Padres' Chacin tops players for Saturday, April 8; Greinke rises to 14th in Box-Toppers ‘all-time' rankings

Padres pitcher Jhoulys Chacin is Saturday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.

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 186.0
6 Clayton Kershaw pi sp lad nl 185.7
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 Zack Greinke pi sp ari nl 157.1
15 Tim Hudson pi sp retired 157.0
16 Mike Mussina pi sp retired 155.6
17 Barry Bonds lf retired 153.2
18 Greg Maddux pi sp retired 151.7
19 Bartolo Colon pi sp atl nl 149.5
20 Chipper Jones 3b retired 149.0
BTP: Box-Toppers points
List of top 100 players since 1995 at the close of the 2016 season.

Also Saturday, Diamondbacks pitcher Zack Greinke rose to 14th place in Box-Toppers points among all players since 1995 (when Box-Toppers tracking began) after earning Player of the Game honors.

Player of the Day—Chacin pitched 6 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing three hits and striking out five, in the 2-1 win over the Giants.

American League Player of the Day—Athletics pitcher Kendall Graveman allowed one run and two hits over seven innings, striking out five, in the 6-1 win over the Rangers.

National League Batter of the Day—Howie Kendrick of the Phillies tripled and went 3-for-5, scoring twice and driving in four runs, in the 17-3 win over the Nationals.

Kendrick has now earned Box-Toppers points in 12 straight seasons. He earned his first points in 2006 with the Angels and has 35.5 career points, fifth among active AL second basemen. His best season was 2009 with the Angels when he had 5.5 Box-Toppers points, eighth among AL second basemen.

American League Batter of the Day—Avisail Garcia of the White Sox homered, tripled and went 3-for-4, scoring twice and driving in three runs, in the 6-2 win over the Twins.

Greinke—Zack Greinke rose to 14th place in Box-Toppers points among all players since 1995 (when Box-Toppers tracking began) after earning Player of the Game honors Saturday (6.2IP 5H R 0BB 6K W in the 11-2 win over the Indians).

Greinke earned 1.0 Box-Toppers point, his first of the season, and now has 157.1 career points, passing Tim Hudson (157.0) on the “all-time” list. Greinke now trails 13th-ranked player John Smoltz (160.9).

Greinke also has now earned Box-Toppers points in 11 straight seasons. He earned his first points in 2004 with the Royals, but earned none in 2006, so his 11-season streak begins in 2007 with the Royals. His best season was 2009 with the Royals when he had 21.5 Box-Toppers points to lead all players.

Notable—Three players Saturday became the first to earn Player of the Game honors twice in the 2017 season, which began last week:

  • Angels pitcher Cam Bedrosian (1.2IP H 0R 0BB 4K Sv in the 5-4 win over the Mariners). He was also Player of the Game Tuesday.
  • Orioles pitcher Mychal Givens (1.0IP 0H 0R 0BB 2K W in the 5-4 win over the Yankees). He was also Player of the Game Monday.
  • Rockies pitcher Greg Holland (1.0IP 0H 0R 0BB 2K Sv in the 4-2 win over the Dodgers). He was also Player of the Game Tuesday.

All three players now have 2.0 Box-Toppers points on the season. Based on tiebreakers, Bedrosian ranks seventh among all players for the season, Givens ranks ninth and Holland ranks 10th.

Debut—Albert Almora Jr. of the Cubs made his Box-Toppers debut Saturday, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors. Almora (3-4 R 2BI in the 11-6 win over the Brewers) made his Major League debut June 7, 2016, and was playing in his 49th career game. He is the 3,764th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.

Scoring—Chacin earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Graveman earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Kendrick and Garcia 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.

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 

4/8 Score Game Player AB R H BI IP H R ER BB K
MLB 7.2 SD 2, SF 1 Jhoulys Chacin (W,1-1) - - - - 6.2 3 0 0 1 5
AL 7.0 OAK 6, TEX 1 Kendall Graveman (W,2-0) - - - - 7.0 2 1 1 1 5
6.0 STL 10, CIN 4 Michael Wacha (W,1-0) - - - - 6.0 3 1 1 1 6
5.2 ARI 11, CLE 2 Zack Greinke (W,1-0) - - - - 6.2 5 1 1 0 6
5.0 MIA 8, NYM 1 Adam Conley (W,1-0) - - - - 5.0 1 1 1 3 6
4.2 LAA 5, SEA 4 Cam Bedrosian (S,2) - - - - 1.2 1 0 0 0 4
BAT 4.0 PHI 17, WSH 3 Howie Kendrick, LF 5 2 3 4 - - - - - -
BAT 4.0 CHW 6, MIN 2 Avisail Garcia, RF 4 2 3 3 - - - - - -
3.2 TB 3, TOR 2 (F/11) Erasmo Ramirez (W,1-0) - - - - 1.2 0 0 0 0 2
3.0 PIT 6, ATL 4 Gregory Polanco, LF 4 2 4 1 - - - - - -
3.0 DET 4, BOS 1 Jose Iglesias, SS 3 2 2 2 - - - - - -
3.0 BAL 5, NYY 4 Mychal Givens (W,1-0) - - - - 1.0 0 0 0 0 2
3.0 COL 4, LAD 2 Greg Holland (S,4) - - - - 1.0 0 0 0 0 2
2.0 CHC 11, MIL 6 Albert Almora Jr., CF 4 1 3 2 - - - - - -
0.0 KC 7, HOU 3 Cheslor Cuthbert, 3B 4 1 2 1 - - - - - -
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 Game Pos Team ’17 ’16-17 ’12-17 Career +/-
Chacin, Jhoulys 2711 pi mr sp sd nl 2.0 7.7 14.4 29.8 -3.7
Bedrosian, Cam 3694 pi cp ana al 2.0 5.0 5.0 5.0 -1.0
Givens, Mychal 3599 pi mr bal al 2.0 4.0 5.0 5.0 0.0
Holland, Greg 2906 pi cp col nl 2.0 2.0 32.0 35.0 2.0
Graveman, Kendall 3444 pi sp oak al 1.7 7.7 12.4 12.4 -4.3
Kendrick, Howie 2191 2b lf 1b phi nl 1.5 5.5 19.5 35.5 -2.5
Garcia, Avisail 3256 rf chi al 1.5 4.0 12.5 12.5 -1.0
Greinke, Zack 1871 pi sp ari nl 1.0 10.7 80.0 157.1 -8.7
Conley, Adam 3594 pi sp fla nl 1.0 7.7 10.7 10.7 -5.7
Polanco, Gregory 3361 lf pit nl 1.0 6.5 13.5 13.5 -4.5
Ramirez, Erasmo 1786 pi cp tb al 1.0 4.7 13.7 15.7 -2.7
Wacha, Michael 3276 pi sp stl nl 1.0 3.0 20.7 20.7 -1.0
Cuthbert, Cheslor 3683 3b kc al 1.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 0.0
Iglesias, Jose 3532 ss det al 1.0 1.0 2.0 2.0 1.0
Almora, Albert Jr. 3764 cf chi nl 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0
What are those numbers after players' names?