(This post was edited Wednesday, November 21, 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.)
Nick Castellanos of the Tigers is Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2018 season through the games of Aug. 13:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 20.1 |
| 2 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 19.1 |
| 3 | Severino, Luis 3567 | pi sp | nyy al | 16.7 |
| 4 | Berrios, Jose 3791 | pi sp | min al | 16.1 |
| 5 | Paxton, James 3280 | pi sp | sea al | 16.0 |
| 6 | Nola, Aaron 3569 | pi sp | phi nl | 15.4 |
| 7 | Verlander, Justin 2112 | pi sp | hou al | 15.4 |
| 8 | Snell, Blake 3688 | pi sp | tb al | 14.4 |
| 9 | Bauer, Trevor 3065 | pi sp | cle al | 14.1 |
| 10 | Corbin, Patrick 3027 | pi sp | ari nl | 14.0 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
Castellanos hit a go-ahead, seventh-inning homer and two doubles in the 9-5 win over the White Sox. Castellanos also went 5-for-5, scoring twice and driving in five runs.
Castellanos earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 5.5 for the season, 15th among American League batters and eighth among AL outfielders.
National League Player of the Day—Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom struck out 12 over 6 2/3 innings, allowing three runs (two earned), five hits and two walks, in the 8-5 win over the Yankees.
deGrom earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being NL Player of the Day, giving him 11.1 for the season, most among the 11 who earned Player of the Game honors Monday. deGrom ranks sixth among NL pitchers.
This is the fourth season deGrom has reached 10 or more Box-Toppers points in a season. In fact, he’s done it in four of the five seasons he has earned Box-Toppers points, missing only 2016 when he came close to 10 points with 9.7. His best season was 2015 with the Mets when he had 22.4, third among all players. In 2017, he had 15.7 points with the Mets, seventh among NL pitchers.
National League Batter of the Day—Ronald Acuna of the Braves homered, doubled and went 2-for-3, scoring three times and driving in three runs, in the 9-1 win over the Marlins.
American League Batter of the Day—There is no separate AL Batter of the Day for Monday because the overall Player of the Day is AL batter Nick Castellanos.
Notable—Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw did not earn Player of the Game honors Monday despite having the game’s best Box-Toppers game score because his team lost.
Kershaw had a Box-Toppers game score of +11.0 in the 5-2 loss to the Giants (8IP 4H R 0BB 9K ND). Player of the Game was Nick Hundley (1-1 R 2BI), who had the highest game score among the victorious Giants, +3.0.
Kershaw is the active leader in career Box-Toppers points with 211.8, which is third-most since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995. He also has a seven-year streak of earning at least 20.0 Box-Toppers points in a season and finishing among the top three players in season player rankings. Both of those look increasingly unlikely to continue in 2018. With about six weeks remaining in the season, Kershaw has just 5.0 Box-Toppers points and ranks 118th, 43rd among NL pitchers.
Debut—Ryan O'Hearn of the Royals made his Box-Toppers debut Monday with his first career Player of the Game honor.
O’Hearn (HR 1-2 R 3BI in the 3-1 win over the Blue Jays) made his Major League debut July 31 and was playing in his eighth career game.
Scoring—Castellanos 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. Acuna earns 1.5 points for being NL 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.
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)| 8/13 | BTG | Game | Player | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | +7.0 | DET 9, CHW 5 | Nick Castellanos RF | 5 | 2 | 5 | 5 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | |
| NL | +6.2 | NYM 8, NYY 5 | Jacob deGrom (W, 7‑7) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 6.2 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 12 | |
| BAT | +5.0 | ATL 9, MIA 1 | Ronald Acuna LF | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | |
| +5.0 | ATL 6, MIA 1 | Mike Foltynewicz (W, 10‑7) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 8.0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 7 | ||
| +4.1 | `LAA 6, SD 3 (F/10) | Andrew Heaney | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 7.1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 6 | ||
| +3.0 | OAK 7, SEA 6 | Jed Lowrie 2B | 5 | 1 | 3 | 4 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +3.0 | CLE 10, CIN 3 | Jose Ramirez 3B | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +3.0 | TEX 5, ARI 3 | Robinson Chirinos C | 4 | 1 | 2 | 4 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +3.0 | STL 7, WSH 6 | Matt Carpenter 1B | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +3.0 | KC 3, TOR 1 | Ryan O'Hearn DH | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +3.0 | SF 5, LAD 2 | Nick Hundley PH | 1 | 1 | 1 | 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 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 | +/‑ |
| deGrom, Jacob 3343 | pi sp | nym nl | 11.1 | 26.8 | 71.9 | 71.9 | -4.6 |
| Foltynewicz, Mike 3455 | pi sp | atl nl | 9.7 | 13.7 | 20.4 | 20.4 | +5.7 |
| Ramirez, Jose 3436 | 3b | cle al | 6.0 | 16.0 | 21.0 | 21.0 | -4.0 |
| Heaney, Andrew 3515 | pi sp | ana al | 5.7 | 6.7 | 10.7 | 10.7 | +4.7 |
| Castellanos, Nicholas 3349 | rf | det al | 5.5 | 10.0 | 23.7 | 23.7 | +1.0 |
| Carpenter, Matt 2987 | 1b | stl nl | 5.5 | 5.5 | 30.0 | 35.0 | +5.5 |
| Chirinos, Robinson 2924 | ca | tex al | 5.0 | 6.0 | 13.0 | 14.0 | +4.0 |
| Acuña, Ronald Jr. 3947 | lf cf | atl nl | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | +5.0 |
| Hundley, Nick 2497 | ca ph | sf nl | 4.5 | 9.0 | 18.5 | 31.5 | 0.0 |
| Lowrie, Jed 2437 | 3b 2b | oak al | 2.0 | 7.7 | 21.2 | 34.7 | -3.7 |
| O’Hearn, Ryan 4043 | dh | kc al | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | +1.0 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
Box-Toppers
Tracking who most helps their teams win the most games, based on box score stats. A method to measure & compare baseball's top players.
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. Players earn Box-Toppers points 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.