Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish is Saturday’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. 24:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 24.7 |
| 2 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 24.4 |
| 3 | Fernandez, Jose 3147 | pi sp | fla nl | 22.4 |
| 4 | Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 21.2 |
| 5 | Lester, Jon 2173 | pi sp | chi nl | 21.1 |
| 6 | Hamels, Cole 2135 | pi sp | tex al | 17.8 |
| 7 | Arrieta, Jake 2738 | pi sp | chi nl | 15.7 |
| 8 | Syndergaard, Noah 3472 | pi sp | nym al | 15.7 |
| 9 | Cueto, Johnny 2400 | pi sp | sf nl | 15.4 |
| 10 | Strasburg, Stephen 2736 | pi sp | dc nl | 15.1 |
Also Saturday, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw edged to within 0.3 points of season Box-Toppers points leader, Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer, after earning National League Player of the Day. Kershaw also rises to sixth place in career Box-Toppers points since 1995, passing Albert Pujols of the Angels.
Player of the Day—Darvish struck out nine over seven scoreless innings, allowing two hits and one walk, in the 5-0 win over the Athletics.
National League Player of the Day—Kershaw pitched seven scoreless innings, striking out six and walking none in the 14-1 win over the Rockies.
Kershaw earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being NL Player of the Day, giving him 24.4 for the season. He maintains his rank of second among all players, behind Scherzer (24.7). Kershaw had the chance to regain the points lead if he had earned overall Player of the Day honors, worth 2.0 Box-Toppers points. While he would have tied Scherzer at 24.7 points, Kershaw held the tiebreaker—he had more 2015 Box-Toppers points (25.7 vs. 21.0).
Kershaw led in Box-Toppers points much of the season (from May 7 to Aug. 24) despite being on the disabled list nearly two months from late June to late August. Kershaw had 20.0 Box-Toppers points when he went on the disabled list in late June. Scherzer passed him on Aug. 25 with 20.7 points.
All-time leaders
Here are Box-Toppers top 20 players since record keeping began in 1995:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Randy Johnson | pi sp | retired | 278.8 |
| 2 | Pedro Martinez | pi sp | retired | 244.8 |
| 3 | Curt Schilling | pi sp | retired | 194.1 |
| 4 | Alex Rodriguez | dh | released | 187.0 |
| 5 | CC Sabathia | pi sp | nyy al | 184.0 |
| 6 | Clayton Kershaw | pi sp | lad nl | 183.7 |
| 7 | Albert Pujols | 1b dh | ana al | 182.3 |
| 8 | Roy Halladay | pi sp | retired | 170.7 |
| 9 | Felix Hernandez | pi sp | sea al | 168.7 |
| 10 | Manny Ramirez | lf dh | retired | 167.2 |
| 11 | Johan Santana | pi sp | free agent | 166.6 |
| 12 | Roger Clemens | pi sp | retired | 164.8 |
| 13 | John Smoltz | pi sp | retired | 160.9 |
| 14 | Tim Hudson | pi sp | retired | 157.0 |
| 15 | Zack Greinke | pi sp | ari nl | 156.1 |
| 16 | Mike Mussina | pi sp | retired | 155.6 |
| 17 | Barry Bonds | lf | retired | 153.2 |
| 18 | Greg Maddux | pi sp | retired | 151.7 |
| 19 | Chipper Jones | 3b | retired | 149.0 |
| 20 | Javier Vazquez | pi sp | retired | 148.3 |
Kershaw also now has 183.7 career Box-Toppers points, rising to sixth place among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. He passes Albert Pujols of the Angels (182.3) on the “all-time” list and now trails fifth-ranked player, Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia (184.0), by just 0.3 points. Sabathia is the active leader in points and Kershaw now rises to second among active players.
Kershaw had passed Pujols earlier this season to rise to sixth place in career points but after Kershaw went on the disabled list, Pujols regained the sixth-place spot. On June 11, Kershaw passed Pujols with 176.3 points, but on July 25, Pujols regained sixth place with 180.3 points. Kershaw, now with 183.7 points, reclaims sixth place.
National League Batter of the Day—Yadier Molina of the Cardinals doubled and went 3-for-4, scoring once and driving in four runs, in the 10-4 win over the Cubs.
American League Batter of the Day—Mike Trout of the Angels doubled and went 2-for-3, scoring three times and driving in two runs, in the 10-4 win over the Astros.
Trout earns 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being AL Batter of the Day, giving him 12.5 for the season. He rises to 25th among all players and second among AL batters, behind Manny Machado of the Orioles (12.7).
Notable—Red Sox pitcher Rick Porcello earned his league-leading 22nd win of the season Saturday but did not earn Player of the Game honors. While he leads in wins, he has just 8.0 Box-Toppers points on the season, 82nd among all players and 29th among AL pitchers. (From Sept. 17: Why does wins leader Rick Porcello have so few Box-Toppers points?)
Porcello (6.1IP 8H 3R BB 9K W in the 6-4 win over the Rays) had a Box-Toppers game score Saturday of +0.1. Player of the Game was Dustin Pedroia (HR 2-4 R 4BI) who had a Box-Toppers game score of +3.0. Pedroia has 5.0 Box-Toppers points on the season—4.0 of them have been earned in a game in which Porcello has earned the win.
Scoring—Darvish earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Kershaw earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Molina and Trout each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Saturday’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
| 9/24 | Score | Game | Player of Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 13.0 | TEX 5, OAK 0 | Yu Darvish (W,6-5) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | |
| 10.2 | BAL 6, ARI 1 | Wade Miley (W,9-13) | - | - | - | - | 8.2 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 11 | ||
| NL | 10.0 | LAD 14, COL 1 | Clayton Kershaw (W,12-3) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | |
| 8.0 | `TOR 3, NYY 0 | Marcus Stroman | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | ||
| 6.1 | WSH 6, PIT 1 | Reynaldo Lopez (W,4-3) | - | - | - | - | 5.1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | ||
| BAT | 4.0 | STL 10, CHC 4 | Yadier Molina, C | 4 | 1 | 3 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| BAT | 4.0 | LAA 10, HOU 4 | Mike Trout, CF | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 3.0 | PHI 10, NYM 8 | Darin Ruf, LF | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | BOS 6, TB 4 | Dustin Pedroia, 2B | 4 | 1 | 2 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | MIN 3, SEA 2 | Tyler Duffey (W,9-11) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | ||
| 3.0 | MIA 6, ATL 4 | A.J. Ramos (S,39) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 2.2 | CIN 6, MIL 1 | Dan Straily (W,14-8) | - | - | - | - | 6.2 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | ||
| 1.0 | CHW 8, CLE 1 | Carlos Sanchez, 2B | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1.0 | KC 7, DET 4 | Kendrys Morales, 1B | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 1.0 | SF 9, SD 6 (10) | Kelby Tomlinson, 2B | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| `Denotes that the pitcher had a no-decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save. | ||||||||||||||
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 | +/- |
| Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 24.4 | 50.1 | 150.2 | 183.7 | -1.3 |
| Trout, Mike 2949 | cf | ana al | 12.5 | 24.5 | 49.0 | 49.0 | 0.5 |
| Morales, Kendrys 2142 | dh | kc al | 8.5 | 13.2 | 23.2 | 39.2 | 3.8 |
| Darvish, Yu 3003 | pi sp | tex al | 8.4 | 8.4 | 53.6 | 53.6 | 8.4 |
| Duffey, Tyler 3558 | pi sp | min al | 7.0 | 11.0 | 11.0 | 11.0 | 3.0 |
| Straily, Dan 3080 | pi sp | cin nl | 7.0 | 7.0 | 17.7 | 17.7 | 7.0 |
| Stroman, Marcus 3327 | pi sp | tor al | 6.7 | 9.4 | 23.1 | 23.1 | 4.0 |
| Miley, Wade 3006 | pi sp | bal al | 6.0 | 13.0 | 36.4 | 36.4 | -1.0 |
| Molina, Yadier 1967 | ca ph | stl nl | 4.0 | 5.0 | 17.7 | 34.7 | 3.0 |
| Pedroia, Dustin 2320 | 2b | bos al | 4.0 | 4.0 | 24.4 | 36.5 | 4.0 |
| Tomlinson, Kelby 3619 | 2b ph | sf nl | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 |
| Ramos, A.J. 3210 | pi cp | fla nl | 2.0 | 7.0 | 12.0 | 12.0 | -3.0 |
| Lopez, Reynaldo 3712 | pi sp mr | dc nl | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| Sanchez, Carlos 3589 | 2b | chi al | 1.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | -2.0 |
| Ruf, Darin 3575 | lf | phi nl | 1.0 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 | -0.5 |