White Sox pitcher John Danks is Box-Toppers spring training Player of the Day for Friday.
Danks pitched five scoreless innings, allowing one hit and striking out seven in the 3-2 win over the Cubs. Danks had 5.7 Box-Toppers points in 2015 with the White Sox. His best season was 2010 with the White Sox when he had 15.1 points, fifth among American League pitchers.
Danks had a Box-Toppers game score of +9.0, tied with Tigers pitcher Matt Boyd, who was Player of the Game in the 2-0 win over the Cardinals. While Danks and Boyd both had the same innings pitched (5.0) and same number of strikeouts (7), Danks won overall Player of the Day on a tiebreaker because he allowed fewer hits (1 vs. 2).
National League Player of the Day—Ryan Howard of the Phillies hit a grand slam and went 3-for-4, scoring twice and driving in five runs, in the 15-12 win over the Pirates. Howard had 5.5 Box-Toppers points with the Phillies in 2015. His 96.7 career Box-Toppers points ranks 75th among all players since 1995 (when Box-Toppers tracking began), 30th among all batters in that span, fourth among active first basemen and first among active NL first basemen.
American League Batter of the Day—Manny Machado of the Orioles doubled and went 3-for-4, scoring once and driving in four runs, in the 11-2 win over the Yankees. Machado had 7.5 Box-Toppers points with the Orioles in 2015, 18th among AL batters and fourth among AL third basemen.
National League Batter of the Day—There is no separate NL Batter of the Day for Friday because the NL Player of the Day was a batter, Ryan Howard.
Scoring—No Box-Toppers points are awarded in spring training games, but if it were the regular season, Danks would earn 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, Howard would earn 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day and Machado would earn 1.5 points for being AL Batter of the Day. All of Friday’s other Players of the Game (listed in the chart below) would earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point.
Note—Seventeen spring training games were scheduled for Friday—16 are listed below. One game is not included because it ended in a tie (Rockies vs. Angels).
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
| 3/18 | Score | Team | Player | AB | R | H | BI | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 9.0 | White Sox | John Danks (W, 1-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 5.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | |
| 9.0 | Tigers | Matt Boyd (W, 1-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 5.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | ||
| NL | 6.0 | Phillies | Ryan Howard 1B | 4 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 6.0 | Giants | Buster Posey C | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| BAT | 4.0 | Orioles | Manny Machado 3B | 4 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 4.0 | Dbacks | Welington Castillo C | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.2 | Mariners | Nathan Karns (W, 1-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 4.2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 7 | ||
| 3.2 | Blue Jays | Aarón Sánchez (W, 1-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 4.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | ||
| 3.0 | Nationals | Michael A. Taylor CF | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | Reds | Adam Duvall 3B | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | Rangers | Lewis Brinson PR-CF | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | Twins | Buck Britton 2B | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | Royals | Frank Schwindel 1B | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | Indians | Joey Butler LF | 4 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | Rays | Granden Goetzman PH-DH | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1.0 | Braves | Héctor Olivera PH | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - |