Twins pitcher Ervin Santana is Wednesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2016 season as of July 6:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 20.0 |
| 2 | Cueto, Johnny 2400 | pi sp | sf nl | 13.4 |
| 3 | Fernandez, Jose 3147 | pi sp | fla nl | 13.4 |
| 4 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 12.0 |
| 5 | Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 10.8 |
| 6 | Arrieta, Jake 2738 | pi sp | chi nl | 10.7 |
| 7 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | chi al | 10.7 |
| 8 | Salazar, Danny 3223 | pi sp | cle al | 10.5 |
| 9 | Hamels, Cole 2135 | pi sp | tex al | 10.4 |
| 10 | Syndergaard, Noah 3472 | pi sp | nym nl | 10.0 |
Also Wednesday, Giants pitcher Johnny Cueto rises to second place in Box-Toppers player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors.
Player of the Day—Santana pitched a two-hit, complete-game shutout, striking out eight and walking none, in the 4-0 win over the Athletics.
Santana earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, his first Box-Toppers points of the season, and has now earned Box-Toppers points in 12 straight seasons.
He earned his first points in 2005 with the Angels and has 95.3 for his career, ninth among active American League pitchers. His best season was 2008 with the Angels, when he had 16.7 points, leading all AL pitchers. In 2015, he had 5.4 points with the Twins.
National League Player of the Day—Giants pitcher Johnny Cueto pitched a complete game, allowing one run, five hits, one walk and striking out eight, in the 5-1 win over the Rockies.
Cueto earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being NL Player of the Day, giving him 13.4 for the season and rising from fourth to second in season player rankings, trailing overall leader, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw (20.0).
Cueto’s rise in Box-Toppers top 10 rankings is the first movement in that chart in a week. None of the players in the top 10 have earned Player of the Game honors since June 29.
National League Batter of the Day—Yangervis Solarte of the Padres hit a three-run homer and doubled, going 3-for-5, scoring twice and driving in five runs, in the 13-6 win over the Diamondbacks.
American League Batter of the Day—Nick Castellanos of the Tigers homered, doubled and went 3-for-5, scoring twice and driving in five runs, in the 12-2 win over the Indians.
Notable—Angels pitcher Jered Weaver now has 125.1 Box-Toppers points—37th-most among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began—after earning Player of the Game honors Wednesday.
Weaver (6IP 4H R BB 5K W in the 7-2 win over the Rays) now trails the 36th-ranked player on the “all-time” list, Mariano Rivera (126.4). Weaver has 2.0 Box-Toppers points for the season.
Debut—Bryce Brentz of the Red Sox made his Box-Toppers debut Wednesday, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors.
Brentz (2-4 2R 3BI in the 11-6 win over the Rangers) made his Major League debut Sept. 17, 2014, and was playing in his 17th career game. He is the 3,680th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
Scoring—Santana earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Cueto earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Solarte and Castellanos 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.
Top player from each game
Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score
| 7/6 | Score | Game | Player of Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 15.0 | MIN 4/OAK 0 | Ervin Santana (W,3-7) | - | - | - | - | 9.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | |
| NL | 9.0 | SF 5/COL 1 | Johnny Cueto (W,13-1) | - | - | - | - | 9.0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | |
| 6.0 | TOR 4/KC 2 | Marcus Stroman (W,7-4) | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 6 | ||
| BAT | 5.0 | SD 13/ARI 6 | Yangervis Solarte, 3B | 5 | 2 | 3 | 5 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| BAT | 5.0 | DET 12/CLE 2 | Nick Castellanos, 3B | 5 | 2 | 3 | 5 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 4.0 | CHW 5/NYY 0 | Miguel Gonzalez (W,2-4) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | ||
| 4.0 | LAA 7/TB 2 | Jered Weaver (W,7-7) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | ||
| 4.0 | DC 7/MIL 4 | Jonathan Papelbon (S,17) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 3.0 | HOU 9/SEA 8 | Carlos Gomez, CF | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | BOS 11/TEX 6 | Bryce Brentz, LF | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | BAL 6/LAD 4 | Mark Trumbo, RF | 6 | 3 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | NYM 4/MIA 2 | Wilmer Flores, 3B | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | PIT 7/STL 5 | A.J. Schugel (W,2-2) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 2.0 | CIN 5/CHC 3 | Tony Cingrani (S,10) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 1.0 | PHI 4/ATL 3 | Freddy Galvis, SS | 4 | 1 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Box-Toppers point totals of the day’s top players
Here are Box-Toppers point totals of each of the Players of the Game. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total for the current season (16). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (15-16), the period 2011-2016 (11-16) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2016 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2015 total (+/-).| Player of Game | Pos | Team | 16 | 15-16 | 11-16 | Career | +/- |
| Cueto, Johnny 2400 | pi sp | sf nl | 13.4 | 26.2 | 77.4 | 96.8 | 0.6 |
| Trumbo, Mark 2851 | rf | bal al | 7.2 | 9.7 | 32.9 | 32.9 | 4.7 |
| Castellanos, Nick 3349 | 3b | det al | 5.5 | 11.7 | 13.7 | 13.7 | -0.7 |
| Galvis, Freddy 3202 | ss | phi nl | 4.0 | 8.0 | 12.0 | 12.0 | 0.0 |
| Gonzalez, Miguel 3062 | pi sp | chi al | 3.7 | 10.4 | 32.5 | 32.5 | -3.0 |
| Stroman, Marcus 3327 | pi sp | tor al | 3.7 | 6.4 | 20.1 | 20.1 | 1.0 |
| Flores, Wilmer 3345 | 3b ss 2b | nym nl | 2.5 | 5.0 | 7.5 | 7.5 | 0.0 |
| Weaver, Jered 2178 | pi sp | ana al | 2.0 | 9.7 | 64.3 | 125.1 | -5.7 |
| Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 2.0 | 7.4 | 45.8 | 95.3 | -3.4 |
| Papelbon, Jonathan 2110 | pi cp | dc nl | 2.0 | 6.0 | 23.7 | 54.4 | -2.0 |
| Schugel, A.J. 3669 | pi mr | pit nl | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| Solarte, Yangervis 3304 | 3b | sd nl | 1.5 | 6.5 | 7.5 | 7.5 | -3.5 |
| Gomez, Carlos 2397 | cf | hou al | 1.0 | 7.0 | 17.5 | 28.5 | -5.0 |
| Cingrani, Tony 3158 | pi cp | cin nl | 1.0 | 1.0 | 8.4 | 8.4 | 1.0 |
| Brentz, Bryce 3680 | lf | bos al | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |