Christian Yelich of the Marlins 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 Sept. 1:


	Player	Pos	Team	BTP
1	Scherzer, Max 2588	pi sp	dc nl	22.7
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	18.2
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	Syndergaard, Noah 3472	pi sp	nym nl	14.0
10	Arrieta, Jake 2738	pi sp	chi nl	13.7

What are those numbers after players' names?

Yelich hit a three-run homer and went 3-for-4, scoring twice and driving in four runs, in the 6-4 win over the Mets.

American League Player of the Day—Byron Buxton of the Twins hit a three-run homer in the 8-5 win over the White Sox. Buxton went 1-for-3.

Batters of the Day—There are no separate National League and American League Batters of the Day Thursday because the overall Player of the Day was NL batter Christian Yelich and the overall AL Player of the Day was AL batter Byron Buxton.

Notable—Freddie Freeman of the Braves had the most season Box-Toppers points of the four who earned Player of the Game honors Thursday—only four games were played.

Freeman (HR 1-3 2R 3BI in the 9-6 win over the Padres) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 6.0 for the season. He ranks 114th among all players and 16th among NL batters.

Scoring—Yelich earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Buxton earns 1.7 points for being AL Player 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

  
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
  

    9/1
    Score
    Game
    Player of Game
    AB
    R
    H
    BI
    
    IP
    H
    R
    ER
    BB
    K
  

    MLB
    5.0
    MIA 6, NYM 4
    Christian Yelich, CF
    4
    2
    3
    4
    
    -
    -
    -
    -
    -
    -
  

    
    5.0
    CHC 5, SF 4
    Joe Smith (W,2-4)
    -
    -
    -
    -
    
    2.0
    0
    0
    0
    0
    3
  

    
    3.0
    ATL 9, SD 6
    Freddie Freeman, 1B
    3
    2
    1
    3
    
    -
    -
    -
    -
    -
    -
  

    AL
    2.0
    MIN 8, CHW 5
    Byron Buxton, CF
    3
    1
    1
    3
    
    -
    -
    -
    -
    -
    -
  

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	+/-
Freeman, Freddie 2887	1b	atl nl	6.0	9.0	37.2	37.2	3.0
Yelich, Christian 3334	lf cf	fla nl	4.5	7.0	14.5	14.5	2.0
Smith, Joe 2388	pi cp mr	chi nl	2.0	5.0	13.0	14.0	-1.0
Buxton, Byron 3604	cf	min al	1.7	2.7	2.7	2.7	0.7