(This post was edited Thursday, November 22, 2018, 2018, to correct an error in the Box-Toppers point total of Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom. During the 2018 season, an extra, unearned point was added to his total. There is more information about this at the bottom of the post.)

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2018 season through the games of July 11:


	Player	Pos	Team	BTP
1	Severino, Luis 3567	pi sp	nyy al	16.7
2	Scherzer, Max 2588	pi sp	dc nl	16.4
3	Berrios, Jose 3791	pi sp	min al	15.1
4	Nola, Aaron 3569	pi sp	phi nl	14.4
5	Paxton, James 3280	pi sp	sea al	14.0
6	Sale, Chris 2806	pi sp	bos al	13.7
7	Snell, Blake 3688	pi sp	tb al	12.7
8	Verlander, Justin 2112	pi sp	hou al	12.4
9	Cole, Gerrit 3232	pi sp	hou al	12.0
10	Morton, Charlie 2503	pi sp	hou al	11.8

What are those numbers after players' names?
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations

Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale is Wednesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and rises to sixth place in season player rankings.

Sale struck out 12 over seven scoreless innings, allowing six hits and one walk, in the 4-2 win over the Rangers.

Sale earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 13.7 for the season, rising from 10th to sixth place in season player rankings, fourth among American League pitchers. Sale led all players in Box-Toppers points in 2017 with 25.1.

Sale also now has 125.2 career Box-Toppers points, 12th among active players in career points.

National League Player of the Day—Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom struck out seven over eight scoreless innings, allowing five hits and one walk, in the 3-0, 10-inning win over the Phillies. deGrom did not earn the win, picking up a no-decision, because the game was in a scoreless tie when he exited.

National League Batter of the Day—Carlos Gonzalez of the Rockies hit two home runs and went 2-for-5, scoring four times and driving in six runs, in the 19-2 win over the Diamondbacks.

American League Batter of the Day—Jose Ramirez of the Indians homered twice and went 2-for-4, scoring twice and driving in five runs, in the 19-4 win over the Reds.

Scoring—Sale earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and deGrom earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Gonzalez and Ramirez each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Wednesday’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.

NOTE ABOUT JACOB DEGROM: After this post was published, Box-Toppers discovered an error: Jacob deGrom was credited with 1.0 more Box-Toppers point than he actually earned in 2018. This post has been changed to include deGrom’s actual Box-Toppers point total and player ranking position at the time of this post. Subtracting a point from deGrom’s season total meant he had 16.8 Box-Toppers points, rather than 17.8. Despite the change, he still finished third among National League pitchers. However, the change moves him from ninth place to 12th place in overall season player rankings, moving him out of the top 10 and keeping Yankees pitcher Luis Severino (17.7 points) in the top 10 for the season, in 10th place.

This is made all the more odd and awkward because the error was discovered while compiling the post about deGrom winning the NL Cy Young Award on Wednesday, Nov. 14. deGrom was the near-unanimous choice for the award, but even with his higher, incorrect Box-Toppers point total (17.8), Box-Toppers had him ranked third among NL pitchers, needing nearly 50 percent more points to catch the NL pitching leader, Max Scherzer of the Nationals (25.1).

My post was about how Scherzer was more deserving of the award than the widely acclaimed deGrom because Scherzer actually helped his team win more games. Despite deGrom’s great performances, the Mets lost most of the games he pitched. Since winning is the name of the game and since Box-Toppers points are only awarded in wins, deGrom’s point total was far lower—but it was still remarkable, given all the losses, that he reached as high as third place among NL pitchers. While writing about how deGrom wasn’t as deserving of the award, I found the error (the extra point), and correcting the record (subtracting the point), I found he was even more undeserving.

Top player from each game
Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score (BTG)




  
    7/11
    BTG
    Game
    Player
    AB
    R
    H
    BI
    
    IP
    H
    R
    ER
    BB
    K
  

    MLB
    12.0
    BOS 4, TEX 2
    Chris Sale (W, 10‑4)
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    
    7.0
    6
    0
    0
    1
    12
  

    
    10.0
    NYY 9, BAL 0
    Sonny Gray (W, 6‑7)
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    
    6.0
    3
    0
    0
    1
    8
  

    
    9.1
    CHW 4, STL 0
    Carlos Rodon (W, 2‑3)
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    
    7.1
    3
    0
    0
    2
    7
  

    
    9.0
    SEA 3, LAA 0
    Marco Gonzales (W, 10‑5)
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    
    7.0
    2
    0
    0
    0
    4
  

    NL
    9.0
    `NYM 3, PHI 0 (F/10)
    Jacob deGrom
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    
    8.0
    5
    0
    0
    1
    7
  

    
    7.2
    LAD 4, SD 2
    Kenta Maeda (W, 6‑5)
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    
    5.2
    4
    1
    1
    1
    9
  

    BAT
    7.0
    COL 19, ARI 2
    Carlos Gonzalez RF
    5
    4
    2
    6
    
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
  

    
    6.0
    TB 4, DET 2
    Ryan Yarbrough (W, 8‑4)
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    
    3.0
    1
    0
    0
    0
    4
  

    BAT
    5.0
    CLE 19, CIN 4
    Jose Ramirez 3B
    4
    2
    2
    5
    
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
  

    
    4.0
    ATL 9, TOR 5
    Ozzie Albies 2B
    4
    2
    2
    4
    
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
  

    
    4.0
    SF 5, CHC 4 (F/13)
    Dereck Rodriguez (W, 4‑1)
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    
    3.0
    0
    0
    0
    2
    3
  

    
    4.0
    PIT 2, WSH 0
    Felipe Vazquez (S, 20)
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    
    1.0
    0
    0
    0
    0
    3
  

    
    4.0
    `MIA 5, MIL 4 (F/12)
    Dan Straily
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    
    6.0
    4
    2
    1
    2
    7
  

    
    3.0
    OAK 8, HOU 3
    Chad Pinder LF‑RF
    3
    1
    2
    3
    
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
  

    
    2.0
    MIN 8, KC 5
    Brian Dozier 2B
    5
    1
    3
    3
    
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
    ‑
  
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 Player of the Game winners. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total for the current season (’18). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (’17-18), the period 2013-2018 (’13-18) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2018 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2017 total (+/-).

Player of the Game	Pos	Team	’18	’17‑18	’13‑18	Career	+/‑
Sale, Chris 2806	pi sp	bos al	13.7	38.8	104.5	125.2	-11.4
Gonzales, Marco 3408	pi sp	sea al	9.4	10.4	13.4	13.4	+8.4
Maeda, Kenta 3609	pi sp	lad nl	8.7	18.7	28.7	28.7	-1.3
deGrom, Jacob 3343	pi sp	nym nl	8.4	24.1	69.2	69.2	-7.3
Gray, Sonny 3259	pi sp	nyy al	6.0	14.4	47.2	47.2	-2.4
Vazquez, Felipe 3579	pi cp	pit nl	5.0	9.0	10.0	10.0	+1.0
Straily, Dan 3080	pi sp	fla nl	4.0	13.7	29.4	31.4	-5.7
Pinder, Chad 3871	lf 2b rf	oak al	4.0	7.5	7.5	7.5	+0.5
Rodriguez, Dereck 3986	pi sp	sf nl	4.0	4.0	4.0	4.0	+4.0
Yarbrough, Ryan 3962	pi mr	tb al	4.0	4.0	4.0	4.0	+4.0
Gonzalez, Carlos 2460	rf	col nl	3.5	9.0	38.5	76.7	-2.0
Ramirez, Jose 3436	3b	cle al	3.0	13.0	18.0	18.0	-7.0
Albies, Ozzie 3953	2b	atl nl	2.0	2.0	2.0	2.0	+2.0
Dozier, Brian 3219	2b	min al	1.0	6.5	20.2	20.2	-4.5
Rodon, Carlos 3494	pi sp	chi al	1.0	4.0	20.1	20.1	-2.0