 points in a season is four (2022). In 2023, seven of the 53 players with 10 points were batters. There are currently six batters with between 8.5 and 9.7 points who could attain 10 points for 2024 with one Player of the Game or Batter of the Day honor.
It should be noted that in the early days of Box-Toppers tracking, which began in 1995, there were often more batters than pitchers with 10 Box-Toppers points in a season. For example, in 2000, of the 47 players with 10 or more points, 28 were batters and 19 were pitchers.
Box-Toppers almanac
In a week in which it seemed pitchers were routinely taking perfect games or no-hit bids deep into games, it should come as no surprise that batters had a horrible week winning Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors. Batters only won Player of the Game honors 27 times in 92 games this week (29.3 percent) while pitchers won 65 times (70.7 percent).
Batters share of Player of the Game honors for the season dipped from 37.3 percent last week to 36.9 percent this week (812 times in 2,199 total games). Pitchers have won 63.1 percent of Player of the Game honors this season (1,387 times in 2,199 games).
Batters’ share of total Box-Toppers points for the season dropped from 37.4 percent last week to 37.1 percent this week. Batters have earned 970.2 of the total 2,615.8 points awarded, while pitchers have won 1,645.6 (62.9 percent).
Box-Toppers estimates that batters would need to win more than 48 percent of the season’s remaining Box-Toppers points to avoid breaking the all-time record low share of points won by batters in a season (38.1 percent in 2022). (Batters had 40.7 percent of all points in 2023.)
While batters have struggled to reach parity with pitchers in recent seasons, it wasn’t always this way: From 1995 to 2009, batters generally won half or more of all Box-Toppers points each season. But their share of points dropped precipitously after 2009.
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.
Box-Toppers strives for accuracy. See a mistake in a post? A wrong name, wrong team, grammar error, spelling goof, etc.? Thanks for pointing it out! Contact Box-Toppers here. Let's fix it and make it right.
For additional updates, follow Box-Toppers on Twitter (X).
Your support via Buy Me a Coffee keeps Box-Toppers percolating. Thanks for your contributions!