(This post was edited Monday, November 19, 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 Sept. 21:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Snell, Blake 3688 | pi sp | tb al | 24.2 |
| 2 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 23.1 |
| 3 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 20.1 |
| 4 | Nola, Aaron 3569 | pi sp | phi nl | 20.1 |
| 5 | Verlander, Justin 2112 | pi sp | hou al | 20.1 |
| 6 | Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 19.7 |
| 7 | Carrasco, Carlos 2885 | pi sp | cle al | 18.1 |
| 8 | Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | hou al | 18.0 |
| 9 | Severino, Luis 3567 | pi sp | nyy al | 17.7 |
| 10 | Berrios, Jose 3791 | pi sp | min al | 16.1 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
Marlins pitcher Wei-Yin Chen is Friday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Chen struck out eight over seven scoreless innings, allowing three hits and no walks, in the 1-0, 10-inning win over the Reds. Chen did not earn the win, picking up a no-decision, because the game was in a scoreless tie when he exited.
Chen earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 6.0 for the season, 55th among National League pitchers.
American League Player of the Day—Yuli Gurriel of the Astros hit a grand slam and a two-run homer, going 3-for-4, scoring twice and driving in seven runs, in the 11-3 win over the Angels.
National League Batter of the Day—Travis Shaw of the Brewers homered and went 1-for-2, scoring once and driving in two runs, in the 8-3 win over the Pirates.
American League Batter of the Day—There is no separate AL Batter of the Day for Friday because the overall AL Player of the Day is batter Yuli Gurriel.
Notable—Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom now has 14.8 Box-Toppers points for the season after earning Player of the Game honors Friday (7IP 3H R BB 8K W in the 4-2 win over the Nationals).
Also notable—Rockies pitcher German Marquez now has 13.7 Box-Toppers points for the season after earning Player of the Game honors Friday (7IP 6H 2R 0BB 11K W in the 6-2 win over the Diamondbacks).
One more notable thing—Adrian Beltre of the Rangers now has 116.8 career Box-Toppers points and has now earned points in 19 different seasons after earning Player of the Game honors Friday.
Beltre (HR 2-3 2R 5BI in the 8-3, seven-inning win over the Mariners) earned his first Box-Toppers point of 2018, rising to 46th place among all players in career points since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. With his point Friday, he passes three players on the “all-time” list—Torii Hunter (115.9), Todd Helton (116.4) and Mark Buehrle (116.7). He now trails 45th-ranked player Barry Zito (117.4).
Beltre rises to 13th place among batters in career points since 1995. He ranks 15th in career points among active players and third among active batters.
Beltre has now earned Box-Toppers points in 19 different seasons. He began earning points in 1998 with the Dodgers and has earned points in all but two seasons since then—he earned no points in 2005 with the Mariners and no points in 2014 with the Rangers.
His best season was 2015 with the Rangers when he earned 12.5 Box-Toppers points, first among AL batters.
Debut—Three players made their Box-Toppers debut Friday, each with their first career Player of the Game honor:
Austin Meadows of the Rays (2B 3-3 2R 3BI in the 11-3 win over the Blue Jays) made his Major League debut May 18 and was playing in his 51st career game.
Cardinals pitcher John Brebbia (1IP 0H 0R 0BB 3K W in the 5-3 win over the Giants) made his Major League debut May 28, 2017, and was playing in his 92nd career game.
Sam Travis of the Red Sox (HR 2B 2-4 2R 3BI in the 7-5 win over the Indians) made his Major League debut May 24, 2017, and was playing in his 45th career game.
Scoring—Chen earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Gurriel earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Shaw earns 1.5 points for being NL Batter of the Day. All of Friday’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)| 9/21 | BTG | Game | Player | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | +12.0 | `MIA 1, CIN 0 (F/10) | Wei‑Yin Chen | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 7.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | |
| +9.0 | NYM 4, WSH 2 | Jacob deGrom (W, 9‑9) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 7.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | ||
| AL | +8.0 | HOU 11, LAA 3 | Yuli Gurriel 1B | 4 | 2 | 3 | 7 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | |
| +8.0 | COL 6, ARI 2 | German Marquez (W, 13‑10) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 7.0 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 11 | ||
| +8.0 | CHW 10, CHC 4 | Reynaldo Lopez (W, 7‑9) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 7.0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 8 | ||
| +7.0 | `OAK 7, MIN 6 (F/10) | Chris Bassitt | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 4.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | ||
| +6.0 | TEX 8, SEA 3 (F/7) | Adrian Beltre 3B | 3 | 2 | 2 | 5 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +5.0 | TB 11, TOR 3 | Austin Meadows PH‑DH | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +5.0 | NYY 10, BAL 8 | Aaron Hicks CF | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +4.0 | STL 5, SF 3 | John Brebbia (W, 3‑3) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| +3.0 | BOS 7, CLE 5 | Sam Travis LF | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| BAT | +2.0 | MIL 8, PIT 3 | Travis Shaw 2B | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | |
| +2.0 | SD 5, LAD 3 | Eric Lauer (W, 6‑7) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 5.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | ||
| +1.0 | ATL 6, PHI 5 | Lane Adams PR | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +1.0 | KC 4, DET 3 | Ian Kennedy (W, 3‑8) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 7.0 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
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 | 14.8 | 30.5 | 75.6 | 75.6 | -0.9 |
| Marquez, German 3788 | pi sp | col nl | 13.7 | 18.4 | 18.4 | 18.4 | +9.0 |
| Shaw, Travis 3544 | 3b | mil nl | 6.5 | 14.5 | 25.7 | 25.7 | ‑1.5 |
| Chen, Wei‑Yin 3026 | pi sp | fla nl | 6.0 | 7.0 | 25.4 | 34.1 | +5.0 |
| Lopez, Reynaldo 3712 | pi sp | chi al | 5.7 | 5.7 | 7.7 | 7.7 | +5.7 |
| Lauer, Eric 4017 | pi sp | sd nl | 5.7 | 5.7 | 5.7 | 5.7 | +5.7 |
| Hicks, Aaron 3170 | cf | nyy al | 5.0 | 8.0 | 13.0 | 13.0 | +2.0 |
| Kennedy, Ian 2723 | pi sp | kc al | 3.0 | 9.0 | 40.4 | 75.5 | ‑3.0 |
| Gurriel, Yuli 3796 | 1b | hou al | 2.7 | 5.4 | 5.4 | 5.4 | 0.0 |
| Adams, Lane 3850 | rf ph pr | atl nl | 2.0 | 4.5 | 4.5 | 4.5 | ‑0.5 |
| Bassitt, Chris 3413 | pi sp mr | oak al | 2.0 | 2.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | +2.0 |
| Travis, Sam 4081 | lf | bos al | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | +1.5 |
| Beltre, Adrian 1141 | 3b | tex al | 1.0 | 5.5 | 35.9 | 116.8 | ‑3.5 |
| Brebbia, John 4080 | pi mr | stl nl | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | +1.0 |
| Meadows, Austin 4079 | dh ph | tb 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.