Astros pitcher Collin McHugh 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 Sept. 16:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 23.7 |
| 2 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 21.0 |
| 3 | Fernandez, Jose 3147 | pi sp | fla nl | 20.4 |
| 4 | Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 20.2 |
| 5 | Lester, Jon 2173 | pi sp | chi nl | 20.1 |
| 6 | Hamels, Cole 2135 | pi sp | tex al | 16.8 |
| 7 | Syndergaard, Noah 3472 | pi sp | nym al | 15.7 |
| 8 | Cueto, Johnny 2400 | pi sp | sf nl | 15.4 |
| 9 | Strasburg, Stephen 2736 | pi sp | dc nl | 15.1 |
| 10 | Hill, Rich 2215 | pi sp | lad nl | 14.4 |
Also Friday, two pitchers with more than 20.0 Box-Toppers points this season started and both earned the win, but neither earned Player of the Game honors—Max Scherzer of the Nationals (23.7 Box-Toppers points, ranked first) and Corey Kluber of the Indians (20.2 points, ranked fourth).
Player of the Day—McHugh pitched seven scoreless innings, allowing two hits, two walks and striking out six, in the 6-0 win over the Mariners.
National League Player of the Day—Mets pitcher Bartolo Colon pitched seven scoreless innings, allowing three hits, two walks and striking out six, in the 3-0 win over the Twins.
Colon earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being NL Player of the Day, giving him 147.5 for his career. He rises to 21st place among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began, passing Jim Thome (146.7) on the “all-time” list and now trails 20th-ranked player Javier Vazquez (148.3).
Colon now has 7.4 Box-Toppers points on the season, 31st among NL pitchers.
National League Batter of the Day—Trea Turner of the Nationals homered, doubled and went 4-for-5, scoring four times and driving in two runs, in the 7-2 win over the Braves.
American League Batter of the Day—Mike Napoli of the Indians homered, doubled and went 3-for-4, scoring twice and driving in four runs, in the 11-4 win over the Tigers.
Notable—The overall Box-Toppers points leader, Max Scherzer, and the overall AL Box-Toppers points leader, Corey Kluber, both started games Friday and both earned the win, but neither earned Player of the Game honors and did not increase their season Box-Toppers point totals:
- Scherzer (7IP 7H 2R 2BB 8K W in the Nationals’ 7-2 win over the Braves) had a Box-Toppers game score Friday of +2.0, but he was beaten for Player of the Game by teammate Trea Turner who had a Box-Toppers game score of +5.0 and earned NL Batter of the Day honors. Scherzer has 23.7 Box-Toppers points in 2016.
- Kluber (7IP 5H 4R 3BB 7K W in the Indians’ 11-4 win over the Tigers) had a Box-Toppers game score Friday of −2.0 and was beaten for Player of the Game by teammate Mike Napoli who had a Box-Toppers game score of +5.0 and earned AL Batter of the Day honors. Kluber has 20.2 Box-Toppers points in 2016.
Also notable—White Sox pitcher Chris Sale has the most season Box-Toppers points among the 15 who earned Player of the Game honors Friday.
Sale (CG 8H 4R BB 10K W in the 7-4 win over the Royals) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 13.4 for the season. He ranks 14th among all players and fifth among AL pitchers.
And finally—Phillies pitcher Frank Herrmann earned his first Player of the Game honor in nearly five years Friday.
Herrmann (2IP 0H 0R 0BB 0K W in the 4-3, 13-inning win over the Marlins) last earned Player of the Game honors on Sept. 24, 2011, with the Indians. He had 3.0 Box-Toppers points in 2011 and now has 4.0 career points.
Scoring—McHugh earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Colon earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Turner and Napoli 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.
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Top player from each game
Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score
| 9/16 | Score | Game | Player of Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 9.0 | HOU 6, SEA 0 | Collin McHugh (W,11-10) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | |
| NL | 8.0 | NYM 3, MIN 0 | Bartolo Colon (W,14-7) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | |
| BAT | 5.0 | WSH 7, ATL 2 | Trea Turner, CF | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| BAT | 5.0 | CLE 11, DET 4 | Mike Napoli, 1B | 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 5.0 | SF 8, STL 2 | Buster Posey, C | 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 4.0 | PIT 9, CIN 7 (10) | Jung Ho Kang, 3B | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 4.0 | CHC 5, MIL 4 (10) | Aroldis Chapman (W,4-1) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 3.0 | CHW 7, KC 4 | Chris Sale (W,16-8) | - | - | - | - | 9.0 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 10 | ||
| 3.0 | LAD 3, ARI 2 | Kenta Maeda (W,15-9) | - | - | - | - | 5.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | ||
| 2.2 | BOS 7, NYY 4 | Craig Kimbrel (S,26) | - | - | - | - | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 2.0 | COL 8, SD 7 | DJ LeMahieu, 2B | 5 | 1 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | TOR 5, LAA 0 | R.A. Dickey (W,10-14) | - | - | - | - | 5.0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | ||
| 2.0 | PHI 4, MIA 3 (13) | Frank Herrmann (W,1-2) | - | - | - | - | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 1.0 | BAL 5, TB 4 | J.J. Hardy, SS | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1.0 | TEX 7, OAK 6 | Nomar Mazara, RF | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
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 | +/- |
| Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | chi al | 13.4 | 32.2 | 84.4 | 86.4 | -5.4 |
| McHugh, Collin 3316 | pi sp | hou al | 9.7 | 19.4 | 31.2 | 31.2 | 0.0 |
| Maeda, Kenta 3609 | pi sp | lad nl | 9.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 |
| LeMahieu, DJ 3091 | 2b | col nl | 8.0 | 15.0 | 21.0 | 21.0 | 1.0 |
| Chapman, Aroldis 2826 | pi cp | chi nl | 7.4 | 15.4 | 45.4 | 46.4 | -0.6 |
| Colon, Bartolo | pi sp | nym nl | 7.4 | 14.1 | 56.0 | 147.5 | 0.7 |
| Dickey, R.A. 1734 | pi sp | tor al | 7.0 | 12.0 | 56.2 | 77.9 | 2.0 |
| Napoli, Mike 2161 | 1b | cle al | 6.5 | 11.0 | 38.7 | 57.7 | 2.0 |
| Hardy, J.J. 2071 | ss | bal al | 6.2 | 6.2 | 27.6 | 54.8 | 6.2 |
| Kimbrel, Craig 2825 | pi cp | bos al | 6.0 | 12.0 | 55.7 | 56.7 | 0.0 |
| Mazara, Nomar 3614 | rf lf | tex al | 5.5 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 5.5 |
| Posey, Buster 2745 | ca 1b | sf nl | 3.5 | 7.5 | 28.5 | 33.0 | -0.5 |
| Kang, Jung-Ho 3464 | 3b ss | pit nl | 3.5 | 6.5 | 6.5 | 6.5 | 0.5 |
| Turner, Trea 3730 | 2b cf | dc nl | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 |
| Herrmann, Frank 2902 | pi cp | phi nl | 1.0 | 1.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 1.0 |