Rangers' A.J. Griffin tops players for Monday, April 17; Cardinals' Lynn tops NL players

Rangers pitcher A.J. Griffin is Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.

Griffin struck out eight over six scoreless innings, allowing one hit and one walk, in the 7-0 win over the Athletics.

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2017 season as of April 17:  


Player Pos Team BTP
1 Santana, Ervin 2005 pi sp min al 4.7
2 Kershaw, Clayton 2494 pi sp lad nl 4.0
3 Keuchel, Dallas 3050 pi sp hou al 3.4
4 Morrison, Logan 2794 1b tb al 3.2
5 Syndergaard, Noah 3472 pi sp nym nl 3.0
6 Kimbrel, Craig 2825 pi cp bos al 3.0
7 Devenski, Chris 3702 pi mr cp hou al 3.0
8 Marte, Starling 3122 lf cf pit nl 3.0
9 Vargas, Jason 2055 pi sp kc al 3.0
10 Holland, Greg 2906 pi cp col nl 3.0
What are those numbers after players' names?

National League Player of the Day—Cardinals pitcher Lance Lynn pitched seven scoreless innings, allowing three hits and striking out five, in the 2-1 win over the Pirates.

National League Batter of the Day—Freddie Freeman of the Braves hit two home runs and two doubles in the 5-4 win over the Padres. Freeman went 4-for-4, scoring twice and driving in three runs.

American League Batter of the Day—Aaron Judge of the Yankees hit a two-run homer and went 2-for-4, driving in three total runs, in the 7-4 win over the White Sox.

Streak—Ryan Braun of the Brewers has now earned Box-Toppers points in 11 straight seasons after earning Player of the Game honors Monday.

Braun (HR 2B 3-4 2R 3BI in the 6-3 win over the Cubs) earned his first Box-Toppers points in 2007 with the Brewers and has 89.2 career points, second among active NL batters (trailing Ryan Howard of the Braves with 98.7). Braun’s best season was 2012 with the Brewers when he had 12.5 Box-Toppers points, first among NL batters.

Rankings—Two players rose in Box-Toppers top 10 season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Monday:

  • Red Sox pitcher Craig Kimbrel (1IP 0H 0R 0BB 3K Sv in the 4-3 win over the Rays) rises to sixth place in player rankings. He earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being Player of the Game, giving him 3.0 for the season.
  • Astros pitcher Chris Devenski (2IP 0H 0R 0BB 4K ND in the 3-0 win over the Angels) rises to seventh place in player rankings. He earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being Player of the Game, giving him 3.0 for the season.

Scoring—Griffin earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Lynn earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Freeman and Judge 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.

Box-Toppers strives for accuracy. See a mistake in a post? A wrong name, wrong team, grammar error, spelling goof, etc.? Thanks for pointing it out! Contact Box-Toppers here. Let's fix it and make it right.

Top player from each game

Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score 

4/17 Score Game Player of the Game AB R H BI IP H R ER BB K
MLB 12.0 TEX 7, OAK 0 A.J. Griffin (W,2-0) - - - - 6.0 1 0 0 1 8
NL 8.0 STL 2, PIT 1 Lance Lynn (W,1-1) - - - - 7.0 3 0 0 1 5
8.0 SEA 6, MIA 1 Ariel Miranda (W,1-1) - - - - 7.0 4 0 0 0 5
6.0 `ARI 4, LAD 2 Robbie Ray - - - - 6.0 3 2 1 4 10
6.0 `HOU 3, LAA 0 Chris Devenski - - - - 2.0 0 0 0 0 4
BAT 5.0 ATL 5, SD 4 Freddie Freeman, 1B 4 2 4 3 - - - - - -
4.0 MIL 6, CHC 3 Ryan Braun, LF 4 2 3 3 - - - - - -
4.0 BOS 4, TB 3 Craig Kimbrel (S,6) - - - - 1.0 0 0 0 0 3
BAT 2.0 NYY 7, CHW 4 Aaron Judge, RF 4 1 2 3 - - - - - -
2.0 CLE 3, MIN 1 Danny Salazar (W,1-1) - - - - 6.0 7 1 1 2 7
MLB—Overall Box-Toppers Player of the Day, worth 2.0 total Box-Toppers points.
AL—Overall American League Player of the Day, worth 1.7 total Box-Toppers points.
NL—Overall National League Player of the Day, worth 1.7 total Box-Toppers points.
BAT—Top AL or NL Batter of the Day, worth 1.5 total Box-Toppers points.
All other players listed here earn Player of the Game honors, worth 1.0 Box-Toppers point.
` 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 (’17). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (’16-17), the period 2012-2017 (’12-17) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2017 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2016 total (+/-).  

Player of the Game Pos Team ’17 ’16-17 ’12-17 Career +/-
Kimbrel, Craig 2825 pi cp bos al 3.0 11.0 55.7 61.7 -5.0
Devenski, Chris 3702 pi mr cp hou al 3.0 6.7 6.7 6.7 -0.7
Judge, Aaron 3767 rf nyy al 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5
Ray, Robbie 3502 pi sp ari nl 2.0 8.7 12.7 12.7 -4.7
Griffin, A.J. 3074 pi sp tex al 2.0 7.7 22.4 22.4 -3.7
Lynn, Lance 2992 pi sp stl nl 1.7 1.7 57.6 57.6 1.7
Freeman, Freddie 2887 1b atl nl 1.5 9.0 34.7 40.2 -6.0
Salazar, Danny 3223 pi sp cle al 1.0 13.5 36.3 36.3 -11.5
Braun, Ryan J. 2300 lf mil nl 1.0 11.5 37.0 89.2 -9.5
Miranda, Ariel 3738 pi sp sea al 1.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 -1.0
What are those numbers after players' names?