Cubs' Jake Arrieta tops players for Tuesday, Sept. 22, solidifies lead in Box-Toppers player rankings

Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day, maintaining his lead in player rankings.

Also Tuesday, Mike Trout of the Angels took the lead among American League batters in Box-Toppers points.

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2015 season as of Sept. 22.  


 Player Pos Team BTP
1 Arrieta, Jake 2738 pi sp chi nl 25.1
2 Kershaw, Clayton 2494 pi sp lad nl 22.7
3 Price, David 2593 pi sp tor al 21.1
4 deGrom, Jacob 3343 pi sp nym nl 20.4
5 Keuchel, Dallas 3050 pi sp hou al 20.4
6 Greinke, Zack 1871 pi sp lad nl 19.7
7 Hernandez, Felix 2064 pi sp sea al 19.4
8 Cole, Gerrit 3232 pi sp pit nl 18.0
9 Sale, Chris 2806 pi sp chi al 17.1
10 Bumgarner, Madison 2753 pi sp sf nl 17.0
What are those numbers after players' names?

Player of the Day—Arrieta pitched a complete-game shutout, striking out 11 and allowing three hits, in the 4-0 win over the Brewers.

Arrieta earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 25.1 for the season. He becomes the 21st player with 25.0 or more Box-Toppers points in a single season since 1995, when Box-Toppers record keeping began.

With his points Tuesday, he takes a 2.4-point lead over second-place player and fellow NL pitcher Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers. That means Kershaw would need to earn Box-Toppers points in each of what would likely be his final two starts of the season to have a chance to pass Arrieta. Kershaw has led NL pitchers for the past four seasons. Only one player has led his league category in Box-Toppers points in more consecutive seasons since 1995—Randy Johnson led NL pitchers five straight years from 1998 to 2002. 

American League Player of the Day—Mariners pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma pitched seven scoreless innings, striking out 10 and allowing three hits, in the 11-2 win over the Royals.

Iwakuma earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being AL Player of the Day, giving him 13.1 for the season. He ranks 20th among all players and 10th among AL pitchers.

National League Batter of the Day—Cody Asche of the Phillies homered twice and went 3-for-4, scoring three runs, in the 6-2 win over the Marlins.

Best seasons

Here are all players who have earned 25 or more Box-Toppers points in a single season since 1995, ranked by their single-season Box-Toppers point total. Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta Tuesday became the 21st player in 21 seasons with 25 or more Box-Toppers points and ranks 21st on the list.  

Rank Player Team Pos Year BTP
1 Randy Johnson Dbacks pi sp 2000 33.7
1 Randy Johnson Dbacks pi sp 2002 33.7
3 Pedro Martinez Red Sox pi sp 2000 33.5
4 Randy Johnson Dbacks pi sp 1999 31.5
4 Clayton Kershaw Dodgers pi sp 2014 31.5
6 Pedro Martinez Red Sox pi sp 1999 31.4
7 Randy Johnson Dbacks pi sp 2001 29.4
8 Pedro Martinez Red Sox pi sp 2002 28.8
9 Curt Schilling Dbacks pi sp 2002 28.4
10 Roger Clemens Blue Jays pi sp 1997 27.4
11 Johan Santana Twins pi sp 2004 26.8
12 Pedro Martinez Expos pi sp 1997 26.7
12 CC Sabathia Indians/Brewers pi sp 2008 26.7
14 Randy Johnson Mariners/Astros pi sp 1998 26.4
15 John Smoltz Braves pi sp 1996 26.1
15 Clayton Kershaw Dodgers pi sp 2011 26.1
17 Roger Clemens Blue Jays pi sp 1998 25.8
17 Corey Kluber Indians pi sp 2014 25.8
19 Johan Santana Twins pi sp 2006 25.7
20 Cliff Lee Phillies pi sp 2011 25.4
21 *Jake Arrieta Cubs pi sp 2015 25.1
* Current season

American League Batter of the Day—Delino DeShields of the Rangers went 1-for-2, scoring twice and driving in two runs, in the 8-6 win over the Athletics.

Rankings—Mike Trout of the Angels took the lead among AL batters in Box-Toppers points after earning Player of the Game honors Tuesday.

Trout (HR 1-3 R 2BI in the 4-3 win over the Astros) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 12.0 for the season. He passes Prince Fielder of the Rangers (11.5) to lead AL batters. Trout ranks 25th among all players.

Notable—Two others who earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors Tuesday achieved notable milestones:

  • Giants pitcher Chris Heston rose to 12th place among NL pitchers in Box-Toppers points. Heston (4.1IP 2H 0R 7K ND in the 4-2 win over the Padres) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 11.4 for the season. He ranks 29th among all players.
  • Cardinals pitcher John Lackey maintained his rank of 55th among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers record keeping began. Lackey (7IP 9H R 7K W in the 3-1 win over the Reds) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 107.8 for his career. He trails 54th-ranked player Lance Berkman (108.1). He has 9.7 Box-Toppers points for the season, ranked 17th among NL pitchers.

Scoring—Arrieta earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Iwakuma earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being AL Player of the Day. Asche and DeShields each earn 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Tuesday’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

9/22 Score Team Player AB R H BI BB K IP H R ER BB K
MLB 16.0 Cubs Jake Arrieta (W,20-6) - - - - - - 9.0 3 0 0 1 11
AL 13.0 Mariners Hisashi Iwakuma (W,9-4) - - - - - - 7.0 3 0 0 1 10
9.0 `Tigers Daniel Norris - - - - - - 5.0 0 0 0 0 4
8.0 Dbacks Robbie Ray (W,5-12) - - - - - - 6.0 3 0 0 2 7
6.0 Twins Ervin Santana (W,6-4) - - - - - - 7.0 5 1 1 1 7
5.0 Braves Matt Wisler (W,6-8) - - - - - - 7.0 5 2 2 1 8
4.1 `Giants Chris Heston - - - - - - 4.1 2 0 0 5 7
BAT 4.0 Phillies Cody Asche, 3B 4 3 3 2 0 1 - - - - - -
4.0 `Orioles Brad Brach (MR) (H,12) - - - - - - 2.0 0 0 0 1 3
BAT 3.0 Rangers Delino DeShields, CF 2 2 1 2 1 0 - - - - - -
3.0 Cardinals John Lackey (W,13-9) - - - - - - 7.0 9 1 1 0 7
3.0 `Pirates Joakim Soria (MR) (H,9) - - - - - - 1.0 1 0 0 0 3
2.0 Yankees Carlos Beltran, RF 3 1 2 2 0 0 - - - - - -
2.0 Rays Brad Boxberger (S,36) - - - - - - 1.0 0 0 0 1 2
1.0 Angels Mike Trout, CF 3 1 1 2 0 1 - - - - - -
`Denotes that the pitcher had a no-decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save.

Catching up on baseball with Box-Toppers, after falling behind by a ‘fair’ amount

Baseball proceeds whether we are ready or not.

In the past few weeks, other duties put me behind staying up-to-date with the Box-Toppers daily blog and I have been scrambling to catch up. I fell behind three weeks and three days ago, on Aug. 13 and only caught up today (Monday, Sept. 7) with yesterday’s games.

Usually when a person falls behind doing something, it’s best to just move ahead and ignore most of what was missed. But when you’re trying to keep comprehensive track of the baseball season, to assess and evaluate teams and players across an entire season, it is a mistake to simply ignore a chunk of the season, simply due to lack of convenience or lack of attention. So I’ve gone back and picked up the days I’ve missed, posting each day’s summary in the blog, even if was sometimes more than a week late.

During my catch-up phase, I did not post daily highlights to Box-Toppers’ Twitter and Facebook feeds. Instead, I’ve opted to post a summary of highlights of what was missed in the interim while I wasn’t posting to social media here in this post, with links to the relevant posts in the Box-Toppers blog:

New Box-Toppers leaders—Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta took over the lead in Box-Toppers season player rankings on Saturday, Sept. 5. Arrieta has 21.1 Box-Toppers points and passed previous leader, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, who took the lead Wednesday, Sept. 2. (Kershaw has 20.7 Box-Toppers points.) Previously, Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom led from July 26 to Sept. 1. He currently ranks third with 19.4 points.

Arrieta picked up 6.7 Box-Toppers points during the catch-up period (Aug. 13 to Sept. 6), including earning Player of the Day honors twice—on Sunday, Aug. 30 (when he pitched a no-hitter) and on Sept. 5.

New American League pitching leader—Astros pitcher Dallas Keuchel took the lead among AL pitchers on Sunday, Sept. 6 with 19.4 Box-Toppers points. Previously, Blue Jays pitcher David Price led AL pitchers. He currently ranks second among AL pitchers with 19.1 points.

New American League batting leader—Edwin Encarnacion of the Blue Jays took the lead among AL batters on Saturday, Aug. 29 with 10.4 Box-Toppers points. Previously, Mike Trout of the Angels led AL batters. Trout currently has 10.0 Box-Toppers points and ranks second among AL batters.

New National League batting leader—Carlos Gonzalez of the Rockies took the lead among NL batters on Thursday, Sept. 3 with 11.5 Box-Toppers points. Previously, Yoenis Cespedes of the Mets took the lead among NL batters on Friday, Aug. 21 with 9.9 points. Before that, Randal Grichuk of the Cardinals led NL batters. He currently ranks fourth with 9.5 points.

New Box-Toppers team rankings leader—The Kansas City Royals took over the lead among teams at the last Box-Toppers team ranking report, as of Thursday, Sept. 3. The St. Louis Cardinals rose to top NL teams. For three weeks previously (Aug. 13, 20 and 27), the Pittsburgh Pirates were the top-ranked team. The Pirates ranked third as of Sept. 3.

Notable—Here are some notable achievements by players that happened during the catch-up phase (Aug. 13 to Sept. 6):

  • Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw was the first player with 20.0 or more points this season, earning it on Wednesday, Sept. 2, the same day he took the Box-Toppers points lead. Kershaw, who led players in Box-Toppers points in three of the past four seasons (2011, 2013 and 2014) and led National League pitchers the past four seasons, has now exceeded 20.0 Box-Toppers points for five straight seasons. Kershaw also rose to 15th place in Box-Toppers points among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers record keeping began. He has 154.3 career Box-Toppers points.
  • Mets pitcher Bartolo Colon rose to 22nd place among all players in Box-Toppers points since 1995. He earned Player of the Day for Monday, Aug. 31, giving him 138.5 Box-Toppers points.
  • Michael Cuddyer of the Mets extended to 12 the number of consecutive seasons in which he’s earned at least 1.0 Box-Toppers point on Sunday, Aug. 30.
  • Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke earned 3.0 Box-Toppers points during the catch-up period and is currently ranked sixth among all players with 18.0 points. In addition, with his point earned Tuesday, Sept. 1, Greinke has 143.7 career Box-Toppers points and ranks 21st among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers record keeping began.
  • Astros pitcher Mike Fiers pitched a no-hitter on Friday, Aug. 21, earning Box-Toppers Player of the Day honors.
  • Carlos Beltran of the Yankees earned Box-Toppers points in his 17th straight season, tying the record for the longest-active season streak on Friday, Aug. 14. 

Debuts—Twenty-three players made their Box-Toppers debut during the catch-up phase. Here is the list with links to the blog post for the day they made their debut with more information:

•

So what was I doing that was keeping me from Box-Toppers? I served as a volunteer coordinator for our local high school band’s major fundraiser. Over the course of the 11-day Iowa State Fair, I helped wrangle nearly 300 student and parent volunteers to fill 550 volunteer spots to serve ice cream and shakes at the fair’s Dairy Barn.

It’s a task that requires a few months of preparation to set up—to get volunteers signed up, to comply with various red-tape regulations and to develop and implement logistics to make it all work. But when the fair starts, the task can sometimes become even more time-consuming. As soon as the fair started on Aug. 13, Box-Toppers fell to the wayside. 

My last “on-time” post was Thursday, Aug. 13, covering the games of Wednesday, Aug. 12. The very next post was more than a week later on Friday, Aug. 21, covering the games of Thursday, Aug. 13. After the fair ended on Aug. 23, I kept plugging away, finally catching up two more weeks later.

The fundraiser went well, by the way. All our volunteers made it, worked hard, had a little fun (and a little ice cream) and raised a lot of money for our high school band program. It was my fifth and final year of coordinating volunteers for the fundraiser. And though it put me a little behind updating the Box-Toppers blog, it was a lot of fun and now that it’s over, tremendously satisfying.

And now, with my attention returned more fully to baseball, onto the homestretch of the season …

Indians' Kluber, throwing one-hitter, tops players for Friday, Aug. 14; Astros' Keuchel rises to 9th in Box-Toppers rankings

(Other duties have put us behind updating Box-Toppers. Playing catch up …)

Indians pitcher Corey Kluber, throwing a one-hitter, is Box-Toppers Player of the Day for Friday, Aug. 14.

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2015 season as of Aug. 14.  


 Player Pos Team BTP
1 deGrom, Jacob 3343 pi sp nym nl 18.4
2 Kershaw, Clayton 2494 pi sp lad nl 16.7
3 Price, David 2593 pi sp tor al 16.1
4 Scherzer, Max 2588 pi sp dc nl 16.0
5 Gray, Sonny 3259 pi sp oak al 15.8
6 Hernandez, Felix 2064 pi sp sea al 15.4
7 Harvey, Matt 3075 pi sp nym nl 15.4
8 Greinke, Zack 1871 pi sp lad nl 15.0
9 Keuchel, Dallas 3050 pi sp hou al 14.7
10 Sale, Chris 2806 pi sp chi al 14.4
What are those numbers after players' names?

Also, Astros pitcher Dallas Keuchel rose to ninth place in Box-Toppers player rankings and Carlos Beltran of the Yankees earned Box-Toppers points in his 17th straight season, tying the record for the longest-active season streak.

Player of the Day—Kluber pitched a complete-game, one-hitter, allowing one run and striking out seven, in the 6-1 win over the Twins.

Kluber earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 11.7 for the season. He becomes the 26th player this season with 10.0 or more Box-Toppers points. He ranks 17th among all players and ninth among AL pitchers.

National League Player of the Day—Cardinals pitcher Jaime Garcia allowed one run over eight innings, striking out six and allowing six hits, in the 3-1 win over the Marlins.

National League Batter of the Day—Matt Kemp of the Padres hit for the cycle (homer, triple, double and single) and went 4-for-5, scoring twice and driving in four runs, in the 9-5 win over the Rockies.

American League Batter of the Day—Carlos Beltran of the Yankees hit a three-run, pinch-hit homer in the 4-3 win over the Blue Jays.

Beltran earned 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being AL Batter of the Day, his first points of the season, and has now earned Box-Toppers points for 17 straight seasons, tied with two other players for the longest active streak of seasons with at least 1.0 Box-Toppers point.

Giants pitcher Tim Hudson and Torii Hunter of the Twins also have active streaks of 17 straight seasons with at least 1.0 Box-Toppers point. The longest streak of seasons with at least 1.0 Box-Toppers point is 19, by Jason Giambi from 1995 to 2013. (Box-Toppers record keeping began in 1995.)

Beltran earned his first Box-Toppers points in 1999 with the Royals. His best year was 2003 with the Royals, when he had 13.9 Box-Toppers points, second among AL batters. In 2014, he had 1.0 Box-Toppers point with the Yankees.

Beltran has 96.9 career Box-Toppers points and ranks 73rd among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers record keeping began. He ranks second among active AL outfielders, behind Torii Hunter of the Twins (115.9 Box-Toppers points).

Rankings—Astros pitcher Dallas Keuchel rose to ninth place in Box-Toppers player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors. Keuchel (7IP 6H R 8K W in the 5-1 win over the Tigers) earned 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 14.7 for the season. He ranks fourth among AL pitchers.

Debut—Delino DeShields of the Rangers made his Box-Toppers debut Friday, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors. DeShields (HR 1-2 2R BI in the 5-3 win over the Rays) made his Major League debut April 8 and was playing in his 78th career game. He is the 3,557th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.

Scoring—Kluber earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Garcia earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being NL Player of the Day. Kemp and Beltran each earn 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being their league’s 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.

Top player from each game

Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score

8/14 Score Team Player AB R H BI BB K IP H R ER BB K
MLB 12.0 Indians Corey Kluber (W,8-12) - - - - - - 9.0 1 1 1 1 7
NL 6.1 Cardinals Jaime Garcia (W,5-4) - - - - - - 8.0 6 1 0 1 6
6.0 Astros Dallas Keuchel (W,14-6) - - - - - - 7.0 6 1 1 1 8
6.0 Braves Julio Teheran (W,8-6) - - - - - - 6.0 3 1 1 2 7
BAT 5.0 Padres Matt Kemp, RF 5 2 4 4 0 0 - - - - - -
4.0 Cubs Chris Coghlan, LF 4 2 2 4 0 2 - - - - - -
4.0 Giants Matt Duffy, 3B 3 1 3 3 1 0 - - - - - -
BAT 4.0 Yankees Carlos Beltran, PH-RF 1 1 1 3 0 0 - - - - - -
4.0 Red Sox Joe Kelly (W,5-6) - - - - - - 6.0 4 1 1 2 6
3.0 Orioles Adam Jones, CF 5 1 3 4 0 1 - - - - - -
3.0 Royals Greg Holland (S,26) - - - - - - 1.0 1 0 0 0 3
3.0 Dodgers Kenley Jansen (S,23) - - - - - - 1.0 0 0 0 0 2
2.1 `Pirates J.A. Happ - - - - - - 5.0 7 1 1 1 7
2.0 Rangers Delino DeShields, CF 2 2 1 1 1 0 - - - - - -
2.0 Brewers Wily Peralta (W,3-7) - - - - - - 7.0 6 0 0 2 3
`Denotes that the pitcher had a no-decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save.