Blog
Source: MLB.com
Both American League Division Series begin Saturday.
The Detroit Tigers face the Cleveland Guardians in one best-of-five game series and the Kansas City Royals face the New York Yankees in the other. The top two AL seeds, the Yankees (first) and the Guardians (second) received byes from the first round of playoffs and face the winners of the best-of-three Wild Card series played this week.
Read MoreOrioles pitcher Dean Kremer is Wednesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Wednesday, Juan Soto of the Yankees rises to first place in 2024 Box-Toppers rankings among American League batters after earning Player of the Game honors.
Read More
The New York Yankees are the top-ranked team in Box-Toppers’ 2019 preseason rankings, rising from second place at the end of the 2018 season.
The 2018 World Series-champion Boston Red Sox fall from first at the end of last season to second place in the 2019 preseason rankings.
Meanwhile, the Cincinnati Reds made the biggest offseason improvement in players’ accumulated Box-Toppers points, while the Arizona Diamondbacks had the biggest decline.
Read MoreGiants pitcher Chris Stratton is Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Stratton struck out six over eight scoreless innings, allowing five hits and no walks, in the 2-0 win over the Diamondbacks.
Read MoreTwins pitcher Jose Berrios is Wednesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and rises to first place in season player rankings.
Also Wednesday, Astros pitcher Gerrit Cole rises to second place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors.
Read MoreTwins pitcher Jose Berrios is Thursday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and rises to first place in season player rankings.
Berrios struck out 11 over seven scoreless innings, allowing three hits and no walks, in the 4-0 win over the White Sox.
Berrios earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 4.0 for the season, rising to first place in Box-Toppers season player rankings, passing previous leader, Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer (3.7 points).
Read MoreAstros pitcher Charlie Morton is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day on the final day of spring training.
Box-Toppers is tracking several days of the 2018 spring training season to demonstrate the Box-Toppers player tracking metric and to prepare for the upcoming 2,430-game season. The regular season begins Thursday.
Read MoreRed Sox pitcher Chris Sale is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day, becoming the third player this season to reach 20 Box-Toppers points and is now only 1.0 point away from overall leader Clayton Kershaw.
Also Sunday, Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer, Box-Toppers’ second-ranked player in 2017, moved within 0.1 point of Kershaw after earning Player of the Game honors. In addition, Indians pitcher Corey Kluber rises to fifth in season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors.
Read More
Indians pitcher Carlos Carrasco is Box-Toppers spring training Player of the Day for Thursday.
Carrasco pitched three scoreless innings, allowing one hit and striking out four, in the 9-4 win over the Padres. Carrasco had 18.0 Box-Toppers points in 2015 with the Indians, fifth among American League pitchers. He was Box-Toppers Player of the Day five times during the 2015 regular season.
Carrasco had a Box-Toppers game score Thursday of +6.0, the same as Twins pitcher Ervin Santana, who was Player of the Game in the 8-2 win over the Red Sox. But Carrasco won overall Player of the Day on a tiebreaker—he had more strikeouts (four vs. three).
National League Player of the Day—Giants pitcher Chris Stratton pitched three scoreless innings, allowing no hits and striking out two, in the 3-1 win over the Brewers. Stratton has yet to make his regular season Major League debut and so has yet to earn his first Box-Toppers points.
American League Batter of the Day—David Adams of the Blue Jays doubled twice and went 3-for-3, scoring three times and driving in two runs, in the 11-4 win over the Yankees. Adams has yet to earn Player of the Day honors during the regular season and so has no career Box-Toppers points.
National League Batter of the Day—A.J. Ellis of the Dodgers hit two doubles, going 2-for-3, scoring once and driving in three runs, in the 8-3 win over the Athletics. Ellis had no Box-Toppers points in 2015, but had 6.0 Box-Toppers points from 2012 to 2014.
Scoring—No Box-Toppers points are awarded in spring training games, but if it were the regular season, Carrasco would earn 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Stratton would earn 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Adams and Ellis would earn 1.5 points as top batters in their league for the day. All of Thursday’s other Players of the Game (listed in the chart below) would earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point.
Note—Sixteen spring training games were scheduled for Thursday—14 are listed below. Two games are not included because they ended in ties (Tigers vs. Phillies and Yankees vs. Orioles).
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.
Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score
| 3/10 | Score | Team | Player | AB | R | H | BI | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 6.0 | Indians | Carlos Carrasco (W, 1-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 3.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | |
| 6.0 | Twins | Ervin Santana (W, 1-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 3.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| BAT | 5.0 | Blue Jays | David Adams PR-2B | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 4.1 | Rays | Drew Smyly (W, 1-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 3.1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| NL | 4.0 | Giants | Chris Stratton (W, 1-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 3.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | |
| 4.0 | `Mets | Noah Syndergaard | - | - | - | - | - | - | 3.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| BAT | 3.0 | Dodgers | A.J. Ellis C | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 3.0 | Mariners | Stefen Romero LF | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | White Sox | Avisail Garcia RF | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | Royals | Jorge Bonifacio PR-LF | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | Reds | Seth Mejias-Brean 3B | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | Astros | Collin McHugh (W, 1-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 3.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 2.0 | Dbacks | Jason Bourgeois CF | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | Braves | Jeff Francoeur RF | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| ` Denotes that the pitcher had a no-decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save. | ||||||||||||||||
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.