(Other duties have put us behind updating Box-Toppers. Playing catch up …)
Mets pitcher Logan Verrett is Box-Toppers Player of the Day for Sunday, Aug. 23.
Verrett struck out eight over eight innings, allowing one run and four hits, in the 5-1 win over the Rockies.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2015 season as of Aug. 23.| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | deGrom, Jacob 3343 | pi sp | nym nl | 19.4 |
| 2 | Price, David 2593 | pi sp | tor al | 17.1 |
| 3 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | chi al | 17.1 |
| 4 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 16.7 |
| 5 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 16.0 |
| 6 | Greinke, Zack 1871 | pi sp | lad nl | 16.0 |
| 7 | Gray, Sonny 3259 | pi sp | oak al | 15.8 |
| 8 | Hernandez, Felix 2064 | pi sp | sea al | 15.4 |
| 9 | Arrieta, Jake 2738 | pi sp | chi nl | 15.4 |
| 10 | Harvey, Matt 3075 | pi sp | nym nl | 15.4 |
American League Player of the Day—Edwin Encarnacion of the Blue Jays homered and went 4-for-4, scoring twice and driving in four runs, in the 12-5 win over the Angels.
Encarnacion earned 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being AL Player of the Day, giving him 8.4 for the season, rising to third among AL batters, behind Mike Trout of the Angels (10.0 Box-Toppers points) and Josh Donaldson of the Blue Jays (9.9 points).
National League Batter of the Day—Stephen Piscotty of the Cardinals homered twice, hit a triple and went 3-for-4, driving in five runs, in the 10-3 win over the Padres.
This was Piscotty’s Box-Toppers debut, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors. Piscotty made his Major League debut July 21 and was playing in his 30th career game. He is the 3,570th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
American League Batter of the Day—There is no separate AL Batter of the Day for Sunday because the overall AL Player of the Day is a batter, Edwin Encarnacion.
Notable—Kris Bryant of the Cubs had the highest Box-Toppers player ranking of any of the 15 who earned Player of the Game honors Sunday. Bryant (2HR 3-4 4R 3BI in the 9-3 win over the Braves) earned 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 8.5 for the season. He ranks 42nd among all players and fourth among NL batters.
Debut—In addition to Piscotty, one other player made his Box-Toppers debut Sunday—Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola had his first career Player of the Game honor. Nola (8IP 3H 0R 6K W in the 2-0 win over the Marlins) made his Major League debut July 21 and was playing in his seventh career game. He is the 3,569th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
Nola had a Box-Toppers game score of +9.0, the same as Mets pitcher Logan Verrett, Sunday’s overall Player of the Day. But Verrett won Player of the Day on a tiebreaker because he had more strikeouts than Nola—eight vs. six.
Scoring—Verrett earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Encarnacion earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being AL Player of the Day. Piscotty earns 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being NL Batter of the Day. All of Sunday’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
| 8/23 | Score | Team | Player | AB | R | H | BI | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 9.0 | Mets | Logan Verrett (W,1-1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | |
| 9.0 | Phillies | Aaron Nola (W,4-1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | ||
| AL | 6.0 | Blue Jays | Edwin Encarnacion, DH | 4 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| BAT | 6.0 | Cardinals | Stephen Piscotty, LF-RF | 4 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 6.0 | Cubs | Kris Bryant, 3B | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 5.0 | `Athletics | Kendall Graveman | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | ||
| 4.1 | Indians | Cody Allen (S,26) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 3.0 | Royals | Mike Moustakas, 3B | 5 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | Nationals | Anthony Rendon, 3B | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | Twins | Tommy Milone (S,1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 3.0 | `Astros | Lance McCullers | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 8 | ||
| 2.0 | Mariners | Robinson Cano, DH | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | Pirates | Mark Melancon (S,39) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 1.0 | Rangers | Chris Gimenez, C | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 0.2 | Dbacks | Chase Anderson (W,6-5) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | ||
| `Denotes that the pitcher had a no-decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save. | ||||||||||||||||