Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom is Thursday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and rises to ninth in season player rankings.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2017 season as of Aug. 10:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 22.1 |
| 2 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 21.0 |
| 3 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 19.1 |
| 4 | Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 14.4 |
| 5 | Paxton, James 3280 | pi sp | sea al | 13.7 |
| 6 | Greinke, Zack 1871 | pi sp | ari nl | 13.4 |
| 7 | Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 13.0 |
| 8 | Wood, Alex 3246 | pi sp | lad nl | 13.0 |
| 9 | deGrom, Jacob 3343 | pi sp | nym nl | 12.7 |
| 10 | Strasburg, Stephen 2736 | pi sp | dc nl | 12.4 |
deGrom struck out nine over 6 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing four hits and no walks, in the 10-0 win over the Phillies.
deGrom earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 12.7 for the season and rising to ninth place in season player rankings, fifth among National League pitchers. With his rise into the top 10, he pushes Yankees pitcher Luis Severino (12.4 Box-Toppers points) to 11th place.
American League Player of the Day—Orioles pitcher Wade Miley struck out seven over seven innings, allowing one run, three hits and three walks, in the 7-2 win over the Athletics.
National League Batter of the Day—Dexter Fowler of the Cardinals hit a grand slam and doubled, going 2-for-4, scoring twice and driving in five runs, in the 8-6 win over the Royals.
American League Batter of the Day—Yoan Moncada of the White Sox homered and went 2-for-5, scoring once and driving in two runs, in the 3-2, 11-inning win over the Astros. Moncada is the only AL batter to earn Player of the Game honors Thursday.
This was Moncada’s Box-Toppers debut, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors. Moncada made his Major League debut Sept. 2, 2016, and was playing in his 27th career game. He is the 3,878th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
Notable—Dodgers pitcher Yu Darvish became the 17th player this season to earn 10 or more Box-Toppers points after earning Player of the Game honors Thursday.
Darvish (5IP 5H 2R 2BB 10K W in the 8-6 win over the Diamondbacks) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 10.0 for the season and rising to 15th place in season player rankings, ninth among NL pitchers.
This is the fifth season (and second in a row) that Darvish has earned 10.0 or more Box-Toppers points. Darvish has earned 10.0 or more points in five of his six seasons since making his Box-Toppers debut in 2012. The only season he did not was 2015 when he had 0.0 points as he was recovering from Tommy John surgery. Darvish has 65.6 career Box-Toppers points and had his best season in 2012 with the Rangers with 16.8 points, fourth among AL pitchers. In 2016, Darvish had 10.4 Box-Toppers points with the Rangers.
Top 10 watch—Mariners pitcher James Paxton (13.7 Box-Toppers points in 2017, ranked fifth) did not earn Player of the Game honors in his start Thursday, a loss to the Angels.
Paxton (6.1IP 5H 3R BB 6K ND in the 6-3 loss) had a Box-Toppers game score of +0.1. Player of the Game was Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs (6.1IP 5H 0R 3BB 5K ND), who had a Box-Toppers game score of +3.1.
Debut—Twins pitcher Alan Busenitz made his Box-Toppers debut Thursday with his first career Player of the Game honor.
Busenitz (2.2IP 0H 0R 0BB 2K W in the 7-2 win over the Brewers) made his Major League debut June 17 and was playing in his third career game. He is the 3,877th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
Scoring—deGrom earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Miley earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Fowler and Moncada each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s Batter 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.
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| 8/10 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 11.2 | NYM 10, PHI 0 | Jacob deGrom (W, 13-5) | - | - | - | - | 6.2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | |
| AL | 7.0 | BAL 7, OAK 2 | Wade Miley (W, 6-9) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 7 | |
| BAT | 5.0 | STL 8, KC 6 | Dexter Fowler CF | 4 | 2 | 2 | 5 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 5.0 | TOR 4, NYY 0 | Marco Estrada (W, 5-7) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | ||
| 4.2 | MIN 7, MIL 2 | Alan Busenitz (W, 1-0) | - | - | - | - | 2.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 4.2 | TB 4, CLE 1 | Tommy Hunter (W, 2-2) | - | - | - | - | 1.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 4.0 | LAD 8, ARI 6 | Yu Darvish (W, 2-0) | - | - | - | - | 5.0 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 10 | ||
| 3.1 | `LAA 6, SEA 3 | Tyler Skaggs | - | - | - | - | 6.1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | ||
| 3.0 | CIN 10, SD 3 | Scooter Gennett 2B | 4 | 1 | 2 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | WSH 3, MIA 2 | Ryan Madson (W, 2-0) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 2.0 | PIT 7, DET 5 | Josh Bell 1B | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| BAT | 0.0 | CHW 3, HOU 2 (F/11) | Yoan Moncada 2B | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
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 | +/- |
| deGrom, Jacob 3343 | pi sp | nym nl | 12.7 | 22.4 | 57.8 | 57.8 | 3.0 |
| Darvish, Yu 3003 | pi sp | lad nl | 10.0 | 20.4 | 65.6 | 65.6 | -0.4 |
| Gennett, Scooter 3254 | 2b | cin nl | 6.5 | 9.0 | 18.0 | 18.0 | 4.0 |
| Estrada, Marco 2847 | pi sp | tor al | 5.0 | 16.0 | 45.1 | 48.1 | -6.0 |
| Fowler, Dexter 2698 | cf | stl nl | 5.0 | 6.5 | 20.5 | 23.0 | 3.5 |
| Miley, Wade 3006 | pi sp | bal al | 3.7 | 9.7 | 40.1 | 40.1 | -2.3 |
| Madson, Ryan 1841 | pi mr cp | dc nl | 3.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 26.7 | 0.0 |
| Hunter, Tommy 2623 | pi mr | tb al | 2.7 | 3.7 | 10.7 | 18.7 | 1.7 |
| Skaggs, Tyler 3183 | pi sp | ana al | 2.0 | 4.7 | 14.4 | 14.4 | -0.7 |
| Bell, Josh E. 3682 | 1b | pit nl | 2.0 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 0.5 |
| Moncada, Yoan 3878 | 2b | chi al | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| Busentiz, Alan 3877 | pi mr | min al | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |