(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.)
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2018 season through the games of Aug. 18:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 21.1 |
| 2 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 19.1 |
| 3 | Nola, Aaron 3569 | pi sp | phi nl | 17.4 |
| 4 | Severino, Luis 3567 | pi sp | nyy al | 16.7 |
| 5 | Berrios, Jose 3791 | pi sp | min al | 16.1 |
| 6 | Snell, Blake 3688 | pi sp | tb al | 16.1 |
| 7 | Paxton, James 3280 | pi sp | sea al | 16.0 |
| 7 | Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | hou al | 16.0 |
| 9 | Verlander, Justin 2112 | pi sp | hou al | 15.4 |
| 10 | Corbin, Patrick 3027 | pi sp | ari nl | 15.0 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
Athletics pitcher Trevor Cahill is Saturday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Cahill struck out seven over seven scoreless innings, allowing one hit and one walk, in the 7-1 win over the Astros.
Cahill earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 8.0 for the season, 19th among American League pitchers.
National League Player of the Day—Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom pitched a complete game, striking out nine and allowing one run (none earned), seven hits and no walks, in the 3-1 win over the Phillies.
deGrom earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being NL Player of the Day, giving him 12.8 for the season, most among the 15 who earned Player of the Game honors Saturday. deGrom ranks fourth among NL pitchers.
American League Batter of the Day—Albert Pujols of the Angels homered and went 3-for-4, scoring twice and driving in four runs, in the 11-7 win over the Rangers.
Pujols earns 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being NL Batter of the Day, giving him 190.8 career points, extending his lead among career points for batters since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began, ahead of second-place Alex Rodriguez (187.0). He also leads active batters in career points ahead of second-place Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers (147.9).
Pujols ranks sixth among all players since 1995, trailing fifth-place Curt Schilling (194.1). (It should be noted Schilling would have an estimated 232 career points if his entire career from 1988 were tracked.) Pujols ranks third among active players in career points, behind Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw (211.8) and Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia (198.7).
Pujols has 3.0 Box-Toppers points in 2018.
National League Batter of the Day—JT Riddle of the Marlins homered, doubled and went 3-for-4, scoring once and driving in four runs, in the 7-5, 10-inning win over the Nationals.
Notable—Red Sox pitcher David Price now has 11.4 Box-Toppers points in 2018 and 122.3 career points after earning Player of the Game honors Saturday.
Price (7IP 5H 2R 2BB 8K W in the 5-2 win over the Rays) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 11.4 for the season, 20th among all players and 13th among AL pitchers. He also has 122.3 career points, 41st among all players since 1995, when player tracking began. He trails 40th-ranked player Gary Sheffield (124.1).
Debut—Mikie Mahtook of the Tigers made his Box-Toppers debut Saturday with his first career Player of the Game honor.
Mahtook (HR 1-3 R 4BI in the 7-5 win over the Twins) made his Major League debut April 10, 2015, and was playing in his 251st career game.
Also notable—Two players with notable performances in wins did not earn Player of the Game honors Saturday:
Orioles pitcher Alex Cobb did not earn Player of the Game honors in the 4-2 win over the Indians, despite pitching a complete game (CG 5H 2R BB 3K W). He had a Box-Toppers game score of +2.0 and was beaten on a tiebreaker by teammate Jonathan Villar, who also had a game score of +2.0 (HR 1-3 R 3BI) and earned Player of the Game honors.
Yankees pitcher Luis Severino, who ranks third in Box-Toppers season player rankings (16.7 Box-Toppers points), did not earn Player of the Game honors in the 11-6 win over the Blue Jays, despite having a Box-Toppers game score of +1.0 (5IP 6H 2R 2BB 8K W). Player of the Game was teammate Miguel Andujar (HR 2B 3-5 2R 3BI), with a game score of +3.0. Severino has not won Player of the Game honors since July 1.
Scoring—Cahill 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. Pujols and Riddle 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.
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)| 8/18 | BTG | Game | Player | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | +12.0 | OAK 7, HOU 1 | Trevor Cahill (W, 5‑2) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 7.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | |
| NL | +10.0 | NYM 3, PHI 1 | Jacob deGrom (W, 8‑7) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 9.0 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 9 | |
| +7.0 | PIT 3, CHC 1 | Joe Musgrove (W, 5‑7) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 7.0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7 | ||
| +6.1 | CIN 7, SF 1 | Matt Harvey (W, 6‑7) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 6.1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | ||
| +6.0 | STL 7, MIL 2 | Miles Mikolas (W, 13‑3) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 6.0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7 | ||
| BAT | +5.0 | LAA 11, TEX 7 | Albert Pujols DH | 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | |
| +5.0 | SD 7, ARI 6 | Craig Stammen (W, 6‑2) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| BAT | +4.0 | MIA 7, WSH 5 (F/10) | J.T. Riddle SS | 4 | 1 | 3 | 4 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | |
| +4.0 | BOS 5, TB 2 | David Price (W, 13‑6) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 7.0 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 8 | ||
| +3.0 | NYY 11, TOR 6 | Miguel Andujar 3B | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +3.0 | DET 7, MIN 5 | Mike Mahtook LF | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +3.0 | SEA 5, LAD 4 (F/10) | Kyle Seager 3B | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +2.0 | BAL 4, CLE 2 | Jonathan Villar 2B | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +2.0 | KC 3, CHW 1 | Wily Peralta (S, 8) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| +1.0 | COL 5, ATL 3 (F/10) | Gerardo Parra PH | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ |
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 | 12.8 | 28.5 | 73.6 | 73.6 | -2.9 |
| Price, David 2593 | pi sp | bos al | 11.4 | 16.1 | 76.4 | 122.3 | +6.7 |
| Mikolas, Miles 3034 | pi sp | stl nl | 8.7 | 8.7 | 10.4 | 11.4 | +8.7 |
| Cahill, Trevor 2658 | pi sp | oak al | 8.0 | 14.4 | 24.4 | 54.6 | +1.6 |
| Harvey, Matt 3075 | pi sp | cin nl | 6.0 | 7.0 | 40.4 | 43.4 | +5.0 |
| Stammen, Craig 2506 | pi mr | sd nl | 5.0 | 6.0 | 10.0 | 18.0 | +4.0 |
| Seager, Kyle 3031 | 3b | sea al | 4.0 | 6.0 | 30.5 | 34.5 | +2.0 |
| Andujar, Miguel 3839 | 3b | nyy al | 3.5 | 4.5 | 4.5 | 4.5 | +2.5 |
| Pujols, Albert 1438 | dh | ana al | 3.0 | 8.5 | 35.0 | 190.8 | -2.5 |
| Musgrove, Joe 3705 | pi sp | pit nl | 3.0 | 5.0 | 8.7 | 8.7 | +1.0 |
| Parra, Gerardo 2746 | lf ph | col nl | 2.0 | 11.0 | 22.0 | 32.0 | -7.0 |
| Villar, Jonathan 3233 | 2b | bal al | 2.0 | 5.5 | 11.5 | 11.5 | -1.5 |
| Riddle, JT 3805 | ss | fla nl | 1.5 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | -1.0 |
| Peralta, Wily 3123 | pi cp sp | kc al | 1.0 | 3.0 | 20.0 | 22.0 | -1.0 |
| Mahtook, Mikie 4046 | lf | det 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.