Angels pitcher Hector Santiago is Friday’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 July 15:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 20.0 |
| 2 | Fernandez, Jose 3147 | pi sp | fla nl | 14.4 |
| 3 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 14.0 |
| 4 | Cueto, Johnny 2400 | pi sp | sf nl | 13.4 |
| 5 | Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 12.5 |
| 6 | Strasburg, Stephen 2736 | pi sp | dc nl | 11.4 |
| 7 | Bumgarner, Madison 2753 | pi sp | sf nl | 11.0 |
| 8 | Arrieta, Jake 2738 | pi sp | chi nl | 10.7 |
| 9 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | chi al | 10.7 |
| 10 | Salazar, Danny 3223 | pi sp | cle al | 10.5 |
Also Friday, Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg rises to sixth in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors.
Player of the Day—Santiago pitched seven scoreless innings, striking out seven and allowing five hits and no walks, in the 7-0 win over the White Sox.
Santiago earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day giving him 10.4 for the season. He becomes the 14th player this season with 10 or more Box-Toppers points and ranks 12th in season player rankings, fifth among American League pitchers.
National League Player of the Day—Padres pitcher Andrew Cashner struck out nine over six innings, allowing one run, four hits and two walks, in the 4-1 win over the Giants.
Both Cashner and Santiago had Box-Toppers game scores Friday of +9.0, but Santiago edged out Cashner for overall Player of the Day because he had more innings pitched—7 vs. 6.
National League Batter of the Day—Chris Taylor of the Dodgers hit a grand slam, tripled, doubled and went 3-for-5, scoring three times and driving in six runs, in the 13-7 win over the Diamondbacks.
This was Taylor’s Box-Toppers debut, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors. Taylor made his Major League debut July 24, 2014, and was playing in his 97th career game. He is the 3,684th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
American League Batter of the Day—Josh Reddick of the Athletics homered and went 2-for-2, scoring four times and driving in one run, in the 8-7 win over the Blue Jays.
Rankings—Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg rises to sixth in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Friday.
Strasburg (8IP 3H R 2BB 6K W in the 5-1 win over the Pirates) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 11.4 for the season. He ranks fifth among NL pitchers.
Notable—Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander rises to 30th place in career Box-Toppers points since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began, after earning Player of the Game honors Friday.
Verlander (7IP 4H 2R 2BB 10K W in the 4-2 win over the Royals) now has 129.6 career Box-Toppers points. He passes Trevor Hoffman (129.4) on the “all-time” list. He trails 29th-ranked player, Cubs pitcher Jon Lester (130.8). Verlander has 5.0 Box-Toppers points for the season, 26th among AL pitchers.
Scoring—Santiago earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Cashner earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Taylor and Reddick each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Friday’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
| 7/15 | Score | Game | Player of Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 9.0 | LAA 7/CHW 0 | Hector Santiago (W,7-4) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | |
| NL | 9.0 | SD 4/SF 1 | Andrew Cashner (W,4-7) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 9 | |
| 8.0 | DET 4/KC 2 | Justin Verlander (W,9-6) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 10 | ||
| BAT | 7.0 | LAD 13/ARI 7 | Chris Taylor, 2B | 5 | 3 | 3 | 6 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 7.0 | DC 5/PIT 1 | Stephen Strasburg (W,13-0) | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | ||
| BAT | 5.0 | OAK 8/TOR 7 | Josh Reddick, RF | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 5.0 | COL 11/ATL 2 | Ryan Raburn, PH | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 4.0 | CHC 6/TEX 0 | Kyle Hendricks (W,8-6) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | ||
| 3.0 | CLE 5/MIN 2 | Mike Napoli, 1B | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | NYM 5/PHI 3 | Jeurys Familia (S,32) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 2.0 | CIN 5/MIL 4 | Anthony DeSclafani (W,4-0) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 8 | ||
| 2.0 | MIA 7/STL 6 | A.J. Ramos (S,28) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 2.0 | BOS 5/NYY 3 | Koji Uehara (S,5) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 1.0 | BAL 4/TB 3 | Pedro Alvarez, DH | 4 | 1 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1.0 | HOU 7/SEA 3 | Carlos Correa, SS | 4 | 1 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
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 of Game | Pos | Team | 16 | 15-16 | 11-16 | Career | +/- |
| Strasburg, Stephen 2736 | pi sp | dc nl | 11.4 | 25.4 | 71.5 | 79.2 | -2.6 |
| Santiago, Hector 3109 | pi sp | ana al | 10.4 | 18.4 | 30.8 | 30.8 | 2.4 |
| Correa, Carlos 3506 | ss | hou al | 7.7 | 14.9 | 14.9 | 14.9 | 0.5 |
| Hendricks, Kyle 3386 | pi sp | chi nl | 6.0 | 15.7 | 20.7 | 20.7 | -3.7 |
| Verlander, Justin 2112 | pi sp | det al | 5.0 | 11.4 | 74.6 | 129.6 | -1.4 |
| Familia, Jeurys 3446 | pi cp | nym nl | 4.0 | 12.0 | 12.0 | 12.0 | -4.0 |
| Uehara, Koji 2802 | pi cp | bos al | 4.0 | 9.0 | 26.0 | 30.0 | -1.0 |
| Cashner, Andrew 2807 | pi sp | sd nl | 2.7 | 5.7 | 25.4 | 28.4 | -0.3 |
| Reddick, Josh 2936 | rf | oak al | 2.5 | 10.7 | 23.4 | 23.4 | -5.7 |
| DeSclafani, Anthony 3441 | pi sp | cin nl | 2.0 | 9.7 | 9.7 | 9.7 | -5.7 |
| Napoli, Mike 2161 | 1b | cle al | 2.0 | 6.5 | 34.2 | 53.2 | -2.5 |
| Raburn, Ryan 2340 | dh rf ph | col nl | 2.0 | 4.0 | 19.7 | 37.7 | 0.0 |
| Taylor, Chris 3684 | 2b | lad nl | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| Ramos, A.J. 3210 | pi cp | fla nl | 1.0 | 6.0 | 11.0 | 11.0 | -4.0 |
| Alvarez, Pedro 2817 | dh 1b | bal al | 1.0 | 4.0 | 21.7 | 22.7 | -2.0 |