Athletics pitcher Eric Surkamp is Box-Toppers Player of the Day for Saturday, the final day of spring training.
Surkamp pitched seven scoreless innings of middle relief, striking out seven and allowing two hits, in the 4-1 win over the Giants. Surkamp had no Box-Toppers points in 2015 with the White Sox and Dodgers. He has 1.0 career Box-Toppers point, earned Sept. 16, 2014, with the White Sox.
National League Player of the Day—Jake Cave of the Reds tripled and went 2-for-2, scoring once and driving in two runs, in the 13-6 win over the Pirates. Cave has yet to make his regular season Major League debut and so has no career Box-Toppers points.
American League Batter of the Day—Mike Trout of the Angels hit two doubles and went 2-for-2, scoring once and driving in three runs, in the 8-1 win over the Dodgers. Trout had 12.0 Box-Toppers points in 2015, second among AL batters.
Trout had a Box-Toppers game score Saturday of +4.0, tied with Dae-Ho Lee of the Mariners, who was Player of the Game in the 8-5 win over the Rockies. But Trout won AL Batter of the Day honors on a tiebreaker because he had more doubles—2 vs. 1.
Scoring—No Box-Toppers points are awarded in spring training games, but if it were the regular season, Surkamp would earn 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, Cave would earn 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day and Trout would earn 1.5 points for being AL Batter of the Day. All of Saturday’s other Players of the Game (listed in the chart below) would earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point.
Note—Thirteen spring training games were scheduled for Thursday—nine are listed below. One game is not included because it ended in a tie (Twins vs. Nationals), one game was cancelled (Tigers vs. Braves) and two other games were not included because they involved non-Major League teams (Phillies Futures vs. Phillies and Brewers vs. Biloxi).
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
| 4/2 | Score | Team | Player | AB | R | H | BI | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 11.0 | Athletics | Eric Surkamp (W, 1-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | |
| BAT | 4.0 | Angels | Mike Trout CF | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 4.0 | Mariners | Dae-Ho Lee 1B | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| NL | 3.0 | Reds | Jake Cave LF | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 3.0 | Indians | Rajai Davis CF | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | White Sox | Travis Ishikawa 1B | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | Red Sox | Kyle Martin (SV, 1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 2.1 | `Dbacks | Robbie Ray | - | - | - | - | - | - | 4.1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | ||
| 2.1 | Marlins | Chris Narveson (W, 1-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| `Denotes that the pitcher had a no-decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save. | ||||||||||||||||