Reds pitcher Brandon Finnegan is Thursday’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. 4:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 20.0 |
| 2 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 18.7 |
| 3 | Fernandez, Jose 3147 | pi sp | fla nl | 16.4 |
| 4 | Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 14.5 |
| 5 | Cueto, Johnny 2400 | pi sp | sf nl | 14.4 |
| 6 | Hamels, Cole 2135 | pi sp | tex al | 14.1 |
| 7 | Strasburg, Stephen 2736 | pi sp | dc nl | 14.1 |
| 8 | Lester, Jon 2173 | pi sp | chi nl | 12.4 |
| 9 | Bumgarner, Madison 2753 | pi sp | sf nl | 11.0 |
| 10 | Happ, J.A. 2536 | pi sp | tor al | 11.0 |
Also Thursday, Blue Jays pitcher J.A. Happ rises to 10th place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors.
Player of the Day—Finnegan pitched six scoreless innings, allowing two hits, no walks and striking out four, in the 7-0 win over the Cardinals.
American League Player of the Day—Rays pitcher Drew Smyly struck out 10 over seven innings, allowing two runs, five hits and one walk, in the 3-2 win over the Royals. Smyly did not earn the win, picking up a no decision, because he exited the game with the Rays trailing 2-0.
National League Batter of the Day—Denard Span of the Giants hit a 10th-inning, go-ahead home run in the 3-2, 10-inning win over the Phillies. Span also went 3-for-4, scoring twice and driving in two runs.
American League Batter of the Day—Billy Butler of the Athletics hit a 10th-inning, pinch-hit single and scored a run, in the 8-6, 10-inning win over the Angels.
This was Butler’s first Player of the Game honor of 2016 and he has now earned Box-Toppers points in 10 straight seasons. Butler earned his first points in 2007 with the Royals and has 47.6 career points, 28th among active AL batters. His best season was 2012 with the Royals when he had 9.7 points, seventh among AL batters. In 2015, he had 1.5 points with the Athletics.
Rankings—Blue Jays pitcher J.A. Happ rises to 10th place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Thursday.
Happ (6IP 4H R BB 6K W in the 4-1 win over the Astros) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 11.0 for the season. He displaces Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard (11.0 Box-Toppers points) from the top 10 season player rankings list and ranks third among AL pitchers.
Scoring—Finnegan earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Smyly earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Span and Butler each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Thursday’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
| 8/4 | Score | Game | Player of Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 8.0 | CIN 7, STL 0 | Brandon Finnegan (W,7-8) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | |
| AL | 7.0 | `TB 3, KC 2 | Drew Smyly | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 10 | |
| 5.0 | TOR 4, HOU 1 | J.A. Happ (W,15-3) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | ||
| 4.1 | BOS 3, SEA 2 (11) | Craig Kimbrel (W,2-3) | - | - | - | - | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| BAT | 3.0 | SF 3, PHI 2 (10) | Denard Span, CF | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 3.0 | LAD 4, COL 2 | Kenley Jansen (S,32) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 2.1 | CLE 9, MIN 2 | Dan Otero (W,3-1) | - | - | - | - | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 2.0 | ATL 5, PIT 2 | Jim Johnson (S,7) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 1.0 | NYM 4, NYY 1 | Jay Bruce, RF | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| BAT | 1.0 | OAK 8, LAA 6 (10) | Billy Butler, PH-DH | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 1.0 | CHW 6, DET 3 | Tim Anderson, SS | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 0.2 | TEX 5, BAL 3 | A.J. Griffin (W,5-1) | - | - | - | - | 5.2 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6 |
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 | +/- |
| Happ, J.A. 2536 | pi sp | tor al | 11.0 | 24.1 | 39.5 | 47.5 | -2.1 |
| Bruce, Jay 2453 | rf | nym nl | 7.5 | 10.7 | 30.7 | 57.8 | 4.3 |
| Smyly, Drew 3009 | pi sp | tb al | 6.4 | 12.4 | 34.5 | 34.5 | 0.4 |
| Jansen, Kenley 2871 | pi cp | lad nl | 5.0 | 9.0 | 35.4 | 35.4 | 1.0 |
| Finnegan, Brandon 3535 | pi sp | cin nl | 5.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 2.0 |
| Kimbrel, Craig 2825 | pi cp | bos al | 4.0 | 10.0 | 53.7 | 54.7 | -2.0 |
| Griffin, A.J. 3074 | pi sp | tex al | 3.7 | 3.7 | 18.4 | 18.4 | 3.7 |
| Span, Denard 2502 | cf | sf nl | 3.0 | 3.0 | 11.7 | 25.7 | 3.0 |
| Johnson, Jim 2417 | pi mr cp | atl nl | 2.0 | 4.0 | 14.0 | 19.7 | 0.0 |
| Otero, Dan 3365 | pi mr | cle al | 2.0 | 3.7 | 4.7 | 4.7 | 0.3 |
| Anderson, Tim 3659 | ss | chi al | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| Butler, Billy 2330 | dh ph | oak al | 1.5 | 3.0 | 28.2 | 47.6 | 0.0 |