Giants pitcher Johnny Cueto is Wednesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and rises to second place in season player rankings.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2016 season as of May 18:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 10.0 |
| 2 | Cueto, Johnny 2400 | pi sp | sf nl | 8.0 |
| 3 | Arrieta, Jake 2738 | pi sp | chi nl | 7.7 |
| 4 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | chi al | 6.7 |
| 5 | Machado, Manny 3087 | 3b ss | bal al | 6.7 |
| 6 | Hill, Rich 2215 | pi sp | oak al | 6.4 |
| 7 | Salazar, Danny 3223 | pi sp | cle al | 6.1 |
| 8 | Velasquez, Vince 3611 | pi sp | phi nl | 6.0 |
| 9 | Price, David 2593 | pi sp | bos al | 5.7 |
| 10 | Quintana, Jose 3040 | pi sp | chi al | 5.7 |
Cueto pitched a complete game, allowing one run, four hits and striking out eight, in the 2-1 win over the Padres.
Cueto earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 8.0 for the season, rising to second in season player rankings, behind overall leader, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw (10.0).
American League Player of the Day—Yankees pitcher Nathan Eovaldi allowed one run and one hit over six innings, striking out five, in the 4-2 win over the Diamondbacks.
American League Batter of the Day—Matt Wieters of the Orioles homered, doubled and went 3-for-4, scoring twice and driving in two runs, in the 5-2 win over the Mariners.
Wieters had a Box-Toppers game score of +3.0 and won AL Batter of the Day honors on a tiebreaker over Ian Kinsler of the Tigers, who had an identical game score and nearly identical batting line. Kinsler was Player of the Game in the 6-3 win over the Twins (HR 3-4 2R 2BI). Wieters beat Kinsler because he had two extra base hits (a home run and a double) while Kinsler had one (home run).
National League Batter of the Day—There is no NL Batter of the Day for Wednesday because no NL batter earned Player of the Game honors.
Rankings—In addition to Cueto, two other players rose in Box-Toppers top 10 season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Wednesday:
- Athletics pitcher Rich Hill (6IP 3H R 6K W in the 8-1 win over the Rangers) rises to sixth place. He earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 6.4 for the season. Hill ranks second among AL pitchers.
- Red Sox pitcher David Price (7.1IP 5H 2R 5K W in the 5-2 win over the Royals) rises to ninth place. He earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 5.7 for the season. Price ranks fourth among AL pitchers.
Notable—Two players with more than 100 career Box-Toppers points also won Player of the Game honors Wednesday:
- Cubs pitcher John Lackey (6IP 4H R 5K ND in the 13-inning, 2-1 win over the Brewers) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 112.5 for his career. He ranks 50th among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began and trails 49th-ranked player Kevin Brown (112.8). Lackey has 4.7 points for the season.
- Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright (6.2IP 6H 0R 5K W in the 2-0 win over the Rockies) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 104.3 for his career. He rises to 60th place among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began, passing Jamie Moyer (104.0) on the “all-time” list. He trails 59th-ranked player, Adrian Beltre of the Rangers (104.3). (Beltre is ranked ahead of Wainwright on a tiebreaker because he had more 2015 Box-Toppers points—12.5 vs. 3.0.) Wainwright has 2.5 Box-Toppers points on the season.
Scoring—Cueto earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Eovaldi earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Wieters earns 1.5 points for being AL Batter of the Day. All of Wednesday’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
| 5/18 | Score | Team | Player | AB | R | H | BI | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 9.0 | Giants | Johnny Cueto (W, 6-1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 9.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 8 | |
| AL | 8.0 | Yankees | Nathan Eovaldi (W,4-2) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | |
| 6.0 | Athletics | Rich Hill (W,6-3) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | ||
| 5.2 | Braves | Julio Teheran (W,1-4) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 4.2 | Cardinals | Adam Wainwright (W,4-3) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.2 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | ||
| 4.1 | Rays | Alex Colome (S,10) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 4.0 | Indians | Cody Allen (W,1-3) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 3.2 | `Royals | Ian Kennedy | - | - | - | - | - | - | 5.2 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 9 | ||
| 3.1 | Nationals | Gio Gonzalez (W,3-1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.1 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | ||
| BAT | 3.0 | Orioles | Matt Wieters, C | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 3.0 | Tigers | Ian Kinsler, 2B | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | Angels | Mike Trout, CF | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | Astros | Jason Castro, C | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | `Cubs | John Lackey | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | ||
| 2.1 | Red Sox | David Price (W,6-1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.1 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | ||
| 2.0 | Phillies | Jeanmar Gomez (S,16) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 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 the day’s top players
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 | +/- |
| Cueto, Johnny 2400 | pi sp | sf nl | 8.0 | 20.8 | 72.0 | 91.4 | -4.8 |
| Hill, Rich 2215 | pi sp | oak al | 6.4 | 10.4 | 10.4 | 30.1 | 2.4 |
| Price, David 2593 | pi sp | bos al | 5.7 | 26.8 | 82.8 | 99.5 | -15.4 |
| Kennedy, Ian 2723 | pi sp | kc al | 5.0 | 11.7 | 55.5 | 61.5 | -1.7 |
| Lackey, John 1640 | pi sp | chi nl | 4.7 | 14.4 | 34.1 | 112.5 | -5.0 |
| Eovaldi, Nathan 2928 | pi sp | nyy al | 3.7 | 5.7 | 22.8 | 22.8 | 1.7 |
| Trout, Mike 2949 | cf | ana al | 3.0 | 15.0 | 39.5 | 39.5 | -9.0 |
| Colome, Alex 3189 | pi cp | tb al | 3.0 | 8.0 | 11.7 | 11.7 | -2.0 |
| Kinsler, Ian 2144 | 2b | det al | 2.5 | 9.0 | 28.2 | 58.6 | -4.0 |
| Wainwright, Adam 2150 | pi sp | stl nl | 2.5 | 5.5 | 53.6 | 104.3 | -0.5 |
| Gonzalez, Gio 2626 | pi sp | dc nl | 2.0 | 11.7 | 68.8 | 82.5 | -7.7 |
| Teheran, Julio 3176 | pi sp | atl nl | 2.0 | 9.7 | 37.8 | 37.8 | -5.7 |
| Gomez, Jeanmar 2759 | pi cp | phi nl | 2.0 | 2.0 | 7.0 | 9.0 | 2.0 |
| Wieters, Matt 2643 | ca | bal al | 1.5 | 2.5 | 20.5 | 26.2 | 0.5 |
| Allen, Cody 3265 | pi mr cp | cle al | 1.0 | 5.0 | 10.0 | 10.0 | -3.0 |
| Castro, Jason 2743 | ca | hou al | 1.0 | 1.0 | 7.5 | 8.5 | 1.0 |