Giants' Cueto tops players for Tuesday, April 26; Athletics' Hill tops AL players

Giants pitcher Johnny Cueto is Tuesday’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 April 26:  


Player Pos Team BTP
1 Arrieta, Jake 2738 pi sp chi nl 5.0
2 Volquez, Edinson 2220 pi sp kc al 4.4
3 Hill, Rich 2215 pi sp oak al 4.4
4 Kershaw, Clayton 2494 pi sp lad nl 4.0
5 Sale, Chris 2806 pi sp chi al 4.0
6 Cueto, Johnny 2400 pi sp sf nl 4.0
7 Velasquez, Vince 3611 pi sp phi nl 4.0
8 Santiago, Hector 3109 pi sp ana al 3.7
9 Latos, Mat 2644 pi sp chi al 3.7
10 Davis, Chris 2478 1b bal al 3.5
What are those numbers after players' names?

Cueto pitched a complete game shutout, striking out 11 and allowing seven hits and one walk, in the 1-0 win over the Padres.

Cueto earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 4.0 for the season, rising to sixth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings.

American League Player of the Day—Athletics pitcher Rich Hill struck out eight over seven scoreless innings, allowing four hits, in the 5-1 win over the Tigers.

Hill earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being AL Player of the Day, giving him 4.4 for the season, rising to third in Box-Toppers season player rankings.

National League Batter of the Day—Andrew McCutchen of the Pirates hit three homers and went 3-for-5, driving in five runs, in the 9-4 win over the Rockies.

American League Batter of the Day—Johnny Giavotella of the Angels hit a three-run homer in the 9-4 win over the Royals. Giavotella also doubled and went 3-for-4, scoring three times.

Rankings—White Sox pitcher Chris Sale rose to fifth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Tuesday.

Sale (8IP 4H R 6K W in the 10-1 win over the Blue Jays) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 4.0 for the season.

Scoring—Cueto earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Hill earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. McCutchen and Giavotella each earn 1.5 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

4/26 Score Team Player AB R H BI BB K IP H R ER BB K
MLB 12.0 Giants Johnny Cueto (W,4-1) - - - - - - 9.0 7 0 0 1 11
AL 11.0 Athletics Rich Hill (W,3-2) - - - - - - 7.0 4 0 0 0 8
10.0 Red Sox David Price (W,3-0) - - - - - - 8.0 6 2 2 2 14
8.0 Cardinals Carlos Martinez (W,4-0) - - - - - - 8.0 3 0 0 1 4
8.0 Mariners Nathan Karns (W,2-1) - - - - - - 7.0 2 0 0 3 6
BAT 6.0 Pirates Andrew McCutchen, CF 5 3 3 5 0 0 - - - - - -
6.0 White Sox Chris Sale (W,5-0) - - - - - - 8.0 4 1 1 2 6
6.0 Rangers A.J. Griffin (W,3-0) - - - - - - 8.0 4 1 1 1 5
BAT 5.0 Angels Johnny Giavotella, 2B 4 3 3 3 0 0 - - - - - -
5.0 Cubs Adam Warren (W,2-0) - - - - - - 2.0 0 0 0 0 3
4.0 Mets Yoenis Cespedes, PH 1 1 1 3 0 0 - - - - - -
3.1 `Twins Ricky Nolasco - - - - - - 7.1 5 4 4 0 9
3.0 Phillies Andres Blanco, SS 4 2 3 2 1 0 - - - - - -
1.2 Rays Alex Colome (S,5) - - - - - - 0.2 0 0 0 0 1
1.0 Marlins Christian Yelich, LF 5 2 3 1 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 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 Pos Team 16 15-16 11-16 Career +/-
Hill, Rich 2215 pi sp oak al 4.4 8.4 8.4 28.1 0.4
Sale, Chris 2806 pi sp chi al 4.0 22.8 75.0 77.0 -14.8
Cueto, Johnny 2400 pi sp sf nl 4.0 16.8 68.0 87.4 -8.8
Price, David 2593 pi sp bos al 3.0 24.1 80.1 96.8 -18.1
Cespedes, Yoenis 3008 cf lf dh ph nym nl 3.0 13.9 34.9 34.9 -7.9
Martinez, Carlos 3371 pi sp stl nl 2.0 15.7 16.7 16.7 -11.7
Nolasco, Ricky 2125 pi sp min al 2.0 4.0 24.7 77.8 0.0
McCutchen, Andrew 2637 cf pit nl 1.5 12.0 42.7 48.4 -9.0
Giavotella, Johnny 2931 2b ana al 1.5 5.0 8.0 8.0 -2.0
Colome, Alex 3189 pi cp sp mr tb al 1.0 6.0 9.7 9.7 -4.0
Karns, Nathan 3414 pi sp sea al 1.0 6.0 7.0 7.0 -4.0
Warren, Adam 3169 pi mr sp chi nl 1.0 4.7 8.7 8.7 -2.7
Yelich, Christian 3334 lf fla nl 1.0 3.5 11.0 11.0 -1.5
Blanco, Andres 2980 ss phi nl 1.0 2.0 3.0 3.0 0.0
Griffin, A.J. 3074 pi sp tex al 1.0 1.0 15.7 15.7 1.0
What are those numbers after players' names?

Indians' Carlos Carrasco (5IP R 8K) tops players for Tuesday, April 21, rises to 6th in Box-Toppers player rankings

Indians pitcher Carlos Carrasco is Tuesday’s Player of the Day and rises to sixth place in Box-Toppers player rankings.

Carrasco struck out eight over five innings and allowed one run in the 6-2 win over the White Sox. Carrasco earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 3.0 for the season.

National League Player of the Day—Todd Frazier of the Reds hit a grand slam and went 2-for-3 with three runs, in the 16-10 win over the Brewers.

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2015 season as of April 21.  


Player Pos Team BTP
1 Hernandez, Felix 2064 pi sp sea al 4.0
2 Kazmir, Scott 1947 pi sp oak al 3.7
3 DeSclafani, Anthony 3441 pi sp cin nl 3.7
4 Scherzer, Max 2588 pi sp dc nl 3.0
5 Archer, Chris 3194 pi sp tb al 3.0
6 Carrasco, Carlos 2885 pi sp cle al 3.0
7 Cole, Gerrit 3232 pi sp pit nl 3.0
8 Bauer, Trevor 3065 pi sp cle al 3.0
9 Price, David 2593 pi sp det al 2.7
10 deGrom, Jacob 3343 pi sp nym nl 2.7
What are those numbers after players' names?

American League Batter of the Day—Johnny Giavotella of the Angels homered and went 2-for-3, scoring three times and driving in four, in the 14-1 win over the Athletics.

Streak—Ryan Howard of the Phillies has now earned at least 1.0 Box-Toppers point for 11 straight seasons. Howard was Player of the Game in Tuesday’s 7-3 win over the Marlins (HR 2-3 2R 2BI) and earned 1.0 Box-Toppers point. Howard, who has spent his entire career with the Phillies, earned his first Box-Toppers points in 2005. His best season was 2009 when he had 15.4 Box-Toppers points, third among NL batters. In 2014, he had 7.2 Box-Toppers points, ranking fifth among NL first basemen. He has 92.2 career Box-Toppers points, ranking him 83rd among all players since record keeping began in 1995, 35th among all batters in that time and first among active first basemen currently in the NL (second place is Justin Morneau of the Rockies with 71.3 Box-Toppers points).

Debut—Dalton Pompey of the Blue Jays made his Box-Toppers debut Tuesday, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors. Pompey (2-2B 3-4 3R in the 13-6 win over the Orioles) made his Major League debut Sept. 2, 2014, and was playing in his 31st career game. He is the 3,450th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.

Young and Young—Both Major League players named Chris Young earned Player of the Game honors Tuesday:

  • Royals pitcher Chris R. Young was Player of the Game in the 6-5 win over the Twins (2IP 0R K W).
  • Chris B. Young of the Yankees was Player of the Game in the 5-2 win over the Tigers (HR 2B 3-3 R BI).

Scoring—Carrasco earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Frazier earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being NL Player of the Day. Giavotella earns 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being AL 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

4/21 Score Team Player AB R H BI BB K IP H R ER BB K
MLB 7.0 Indians Carlos Carrasco (W, 2-1) - - - - - - 5.0 4 1 1 0 8
BAT 6.0 Angels Johnny Giavotella 2B 3 3 2 4 1 0 - - - - - -
NL 5.0 Reds Todd Frazier 3B 4 3 2 4 2 0 - - - - - -
4.1 Rangers Shawn Tolleson (W, 1-0) - - - - - - 1.1 0 0 0 0 3
4.0 Giants Justin Maxwell RF 3 3 2 2 1 0 - - - - - -
3.0 Cubs Starlin Castro SS 5 1 3 4 0 1 - - - - - -
3.0 Phillies Ryan Howard 1B 3 2 2 2 1 1 - - - - - -
3.0 Astros Jake Marisnick CF 2 2 2 1 1 0 - - - - - -
3.0 Royals Chris Young (W, 1-0) - - - - - - 2.0 0 0 0 0 1
2.0 Mets Curtis Granderson RF 5 0 3 4 0 0 - - - - - -
2.0 Padres Wil Myers CF 4 1 3 2 1 0 - - - - - -
2.0 Blue Jays Dalton Pompey CF 4 3 3 0 1 0 - - - - - -
2.0 Yankees Chris Young RF 3 1 3 1 2 0 - - - - - -
1.2 Red Sox Wade Miley (W, 1-1) - - - - - - 5.2 3 0 0 4 3
1.0 Nationals Aaron Barrett (W, 2-0) - - - - - - 1.0 1 0 0 0 1