(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. 26:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Snell, Blake 3688 | pi sp | tb al | 26.2 |
| 2 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 25.1 |
| 3 | Verlander, Justin 2112 | pi sp | hou al | 22.1 |
| 4 | Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 21.7 |
| 5 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 20.1 |
| 6 | Nola, Aaron 3569 | pi sp | phi nl | 20.1 |
| 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 | deGrom, Jacob 3343 | pi sp | nym nl | 16.8 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom is Wednesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and rises to 10th place in season player rankings.
deGrom struck out 10 over eight scoreless innings, allowing two hits and no walks, in the 3-0 win over the Braves.
deGrom earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 16.8 for the season, 10th among all players and third among National League pitchers, behind Max Scherzer of the Nationals (25.1) and Aaron Nola of the Phillies (20.1).
American League Player of the Day—Indians pitcher Shane Bieber struck out nine over six scoreless innings, allowing two hits and two walks, in the 10-2 win over the White Sox.
American League Batter of the Day—Rafael Devers of the Red Sox hit two homers, doubled and went 4-for-5, scoring twice and driving in six runs, in the 19-3 win over the Orioles.
National League Batter of the Day—Victor Robles of the Nationals homered, doubled and went 4-for-5, scoring once and driving in five runs, in the 9-3, eight-inning win over the Marlins.
This was Robles’s Box-Toppers debut, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors. Robles made his Major League debut Sept. 7, 2017, and was playing in his 31st career game.
Notable—In addition to deGrom, two other players with 10 or more Box-Toppers points earned Player of the Game honors Wednesday:
Rockies pitcher German Marquez (7IP 3H 0R BB 11K W in the 14-0 win over the Phillies) rises to 15th place in Box-Toppers season player rankings with 14.7 points, fifth among NL pitchers.
Brewers pitcher Jhoulys Chacin (5IP H R 2BB 3K W in the 2-1 win over the Cardinals) rises to 19th place in Box-Toppers season player rankings with 13.7 points, sixth among NL pitchers.
Debut—In addition to Robles, Athletics pitcher J.B. Wendelken also made his Box-Toppers debut Wednesday with his first career Player of the Game honor.
Wendelken (1IP 0H 0R 0BB 3K ND in the 9-3 win over the Mariners) made his Major League debut May 8, 2016, and was playing in his 20th career game.
Scoring—deGrom earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Bieber earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Devers and Robles 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)| 9/26 | BTG | Game | Player | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | +16.0 | NYM 3, ATL 0 | Jacob deGrom (W, 10‑9) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 8.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | |
| +14.0 | COL 14, PHI 0 | German Marquez (W, 14‑10) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 7.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 11 | ||
| AL | +11.0 | CLE 10, CHW 2 | Shane Bieber (W, 11‑5) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 6.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 9 | |
| +8.1 | KC 6, CIN 1 | Heath Fillmyer (W, 4‑2) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 7.1 | 4 | 1 | 1.0 | 2 | 9 | ||
| BAT | +7.0 | BOS 19, BAL 3 | Rafael Devers 3B | 5 | 2 | 4 | 6 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | |
| +6.0 | `SD 3, SF 2 | Luis Perdomo | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 3.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | ||
| BAT | +5.0 | WSH 9, MIA 3 (F/8) | Victor Robles CF | 5 | 1 | 4 | 5 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | |
| +5.0 | LAA 3, TEX 2 | Andrew Heaney | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 7.0 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 10 | ||
| +4.1 | `TOR 3, HOU 1 | Sean Reid‑Foley | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 3.1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | ||
| +4.0 | MIN 11, DET 4 | Tyler Duffey (W, 2‑2) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | ||
| +4.0 | BAL 10, BOS 3 | Paul Fry (S, 2) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 3.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| +4.0 | `OAK 9, SEA 3 | J.B. Wendelken | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| +3.0 | ARI 7, LAD 2 | A.J. Pollock CF | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +3.0 | MIL 2, STL 1 | Jhoulys Chacin (W, 15‑8) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 5.0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | ||
| +2.0 | TB 8, NYY 7 | Tommy Pham LF | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +1.0 | CHC 7, PIT 6 (F/10) | Jason Heyward CF‑RF | 5 | 1 | 2 | 3 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ |
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 | 16.8 | 32.5 | 77.6 | 77.6 | +1.1 |
| Marquez, German 3788 | pi sp | col nl | 14.7 | 19.4 | 19.4 | 19.4 | +10.0 |
| Chacin, Jhoulys 2711 | pi sp | mil nl | 13.7 | 25.1 | 36.5 | 52.9 | +2.3 |
| Heaney, Andrew 3515 | pi sp | ana al | 9.7 | 10.7 | 14.7 | 14.7 | +8.7 |
| Bieber, Shane 4005 | pi sp | cle al | 6.4 | 6.4 | 6.4 | 6.4 | +6.4 |
| Reid-Foley, Sean 4059 | pi sp | tor al | 4.4 | 4.4 | 4.4 | 4.4 | +4.4 |
| Pollock, A.J. 3142 | cf | ari nl | 4.0 | 6.5 | 21.2 | 21.2 | +1.5 |
| Pham, Thomas 3596 | lf cf | tb al | 3.0 | 8.5 | 11.5 | 11.5 | -2.5 |
| Devers, Rafael 4038 | 3b | bos al | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 | +2.5 |
| Heyward, Jason 2695 | rf | chi nl | 2.0 | 4.0 | 10.0 | 22.5 | 0.0 |
| Duffey, Tyler 3558 | pi mr sp | min al | 2.0 | 3.0 | 14.0 | 14.0 | +1.0 |
| Fillmyer, Heath 4037 | pi sp | kc al | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | +2.0 |
| Fry, Paul 4068 | pi cp | bal al | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | +2.0 |
| Robles, Victor 4087 | cf | dc nl | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | +1.5 |
| Perdomo, Luis D. 3715 | pi sp | sd nl | 1.0 | 3.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | -1.0 |
| Wendelken, J.B. 4089 | pi mr | oak 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.