Rockies' Chad Bettis tops players for Monday, Sept. 5; Orioles' Jimenez tops AL players

Rockies pitcher Chad Bettis is Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.

Bettis pitched a complete-game, two-hit shutout, striking out seven and walking none, in the 6-0 win over the Giants.

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2016 season as of Sept. 5:  


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 Lester, Jon 2173 pi sp chi nl 17.1
6 Hamels, Cole 2135 pi sp tex al 16.8
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?

American League Player of the Day—Orioles pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez pitched a complete game, allowing three runs, two hits, one walk and striking out six, in the 7-3 win over the Rays.

American League Batter of the Day—Eric Hosmer of the Royals hit a three-run homer and went 2-for-3, scoring twice and driving in four runs, in the 11-5 win over the Twins.

National League Batter of the Day—Chris Coghlan of the Cubs hit the go-ahead, seventh-inning pinch-hit single and went 2-for-2, scoring once and driving in three runs, in the 7-2 win over the Brewers.

Notable—Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander has the most season Box-Toppers points among the 15 who earned Player of the Game honors Monday.

Verlander (7IP 8H 2R BB 11K ND in the 5-3, 11-inning win over the White Sox) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 11.0 for the season. He ranks 27th among all players and 10th among AL pitchers.

Verander also now has 135.6 career Box-Toppers points, 29th-most since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995. He trails 28th-ranked player, Cubs pitcher Jon Lester (138.2).

Also notable—For the sixth time this season, a pitcher has earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors for batting and Adam Wainwright of the Cardinals, who did it Monday, has now done it twice in 2016.

Wainwright (2B 2-3 R 3BI in the 12-6 win over the Pirates) was also Player of the Game for batting May 2. It is the fourth time in his career Wainwright has earned Player of the Game honors for batting. He also did it July 24, 2012 and Sept. 18, 2013.

Wainwright also picked up the win in the game (5IP 7H 4R BB 5K W). His Box-Toppers game score for pitching was −6.0. His Box-Toppers game score for batting was +3.0, best of all Cardinals players Monday.

Wainwright earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being Player of the Game, giving him 111.0 career points. He rises to 53rd place among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began, passing Tom Glavine (110.6) on the “all-time” list and now trails 52nd-ranked player Adrian Beltre of the Rangers (111.3). Wainwright has 9.2 Box-Toppers points on the season, 20th among NL pitchers.

Debut—Trea Turner of the Nationals made his Box-Toppers debut Monday with his first career Player of the Game honor.

Turner (HR 2B 3-4 R 3BI in the 6-4 win over the Braves) made his Major League debut Aug. 21, 2015, and was playing in his 75th career game. He is the 3,730th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.

Scoring—Bettis earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Jimenez earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Hosmer and Coghlan each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Monday’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

9/5 Score Game Player of Game AB R H BI IP H R ER BB K
MLB 14.0 COL 6, SF 0 Chad Bettis (W,12-7) - - - - 9.0 2 0 0 0 7
12.0 SD 2, BOS 1 Edwin Jackson (W,4-5) - - - - 7.0 4 0 0 2 11
8.1 LAD 10, ARI 2 Kenta Maeda (W,14-8) - - - - 6.1 3 1 1 1 8
AL 6.0 BAL 7, TB 3 Ubaldo Jimenez (W,6-11) - - - - 9.0 2 3 3 1 6
BAT 5.0 KC 11, MIN 5 Eric Hosmer, 1B 3 2 2 4 - - - - - -
5.0 `DET 5, CHW 3 (11) Justin Verlander - - - - 7.0 8 2 2 1 11
4.0 SEA 14, TEX 6 Franklin Gutierrez, RF 4 1 3 4 - - - - - -
BAT 4.0 CHC 7, MIL 2 Chris Coghlan, PH-RF 2 1 2 3 - - - - - -
3.0 NYY 5, TOR 3 Jacoby Ellsbury, CF 4 1 3 3 - - - - - -
3.0 WSH 6, ATL 4 Trea Turner, 2B 4 1 3 3 - - - - - -
3.0 NYM 5, CIN 0 Matt Reynolds, SS 4 2 3 2 - - - - - -
3.0 STL 12, PIT 6 Adam Wainwright, P 3 1 2 3 - - - - - -
3.0 LAA 10, OAK 7 Andrew Bailey (S,2) - - - - 1.0 0 0 0 0 2
2.0 PHI 6, MIA 2 Peter Bourjos, RF 4 2 3 1 - - - - - -
2.0 HOU 6, CLE 2 Alex Bregman, 3B 4 2 2 2 - - - - - -
`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 +/-
Verlander, Justin 2112 pi sp det al 11.0 17.4 80.6 135.6 4.6
Wainwright, Adam 2150 pi sp stl nl 9.2 12.2 60.3 111.0 6.2
Maeda, Kenta 3609 pi sp lad nl 8.0 8.0 8.0 8.0 8.0
Hosmer, Eric 2886 1b kc al 7.5 16.5 30.0 30.0 -1.5
Bettis, Chad 3481 pi sp col nl 5.7 11.1 11.1 11.1 0.3
Gutierrez, Franklin 2242 rf sea al 3.5 4.5 8.5 23.5 2.5
Jackson, Edwin 1812 pi sp sd nl 3.0 3.0 22.0 43.8 3.0
Jimenez, Ubaldo 2349 pi sp bal al 2.7 11.4 39.6 77.5 -6.0
Coghlan, Chris 2610 3b rf ph chi nl 2.5 3.5 10.0 16.5 1.5
Bregman, Alex 3721 3b hou al 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0
Reynolds, Matt 3650 ss ph nym nl 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0
Ellsbury, Jacoby 2365 cf nyy al 1.0 4.0 23.0 30.0 -2.0
Bourjos, Peter 2790 rf phi nl 1.0 2.0 12.5 13.5 0.0
Bailey, Andrew 2549 pi cp ana al 1.0 1.0 5.0 18.0 1.0
Turner, Trea 3730 2b dc nl 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0
What are those numbers after players' names?