Rays' Smyly tops players for Tuesday, April 19; Nationals' Strasburg tops NL players

Rays pitcher Drew Smyly is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2016 season as of April 19:  


Player Pos Team BTP
1 Velasquez, Vince 3611 pi sp phi nl 4.0
2 Latos, Mat 2644 pi sp chi al 3.7
3 Salazar, Danny 3223 pi sp cle al 3.4
4 Arrieta, Jake 2738 pi sp chi nl 3.0
5 Kershaw, Clayton 2494 pi sp lad nl 3.0
6 Syndergaard, Noah 3472 pi sp nym nl 3.0
7 Morton, Charlie 2503 pi sp phi nl 3.0
8 Carrasco, Carlos 2885 pi sp cle al 2.7
9 Strasburg, Stephen 2736 pi sp dc nl 2.7
10 Santiago, Hector 3109 pi sp ana al 2.7
What are those numbers after players' names?

Smyly struck out 11 over eight scoreless innings, allowing one hit and two walks, in the 3-0, 10-inning win over the Red Sox. Smyly did not earn the win, picking up a no decision, because he exited with the game tied, 0-0.

National League Player of the Day—Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg struck out 10 over eight scoreless innings, allowing three hits, in the 7-0 win over the Marlins. Strasburg earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being NL Player of the Day, giving him 2.7 for the season, rising to ninth place in season player rankings.

National League Batter of the Day—Tyler Flowers of the Braves went 4-for-4, scoring once and driving in three runs, in the 8-1 win over the Dodgers.

American League Batter of the Day—Salvador Perez of the Royals hit a three-run homer and went 2-for-4, driving in five runs, in the 8-6 win over the Tigers.

Rankings—Besides Strasburg, two other players rose into Box-Toppers top 10 season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Tuesday:

  • White Sox pitcher Mat Latos rose to second place (6.1IP 2H 0R 5K W in the 5-0 win over the Angels), earning 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 3.7 for the season.
  • Indians pitcher Carlos Carrasco rose to eighth place (6.1IP 4H R 5K W in the 3-2 win over the Mariners), earning 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 2.7 for the season.

Streak—Cubs pitcher Jason Hammel has now earned Box-Toppers points in 11 straight seasons after earning Player of the Game honors Tuesday. Hammel (6IP 5H R 6K W in the 2-1 win over the Brewers) earned his first Box-Toppers points in 2006 with the Rays and has 47.2 career points, which ranks 27th among active NL pitchers. His best season was 2014 with the Cubs and the Athletics when he had 10.4 points, 25th among AL pitchers. In 2015, he had 9.7 points with the Cubs, 22nd among NL pitchers.

Debut—Reds pitcher Robert Stephenson made his Box-Toppers debut Tuesday, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors. Stephenson (7IP 3H R 3K W in the 4-3 win over the Rockies) made his Major League debut April 7 and was playing in his second career game. He is the 3,617th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.

Scoring—Smyly earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Strasburg earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Flowers and Perez each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Tuesday’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

4/19 Score Team Player AB R H BI BB K IP H R ER BB K
MLB 16.0 `Rays Drew Smyly - - - - - - 8.0 1 0 0 2 11
NL 13.0 Nationals Stephen Strasburg (W,3-0) - - - - - - 8.0 3 0 0 2 10
7.0 Dbacks Robbie Ray (W,1-0) - - - - - - 6.0 5 0 0 2 8
6.1 White Sox Mat Latos (W,3-0) - - - - - - 6.1 2 0 0 3 5
5.0 Cubs Jason Hammel (W,2-0) - - - - - - 6.0 5 1 1 0 6
BAT 4.0 Braves Tyler Flowers, C 4 1 4 3 0 0 - - - - - -
BAT 4.0 Royals Salvador Perez, C 4 1 2 5 0 1 - - - - - -
3.0 Mets Yoenis Cespedes, CF-LF 3 2 1 3 2 1 - - - - - -
3.0 Reds Robert Stephenson (W,2-0) - - - - - - 7.0 3 1 1 2 3
3.0 Athletics Fernando Rodriguez (W,1-0) - - - - - - 2.0 1 0 0 0 2
2.1 Indians Carlos Carrasco (W,2-0) - - - - - - 6.1 4 1 1 3 5
2.1 Blue Jays Roberto Osuna (S,5) - - - - - - 1.1 0 0 0 0 1
2.0 Padres Fernando Rodney (S,2) - - - - - - 1.0 0 0 0 0 1
1.0 Rangers Elvis Andrus, SS 3 1 2 1 0 0 - - - - - -
1.0 Brewers Chris Carter, 1B 1 0 0 2 1 1 - - - - - -
`Denotes that the pitcher had a no-decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save.

Box-Toppers point totals of Players of the Games

Here are Box-Toppers point totals of each of the Players of the Game. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total for the current season (16). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (15-16), the period 2011-2016 (11-16) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2016 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2015 total (+/-).  

Player Pos Team 16 15-16 11-16 Career +/-
Latos, Mat 2644 pi sp chi al 3.7 7.7 44.9 63.6 -0.3
Carrasco, Carlos 2885 pi sp cle al 2.7 20.7 36.8 36.8 -15.3
Strasburg, Stephen 2736 pi sp dc nl 2.7 16.7 62.8 70.5 -11.3
Cespedes, Yoenis 3008 cf lf dh nym nl 2.0 12.9 33.9 33.9 -8.9
Smyly, Drew 3009 pi sp tb al 2.0 8.0 30.1 30.1 -4.0
Osuna, Roberto 3512 pi cp tor al 2.0 6.0 6.0 6.0 -2.0
Perez, Salvador 2972 ca kc al 1.5 6.0 19.2 19.2 -3.0
Flowers, Tyler 3101 ca atl nl 1.5 2.5 10.0 10.0 0.5
Hammel, Jason 2235 pi sp chi nl 1.0 10.7 34.1 47.2 -8.7
Ray, Robbie 3502 pi sp ari nl 1.0 5.0 5.0 5.0 -3.0
Carter, Chris 2828 1b dh mil nl 1.0 2.0 19.9 20.9 0.0
Rodney, Fernando 1803 pi cp sd nl 1.0 2.0 19.0 31.0 0.0
Rodriguez, Fernando 3537 pi mr oak al 1.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 0.0
Andrus, Elvis 2582 ss tex al 1.0 1.0 8.5 11.5 1.0
Stephenson, Robert 3617 pi sp cin nl 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0
What are those numbers after players' names?