Box-Toppers Toppers Box
Today’s key Box-Toppers numbers. Click links to jump to charts elsewhere on this page.▪️ Box-Toppers Player of the Game winners.
▪️ Box-Toppers points of the day’s top players.
▪️ A B-T look at today’s pitching matchups.
Heston Kjerstad of the Orioles is Box-Toppers Player of the Game in Saturday’s spring training games.
Kjerstad hit two home runs and went 3-for-3, scoring three times and driving in two runs, in the 10-5 win over the Twins.
Kjerstad would have earned 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day if this were a regular season game. Because it’s a preseason exhibition game, no Box-Toppers points are awarded.
Kjerstad has yet to make his regular season Major League debut and so has 0.0 career Box-Toppers points.
National League Player of the Day—Garrett Mitchell of the Brewers hit two home runs and went 2-for-3, scoring twice and driving in four runs, in the 7-4 win over the Dodgers.
Mitchell would have earned 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being NL Player of the Day if this were a regular season game. Because it’s a preseason exhibition game, no Box-Toppers points are awarded.
Mitchell earned 1.0 Box-Toppers point in 2022, his only career Player of the Game honor on Aug. 29.
Notable—Pete Alonso of the Mets, who led National League batters with 14.9 Box-Toppers points in 2022, earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors in Saturday’s spring training game win over the Marlins.
Alonso (HR 3-3 2R BI in the 5-2 win over the Marlins) would have earned 1.0 Box-Toppers point were it a regular season game.
Also notable—There were 17 spring training games played between Major League teams Saturday, the first full schedule of games after two on Friday. One ended in a tie, so no Player of the Game honors were awarded in that game. Of the remaining 16 games, six who earned Player of the Game honors have earned Box-Toppers points in the past; the remaining 10 players have yet to earn Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors in a regular season game.
In 14 of the 16 games in which there were no ties, a batter won Player of the Game honors, while pitchers won in the other two games. While it has been uncommon in recent regular season games for batters to win such an overwhelming majority of Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors, batters do tend to win the honor more often in spring training games. That’s because, especially in early spring training games, pitchers rarely pitch more than two innings and so don’t have the chance to build up a large Box-Toppers game score.
But rules changes implemented in 2023 are anticipated to help batters and that may result in batters winning a larger share of Player of the Game honors during the regular season. In 2022, pitchers earned 61.89 percent of all Box-Toppers points awarded, compared to batters earning 38.11 percent. That set the all-time record for highest share of Box-Toppers points earned in a single season by pitchers, breaking the previous record in 2014, when pitchers earned 60.86 percent of all points.
By contrast, during the period from 1995 to 2009, batters in general did a lot better, earning 50 percent or more of all Box-Toppers points awarded. In fact, batters share of Box-Toppers points earned collapsed precipitously during the decade of the 2010s from the previous decade, as batters share of points earned fell from 51.7 percent during the 2000s down to 42.4 percent in the 2010s.
Scoring—No Box-Toppers points are awarded in exhibition games. Were it a regular season day, Kjerstad would have earned 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Mitchell would have earned 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. All of Saturday’s other Players of the Game (listed in the chart below) would have earned 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.
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Box‑Toppers Player of the Game winners
Here is the top player from each of the day’s games listed from highest to lowest Box‑Toppers game score (BTG).Back to top
| 2/25 | BTG | Game | Player | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MLB | +5.0 | BAL 10, MIN 5 | Heston Kjerstad, PR‑RF | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | |
| NL | +5.0 | MIL 7, LAD 4 | Garrett Mitchell, CF | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | |
| +5.0 | PHI 7, NYY 4 | Weston Wilson, RF | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +5.0 | LAA 5, SEA 1 | Tucker Davidson, (W 1‑0) | - | - | - | - | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| +4.0 | TOR 9, PIT 7 | Santiago Espinal, SS | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +3.0 | NYM 5, MIA 2 | Pete Alonso, 1B | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +3.0 | OAK 12, ARI 7 | Kevin Smith, PH‑SS | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +3.0 | COL 12, ARI 5 | Zac Veen, RF‑LF | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +3.0 | HOU 4, NYM 2 | Justin Dirden, RF | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +3.0 | KC 10, TEX 5 | Tyler Tolbert, CF | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +3.0 | DET 4, PHI 2 | Andre Lipcius, 2B | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +3.0 | MIN 8, TB 4 | Willi Castro, 3B | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +2.0 | CHC 10, SF 8 | David Bote, PH‑2B | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +2.0 | CIN 4, CLE 3 | Matt McLain, SS | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +2.0 | SD 6, CHW 2 | Evan Mendoza, PR‑3B | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +2.0 | WSH 3, STL 2 | Matt Cronin, (W 1‑0) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 0.0 | BOS 6, ATL 6 | N/A | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ |
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.
N/A—Not applicable. No Player of the Game was chosen because the game ended in a tie.
All other players listed here would 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.
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Box-Toppers point totals of the day’s Player of the Game winners
Here are Box-Toppers point totals of each of the Player of the Game winners. No points are awarded during spring training games, so all players have 0.0 Box-Toppers points for 2023. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total in 2022 (’22). Also shown is their point total for the period 2018-2022 (’18-22) and each players’ career point total. (Player of the Game winners not listed here have yet to earn Box-Toppers points during the regular season.)Back to top
| Player of the Game | Pos | Team | ’23 | ’22 | ’18‑22 | Career |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alonso, Pete 4118 | 1b | nym nl | 0.0 | 14.9 | 26.4 | 26.4 |
| Espinal, Santiago 4646 | 2b | tor al | 0.0 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| Castro, Willi 4334 | lf 2b ss | min al | 0.0 | 1.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 |
| Bote, David 4032 | 1b 3b 2b | chi nl | 0.0 | 1.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 |
| Mitchell, Garrett 4723 | cf | mil nl | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| Davidson, Tucker 4429 | pi sp | ana al | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
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A Box-Toppers look at Sunday’s pitching matchups
A Box-Toppers look at the upcoming day’s probable pitching matchups. Teams are paired below with visiting teams on top and home teams on the bottom. Each team’s starting pitcher is shown with their Box-Toppers point total from 2023 (’23), over a two-year period (’22-23), over a six-year period (’18-23) and their career point total.Back to top
| Game | Starter | ’23 | ’22‑23 | ’18‑23 | Career |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BAL | Kremer, Dean 4330 | 0.0 | 7.7 | 11.4 | 11.4 |
| DET | Rodriguez, Eduardo 3480 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 34.8 | 54.2 |
| HOU | Urquidy, Jose 4194 | 0.0 | 8.0 | 21.1 | 21.1 |
| WSH | Williams, Trevor 3792 | 0.0 | 3.0 | 18.7 | 23.7 |
| TB | Bradley, Taj* | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| BOS | Winckowski, Josh* | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| MIN | Ryan, Joe 4539 | 0.0 | 14.7 | 17.4 | 17.4 |
| PHI | Brogdon, Connor 4465 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| ATL | Elder, Bryce 4709 | 0.0 | 4.7 | 4.7 | 4.7 |
| NYY | Schmidt, Clarke 4581 | 0.0 | 4.4 | 4.4 | 4.4 |
| NYY | Brtio, Jhony* | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| TOR | Mayza, Tim 4055 | 0.0 | 3.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 |
| WSH | Gray, Josiah 4503 | 0.0 | 4.7 | 5.7 | 5.7 |
| NYM | Scherzer, Max 2588 | 0.0 | 10.0 | 79.6 | 236.3 |
| STL | Mikolas, Miles 3034 | 0.0 | 12.1 | 26.8 | 29.5 |
| MIA | Cueto, Johnny 2400 | 0.0 | 6.4 | 16.4 | 118.2 |
| CHC | Steele, Justin 4415 | 0.0 | 5.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 |
| LAD | Erlin, Robbie 3289 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 3.0 | 10.7 |
| SEA | McGee, Easton* | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| KC | Keller, Brad 4008 | 0.0 | 6.4 | 24.4 | 24.4 |
| CIN | Weaver, Luke 3719 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 16.0 | 25.7 |
| SF | Manaea, Sean 3637 | 0.0 | 6.0 | 36.1 | 50.2 |
| TEX | Gray, Jon 3634 | 0.0 | 6.0 | 33.7 | 45.4 |
| CLE | Plesac, Zach 4168 | 0.0 | 5.7 | 21.2 | 21.2 |
| ARI | Henry, Tommy* | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| SD | Teheran, Julio 3176 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 20.7 | 72.2 |
| CHW | Banks, Tanner 4743 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| LAA | Detmers, Reid 4513 | 0.0 | 7.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 |
| MIL | Gasser, Robert* | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| COL | Freeland, Kyle 3763 | 0.0 | 6.0 | 27.4 | 33.4 |
| OAK | Muller, Kyle 4454 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| MIL | Junk, Janson 4697 | 0.0 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.7 |
* Player has yet to earn Box-Toppers points.
What are those numbers after players' names?
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