Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta is Friday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day, officially and mathematically securing Box-Toppers Player of the Year honors.
Also Friday, White Sox pitcher Chris Sale rises to 10th in player rankings.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2015 season as of Oct. 2.| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Arrieta, Jake 2738 | pi sp | chi nl | 29.1 |
| 2 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 24.7 |
| 3 | deGrom, Jacob 3343 | pi sp | nym nl | 21.4 |
| 4 | Keuchel, Dallas 3050 | pi sp | hou al | 21.4 |
| 5 | Price, David 2593 | pi sp | tor al | 21.1 |
| 6 | Greinke, Zack 1871 | pi sp | lad nl | 19.7 |
| 7 | Hernandez, Felix 2064 | pi sp | sea al | 19.4 |
| 8 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 19.0 |
| 9 | Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | pit nl | 19.0 |
| 10 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | chi al | 18.8 |
Player of the Day—Arrieta pitched six scoreless innings, striking out seven and allowing two hits, in the 6-1 win over the Brewers.
Arrieta earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 29.1 for the season. He now leads second-place player, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw (24.7), by 4.4 Box-Toppers points. So even in the off-chance that Kershaw plays and earns Player of the Day honors in both of the final two games of the season, he would only earn 4.0 Box-Toppers points, not enough to catch Arrieta. While there hasn’t been much doubt since his last start (in which he earned Player of the Day) on Sunday that Arrieta would end the season leading in Box-Toppers points, his Friday start removed all doubt.
Arrieta’s 29.1 Box-Toppers points this season is the eighth-highest single-season total since record keeping began in 1995. Only three pitchers have earned more points in a single season than Arrieta in 21 seasons—Randy Johnson (who did it four times), Pedro Martinez (who did it twice) and Clayton Kershaw (who earned 31.5 points last season, tied for the fourth-most points in a single season). (See the Best seasons chart.)
Best seasons
Here are all players who have earned 25 or more Box-Toppers points in a single season since 1995, ranked by their single-season Box-Toppers point total. Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta Friday rose to eighth place on the list (29.1 Box-Toppers points):| Rank | Player | Team | Pos | Year | BTP |
| 1 | Randy Johnson | Dbacks | pi sp | 2000 | 33.7 |
| 1 | Randy Johnson | Dbacks | pi sp | 2002 | 33.7 |
| 3 | Pedro Martinez | Red Sox | pi sp | 2000 | 33.5 |
| 4 | Randy Johnson | Dbacks | pi sp | 1999 | 31.5 |
| 4 | Clayton Kershaw | Dodgers | pi sp | 2014 | 31.5 |
| 6 | Pedro Martinez | Red Sox | pi sp | 1999 | 31.4 |
| 7 | Randy Johnson | Dbacks | pi sp | 2001 | 29.4 |
| 8 | *Jake Arrieta | Cubs | pi sp | 2015 | 29.1 |
| 9 | Pedro Martinez | Red Sox | pi sp | 2002 | 28.8 |
| 10 | Curt Schilling | Dbacks | pi sp | 2002 | 28.4 |
| 11 | Roger Clemens | Blue Jays | pi sp | 1997 | 27.4 |
| 12 | Johan Santana | Twins | pi sp | 2004 | 26.8 |
| 13 | Pedro Martinez | Expos | pi sp | 1997 | 26.7 |
| 13 | CC Sabathia | Indians/Brewers | pi sp | 2008 | 26.7 |
| 15 | Randy Johnson | Mariners/Astros | pi sp | 1998 | 26.4 |
| 16 | John Smoltz | Braves | pi sp | 1996 | 26.1 |
| 16 | Clayton Kershaw | Dodgers | pi sp | 2011 | 26.1 |
| 18 | Roger Clemens | Blue Jays | pi sp | 1998 | 25.8 |
| 18 | Corey Kluber | Indians | pi sp | 2014 | 25.8 |
| 20 | Johan Santana | Twins | pi sp | 2006 | 25.7 |
| 21 | Cliff Lee | Phillies | pi sp | 2011 | 25.4 |
| * Current season | |||||
Arrieta nearly doubled his Box-Toppers point total from 2014, when he had 14.7 points with the Cubs and ranked eighth among National League pitchers. In Arrieta’s previous seasons, he had fewer than 10 points each season
- 2010—3.0 with the Orioles
- 2011—2.0 with the Orioles
- 2012—6.0 with the Orioles
- 2013—5.0 with the Orioles and Cubs
Arrieta has 59.8 career Box-Toppers points and ranks 217th among all players since 1995. He ranks 25th among active NL pitchers in career Box-Toppers points.
American League Player of the Day—White Sox pitcher Chris Sale struck out seven over seven innings, allowing one run and five hits, in the 2-1 win over the Tigers.
Sale earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being AL Player of the Day, giving him 18.8 for the season. He rises to 10th in Box-Toppers player rankings and fourth among AL pitchers.
National League Batter of the Day—Carlos Correa of the Astros homered, tripled and went 3-for-4, scoring four times and driving in four runs, in the 21-5 win over the Diamondbacks.
American League Batter of the Day—Carlos Santana of the Indians doubled and went 2-for-3, scoring twice and driving in three runs, in the 8-2 win over the Red Sox.
Notable—Andrew McCutchen of the Pirates rose to third place among NL batters after earning Player of the Game honors Friday.
McCutchen (HR 3-5 2R BI in the 6-4 win over the Reds) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 10.5 for the season. He becomes the 45th player—and ninth batter—this season with 10 or more Box-Toppers points. He ranks 38th among all players. He trails two NL batters—Carlos Gonzalez of the Rockies (11.5) and Yoenis Cespedes of the Mets (10.9).
Rankings—Astros pitcher Dallas Keuchel started Friday but did not earn Player of the Game honors and so did not extend his Box-Toppers points lead among AL pitchers. However, with only two days left in the season and neither of the pitchers contending for the lead among AL pitchers scheduled to start, Keuchel appears to have wrapped up Box-Toppers AL Player of the Year honors.
Keuchel (6IP 6H 2R 3K W in the 21-5 win over the Diamondbacks) had a Box-Toppers game score of −3. Player of the Game was Carlos Correa (HR 3B 3-4 4R 4BI), who had a Box-Toppers game score of +7.
Keuchel has 21.4 Box-Toppers points on the season and ranks fourth among all players, first among AL pitchers. The only two pitchers who could catch him are not scheduled to start in the final two days of the season:
- David Price of the Blue Jays, 21.1 Box-Toppers points.
- Felix Hernandez of the Mariners, 19.4 Box-Toppers points.
Scoring—Arrieta earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Sale earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being AL Player of the Day. Correa and Santana each earn 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Friday’s other Players of the Game (listed in the chart below) earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point.
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.
Top player from each game
Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score
| 10/2 | Score | Team | Player | AB | R | H | BI | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 11.0 | Cubs | Jake Arrieta (W,22-6) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | |
| BAT | 7.0 | Astros | Carlos Correa, SS | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| AL | 6.0 | White Sox | Chris Sale (W,13-11) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | |
| 6.0 | Braves | Julio Teheran (W,11-8) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | ||
| BAT | 4.0 | Indians | Carlos Santana, 1B | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 4.0 | Rockies | Kyle Kendrick (W,7-13) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | ||
| 3.1 | `Royals | Chris Young | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | ||
| 3.0 | Athletics | Danny Valencia, 3B | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | Blue Jays | Russell Martin, C | 5 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | Angels | Joe Smith (S,4) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 1.0 | Pirates | Andrew McCutchen, CF | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1.0 | Dodgers | Justin Turner, 3B | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| `Denotes that the pitcher had a no-decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save. | ||||||||||||||||