Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander 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 Aug. 26:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 20.7 |
| 2 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 20.0 |
| 3 | Fernandez, Jose 3147 | pi sp | fla nl | 18.4 |
| 4 | Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 17.2 |
| 5 | Hamels, Cole 2135 | pi sp | tex al | 16.8 |
| 6 | Lester, Jon 2173 | pi sp | chi nl | 15.4 |
| 7 | Cueto, Johnny 2400 | pi sp | sf nl | 14.4 |
| 8 | Strasburg, Stephen 2736 | pi sp | dc nl | 14.1 |
| 9 | Arrieta, Jake 2738 | pi sp | chi nl | 13.7 |
| 10 | Syndergaard, Noah 3472 | pi sp | nym nl | 13.0 |
Also Friday, Kris Bryant of the Cubs extended his lead in season Box-Toppers points among National League batters after earning NL Batter of the Day honors.
Player of the Day—Verlander struck out eight over 7 2/3 innings, allowing two runs, four hits and one walk, in the 4-2 win over the Angels.
Verlander earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 133.6 career points, rising to 29th place among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. He passes Jason Giambi (133.4) on the “all-time” list and now trails 28th-ranked player, Cubs pitcher Jon Lester (136.5). Verlander has 9.0 Box-Toppers points on the season, 15th among American League pitchers.
National League Player of the Day—Cardinals pitcher Luke Weaver allowed one run over six innings, striking out seven and allowing four hits and two walks, in the 14-4 win over the Athletics.
This was Weaver’s Box-Toppers debut, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors. Weaver made his Major League debut Aug. 13 and was playing in his third career game. He is the 3,719th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
American League Batter of the Day—Justin Smoak of the Blue Jays hit a three-run homer and went 3-for-5, scoring twice and driving in five runs, in the 15-8 win over the Twins.
Smoak and Gary Sanchez of the Yankees (Player of the Game in the 14-4 win over the Orioles) both had Box-Toppers game scores of +5.0 Friday, but Smoak holds the tiebreaker to earn AL Batter of the Day honors because he had more RBIs than Sanchez—5 vs. 4.
National League Batter of the Day—Kris Bryant of the Cubs hit two home runs and went 2-for-4, scoring three times and driving in three runs, in the 6-4, 10-inning win over the Dodgers.
Bryant earns 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being NL Batter of the Day, giving him 10.5 for the season, extending his lead among NL batters—second place NL batter is Matt Carpenter of the Cardinals (8.5).
Bryant becomes the 31st player this season with 10 or more Box-Toppers points, the fourth batter and the first NL batter. He is the sixth Cubs player to reach 10 points in 2016 (The others: Jon Lester—15.4, Jake Arrieta—13.7, John Lackey—12.4, Jason Hammel—11.0, Kyle Hendricks—10.7). He ranks 26th among all players in season player rankings. It is Bryant’s first 10-point season; in his rookie season of 2015, he had 8.5 points.
Streak—Rickie Weeks of the Diamondbacks has now earned Box-Toppers points in 12 straight seasons after earning his first Player of the Game of the season Friday.
Weeks (HR 3B 2-3 2R BI in the 4-3, 11-inning win over the Reds) earned his first Box-Toppers point in 2005 with the Brewers and has 37.1 career points, third among active NL second basemen. His best season was 2007 with the Brewers when he had 6.2 Box-Toppers points. In 2015, he had 1.0 Box-Toppers point with the Mariners.
Scoring—Verlander earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Weaver earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Smoak and Bryant 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
| 8/26 | Score | Game | Player of Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 6.2 | DET 4, LAA 2 | Justin Verlander (W,14-7) | - | - | - | - | 7.2 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 8 | |
| BAT | 5.0 | TOR 15, MIN 8 | Justin Smoak, 1B | 5 | 2 | 3 | 5 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 5.0 | NYY 14, BAL 4 | Gary Sanchez, C | 5 | 3 | 3 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| NL | 5.0 | STL 3, OAK 1 | Luke Weaver (W,1-1) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 | |
| 4.2 | SEA 3, CHW 1 | Edwin Diaz (S,11) | - | - | - | - | 1.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 4.0 | CLE 12, TEX 1 | Abraham Almonte, RF | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| BAT | 4.0 | CHC 6, LAD 4 (10) | Kris Bryant, 3B | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 3.0 | NYM 9, PHI 4 | Asdrubal Cabrera, SS | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | SF 7, ATL 0 | Jeff Samardzija (W,11-9) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | ||
| 3.0 | MIA 7, SD 6 | Fernando Rodney (W,2-3) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 2.0 | KC 6, BOS 3 | Eric Hosmer, 1B | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | PIT 5, MIL 3 | Jordy Mercer, SS | 4 | 1 | 1 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | ARI 4, CIN 3 (11) | Rickie Weeks, LF | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | WSH 8, COL 5 | Daniel Murphy, 2B | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1.0 | HOU 5, TB 4 | Evan Gattis, C | 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 | +/- |
| Bryant, Kris 3465 | lf 3b rf | chi nl | 10.5 | 19.0 | 19.0 | 19.0 | 2.0 |
| Verlander, Justin 2112 | pi sp | det al | 9.0 | 15.4 | 78.6 | 133.6 | 2.6 |
| Murphy, Daniel 2589 | 2b | dc nl | 7.5 | 9.0 | 31.0 | 32.5 | 6.0 |
| Samardzija, Jeff 2495 | pi sp | sf nl | 6.7 | 16.1 | 44.8 | 45.8 | -2.7 |
| Hosmer, Eric 2886 | 1b | kc al | 6.0 | 15.0 | 28.5 | 28.5 | -3.0 |
| Rodney, Fernando 1803 | pi cp | fla nl | 5.0 | 6.0 | 23.0 | 35.0 | 4.0 |
| Diaz, Edwin 3690 | pi cp | sea al | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 |
| Smoak, Justin 2731 | 1b | tor al | 3.5 | 8.5 | 18.4 | 22.9 | -1.5 |
| Gattis, Evan 3179 | ca | hou al | 3.0 | 7.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 | -1.0 |
| Mercer, Jordy 3206 | ss | pit nl | 3.0 | 3.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 | 3.0 |
| Sanchez, Gary 3701 | dh ca | nyy al | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 |
| Cabrera, Asdrubal 2362 | ss | nym nl | 2.0 | 5.0 | 26.7 | 42.7 | -1.0 |
| Almonte, Abraham 3554 | rf ph | cle al | 2.0 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 0.5 |
| Weaver, Luke 3719 | pi sp | stl nl | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.7 |
| Weeks, Rickie 2035 | lf 2b | ari nl | 1.0 | 2.0 | 17.9 | 37.1 | 0.0 |