Brewers pitcher Junior Guerra is Monday’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 4:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 20.0 |
| 2 | Fernandez, Jose 3147 | pi sp | fla nl | 13.4 |
| 3 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 12.0 |
| 4 | Cueto, Johnny 2400 | pi sp | sf nl | 11.7 |
| 5 | Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 10.8 |
| 6 | Arrieta, Jake 2738 | pi sp | chi nl | 10.7 |
| 7 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | chi al | 10.7 |
| 8 | Salazar, Danny 3223 | pi sp | cle al | 10.5 |
| 9 | Hamels, Cole 2135 | pi sp | tex al | 10.4 |
| 10 | Syndergaard, Noah 3472 | pi sp | nym nl | 10.0 |
Guerra pitched 7 1/3 scoreless innings, striking out seven and allowing two hits and no walks, in the 1-0 win over the Nationals.
American League Player of the Day—Astros pitcher Lance McCullers struck out 10 over seven innings, allowing one run, five hits and one walk, in the 2-1 win over the Mariners.
National League Batter of the Day—Kris Bryant of the Cubs hit a two-run homer, going 1-for-1 and scoring three times, in the 10-4 win over the Reds.
Bryant earns 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being NL Batter of the Day, giving him 7.0 Box-Toppers points for the season, most of any of the 15 who earned Player of the Game honors Monday. Bryant rises to 29th place among all players and third among NL batters, behind Matt Carpenter of the Cardinals (7.5) and Wil Myers of the Padres (7.2).
American League Batter of the Day—Todd Frazier of the White Sox hit two doubles and went 3-for-3, scoring twice and driving in a run, in the 8-2 win over the Yankees.
Streak—Mike Napoli of the Indians has now earned Box-Toppers points in 11 straight seasons after earning his first Player of the Game honor of the season Monday.
Napoli (HR 2B 2-3 2R 2BI in the 5-3 win over the Tigers) earned his first Box-Toppers points in 2006 with the Angels and has 52.2 career points, ninth among active AL first basemen. His best season was 2011 with the Rangers when he had 9.0 Box-Toppers points, ninth among AL batters. In 2015, he had 4.5 points with the Red Sox, a season in which he also played for the Rangers.
Notable—Giants pitcher Jake Peavy now has 141.8 career Box-Toppers points—24th-most since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began—after earning Player of the Game honors Monday.
Peavy (6.2IP 5H R 2BB 6K W in the 3-1 win over the Rockies) trails 23rd-ranked player on the “all-time” list, David Ortiz of the Red Sox (142.9). Peavy has 5.0 Box-Toppers points for the season, 29th among NL pitchers.
Debut—Dodgers pitcher Pedro Baez made his Box-Toppers debut Monday, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors.
Baez (2IP 0H 0R 0BB 2K ND in the 7-5 win over the Orioles) made his Major League debut May 5, 2014, and was playing in his 110th career game. He is the 3,678th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
Scoring—Guerra earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and McCullers earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Bryant and Frazier each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Monday’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
| 7/4 | Score | Game | Player of Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 10.1 | MIL 1/DC 0 | Junior Guerra (W,6-1) | - | - | - | - | 7.1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | |
| AL | 9.0 | HOU 2/SEA 1 | Lance McCullers (W,4-2) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 10 | |
| BAT | 5.0 | CHC 10/CIN 4 | Kris Bryant, LF | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 5.0 | TOR 6/KC 2 | Aaron Sanchez (W,9-1) | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | ||
| 4.0 | `LAD 7/BAL 5 | Pedro Baez | - | - | - | - | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 3.2 | PHI 8/ATL 2 | Jerad Eickhoff (W,6-9) | - | - | - | - | 7.2 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 8 | ||
| 3.2 | SF 3/COL 1 | Jake Peavy (W,5-7) | - | - | - | - | 6.2 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | ||
| 3.0 | NYM 8/MIA 6 | Travis d'Arnaud, C | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | SD 8/ARI 4 | Derek Norris, C | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| BAT | 3.0 | CHW 8/NYY 2 | Todd Frazier, 3B | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 3.0 | CLE 5/DET 3 | Mike Napoli, 1B | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | BOS 12/TEX 5 | Travis Shaw, 3B | 5 | 2 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | PIT 4/STL 2 | Gregory Polanco, RF | 5 | 2 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | TB 4/LAA 2 | Logan Morrison, 1B | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 0.2 | OAK 3/MIN 1 | Kendall Graveman (W,4-6) | - | - | - | - | 6.2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | ||
| `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 of Game | Pos | Team | 16 | 15-16 | 11-16 | Career | +/- |
| Bryant, Kris 3465 | lf 3b rf | chi nl | 7.0 | 15.5 | 15.5 | 15.5 | -1.5 |
| Eickhoff, Jerad 3566 | pi sp | phi nl | 7.0 | 12.0 | 12.0 | 12.0 | 2.0 |
| Guerra, Junior 3633 | pi sp | mil nl | 7.0 | 7.0 | 7.0 | 7.0 | 7.0 |
| Sanchez, Aaron 3392 | pi sp | tor al | 5.7 | 7.7 | 9.7 | 9.7 | 3.7 |
| Peavy, Jake 1635 | pi sp | sf nl | 5.0 | 10.0 | 38.1 | 141.8 | 0.0 |
| Shaw, Travis 3544 | 1b 3b | bos al | 4.5 | 8.7 | 8.7 | 8.7 | 0.3 |
| Polanco, Gregory 3361 | rf | pit nl | 4.5 | 7.5 | 11.5 | 11.5 | 1.5 |
| McCullers, Lance 3488 | pi sp | hou al | 3.4 | 10.1 | 10.1 | 10.1 | -3.3 |
| Frazier, Todd 2929 | 3b | chi al | 3.2 | 12.1 | 26.1 | 26.1 | -5.7 |
| Graveman, Kendall 3444 | pi sp | oak al | 3.0 | 7.7 | 7.7 | 7.7 | -1.7 |
| Napoli, Mike 2161 | 1b | cle al | 1.0 | 5.5 | 33.2 | 52.2 | -3.5 |
| Norris, Derek 3198 | ca | sd nl | 1.0 | 5.5 | 13.0 | 13.0 | -3.5 |
| Morrison, Logan 2794 | 1b | tb al | 1.0 | 5.0 | 15.0 | 16.5 | -3.0 |
| d’Arnaud, Travis 3384 | ca | nym nl | 1.0 | 3.5 | 7.5 | 7.5 | -1.5 |
| Baez, Pedro 3678 | pi mr | lad nl | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |