Yasmani Grandal of the Dodgers 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 8:| 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 | Cueto, Johnny 2400 | pi sp | sf nl | 13.4 |
| 4 | Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 12.5 |
| 5 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 12.0 |
| 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 | Strasburg, Stephen 2736 | pi sp | dc nl | 10.4 |
Also Friday, three players rise in Box-Toppers top 10 player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors—Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez rises to second, Indians pitcher Corey Kluber rises to fourth and Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg rises to 10th.
Player of the Day—Grandal hit three homers and went 5-for-5, driving in six runs, in the 10-6 win over the Padres.
Grandal had a Box-Toppers game score of +9.0, tied with two other of Friday’s Players of the Games. Grandal won overall Player of the Day on a tiebreaker. The other two players were pitchers—Kluber and Strasburg—and in case of game score ties, batters own the tiebreaker over pitchers.
American League Player of the Day—Indians pitcher Corey Kluber struck out eight over eight innings, allowing one run, five hits and no walks, in the 10-2 win over the Yankees.
Kluber earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being AL Player of the Day, giving him 12.5 for the season, rising to fourth in player rankings and extending his lead among AL pitchers (second place AL pitcher Chris Sale of the White Sox has 10.7 points).
American League Batter of the Day—Luis Valbuena of the Astros hit a three-run walk-off home run in the 10-9 win over the Athletics. Valbuena went 3-for-5, scoring twice and driving in four runs.
National League Batter of the Day—There is no separate NL Batter of the Day for Friday because the overall Player of the Day is NL batter Yasmani Grandal.
Rankings—In addition to Kluber, two other players rose in Box-Toppers top 10 player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Friday:
- Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez (7IP 6H R 0BB 8K W in the 3-1 win over the Reds) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 14.4 for the season, rising to second place in player rankings, trailing overall leader, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw (20.0).
- Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg (7IP 2H R 3BB 9K W in the 3-1 win over the Mets) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 10.4 for the season, rising to 10th place in player rankings, sixth among NL pitchers. Strasburg becomes the 12th player this season with 10 or more Box-Toppers points.
Debut—Tommy Joseph of the Phillies made his Box-Toppers debut Friday, earning his first career Player of the Game honor.
Joseph (PH 3-R HR in the 5-3 win over the Rockies) made his Major League debut May 13 and was playing in his 44th career game. He is the 3,681st player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
Scoring—Grandal earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Kluber earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Valbuena earns 1.5 points for being AL 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
| 7/8 | Score | Game | Player of Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 9.0 | LAD 10/SD 6 | Yasmani Grandal, C | 5 | 3 | 5 | 6 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| AL | 9.0 | CLE 10/NYY 2 | Corey Kluber (W,9-8) | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 8 | |
| 9.0 | DC 3/NYM 1 | Stephen Strasburg (W,12-0) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 9 | ||
| 8.0 | MIA 3/CIN 1 | Jose Fernandez (W,11-4) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 8 | ||
| 7.2 | TOR 6/DET 0 | J.A. Happ (W,12-3) | - | - | - | - | 5.2 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | ||
| BAT | 4.0 | HOU 10/OAK 9 | Luis Valbuena, 3B | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 4.0 | SF 6/ARI 2 | Brandon Crawford, SS | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 4.0 | PHI 5/COL 3 | Tommy Joseph, PH | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.2 | TEX 6/MIN 5 | Tony Barnette (W,6-3) | - | - | - | - | 2.2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 3.0 | ATL 11/CHW 8 | Adonis Garcia, 3B | 5 | 2 | 4 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | LAA 9/BAL 5 | Mike Trout, CF | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.2 | SEA 3/KC 2 | Hisashi Iwakuma (W,9-6) | - | - | - | - | 6.2 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | ||
| 2.1 | BOS 6/TB 5 | Robbie Ross Jr. (W,1-1) | - | - | - | - | 1.1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 2.0 | MIL 4/STL 3 | Chris Carter, 1B | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1.1 | PIT 8/CHC 4 | Mark Melancon (S,27) | - | - | - | - | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
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 | +/- |
| Fernandez, Jose 3147 | pi sp | fla nl | 14.4 | 19.1 | 45.1 | 45.1 | 9.7 |
| Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 12.5 | 25.9 | 56.7 | 56.7 | -0.9 |
| Strasburg, Stephen 2736 | pi sp | dc nl | 10.4 | 24.4 | 70.5 | 78.2 | -3.6 |
| Trout, Mike 2949 | cf | ana al | 7.5 | 19.5 | 44.0 | 44.0 | -4.5 |
| Happ, J.A. 2536 | pi sp | tor al | 7.0 | 20.1 | 35.5 | 43.5 | -6.1 |
| Carter, Chris 2828 | 1b | mil nl | 7.0 | 8.0 | 25.9 | 26.9 | 6.0 |
| Grandal, Yasmani 3058 | ca | lad nl | 3.0 | 5.0 | 13.0 | 13.0 | 1.0 |
| Crawford, Brandon 2878 | ss | sf nl | 2.0 | 5.5 | 16.5 | 16.5 | -1.5 |
| Ross, Robbie Jr. 2999 | pi cp mr | bos al | 2.0 | 2.0 | 11.7 | 11.7 | 2.0 |
| Barnette, Tony 3670 | pi mr | tex al | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| Garcia, Adonis 3613 | 3b | atl nl | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| Valbuena, Luis 2600 | 3b | hou al | 1.5 | 6.0 | 10.5 | 13.5 | -3.0 |
| Iwakuma, Hisashi 3048 | pi sp | sea al | 1.0 | 14.1 | 49.2 | 49.2 | -12.1 |
| Melancon, Mark 2792 | pi cp | pit nl | 1.0 | 8.0 | 21.0 | 22.0 | -6.0 |
| Joseph, Tommy 3681 | ph | phi nl | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |