Astros pitcher Justin Verlander is Box-Toppers Player of the Day in Tuesday’s spring training games.
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Read MoreBox-Toppers top pitchers and batters by team, 2017
Three of the four players who won Cy Young or Most Valuable Player awards in 2017 also led their teams in Box-Toppers points for the season.
The only exception: American League Most Valuable Player Jose Altuve did not lead Astros batters in Box-Toppers points. In fact, with only 2.5 Box-Toppers points, he finished 11th among Astros batters and 21st among all Astros players.
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Dodgers pitcher Yu Darvish is Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
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Also Saturday, Cubs pitcher Jon Lester rises to 18th place on Box-Toppers “all-time” career points list after earning National League Player of the Day honors.
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Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2017 season as of May 2:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 6.7 |
| 2 | Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 6.7 |
| 3 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 6.0 |
| 4 | Nova, Ivan 2796 | pi sp | pit nl | 5.0 |
| 5 | Vargas, Jason 2055 | pi sp | kc al | 5.0 |
| 6 | Holland, Greg 2906 | pi cp | col nl | 5.0 |
| 7 | Judge, Aaron 3767 | rf | nyy al | 5.0 |
| 8 | Keuchel, Dallas 3050 | pi sp | hou al | 4.4 |
| 9 | Triggs, Andrew 3723 | pi sp | oak al | 4.4 |
| 10 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 4.0 |
Also Tuesday, Twins pitcher Ervin Santana maintains his second-place spot in Box-Toppers season player rankings and Aaron Judge of the Yankees rises to seventh place after both earned Player of the Game honors.
Player of the Day—Sale struck out 11 over eight innings, allowing two runs and three hits, in the 5-2 win over the Orioles.
Sale earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 6.7 for the season, rising from sixth to first place in season player rankings. He passes previous leader, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw (5.0 Box-Toppers points), who had been leading since April 19. It is the second time in his career Sale has led Box-Toppers season player rankings—previously, he led May 17-18, 2013, when he had 8.7 points with the White Sox.
National League Player of the Day—Padres pitcher Trevor Cahill struck out seven over six innings, allowing one run and three hits, in the 6-2 win over the Rockies.
American League Batter of the Day—Marwin Gonzalez of the Astros hit two home runs, including a grand slam, in the 8-7 win over the Rangers. Gonzalez went 2-for-3, driving in five runs.
National League Batter of the Day—Javier Baez of the Cubs homered, tripled and went 4-for-4, scoring twice and driving in three runs, in the 8-3 win over the Phillies.
Rankings—In addition to Sale, two other players earning Player of the Game honors Tuesday are also among Box-Toppers top 10 players in season player rankings:
- Twins pitcher Ervin Santana (6IP 3H 0R 3BB 7K W in the 9-1 win over the Athletics) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 6.7 for the season, maintaining his second-place spot in Box-Toppers player rankings. He passes previous leader, Kershaw (5.0 points), but is passed by Sale in rankings. Though Sale and Santana both have 6.7 points on the season, Sale ranks ahead because he has more 2016 points (13.4 vs. 4.0).
Santana also now has 104.0 career Box-Toppers points, rising to 66th place among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. With his point Tuesday, he passes Jamie Moyer (104.0) on the “all-time” list and now trails 65th-ranked player, Blue Jays pitcher Francisco Liriano (104.2).
- Aaron Judge of the Yankees (2HR 2-3 3R 4BI in the 11-5 win over the Blue Jays) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 5.0 for the season, rising to seventh place in season player rankings, first among all batters, just ahead of Bryce Harper of the Nationals (4.0 points, ranked 13th overall). Judge just missed out on earning AL Batter of the Day honors—his Box-Toppers game score of +6.0 was tied with Tuesday AL Batter of the Day Marwin Gonzalez of the Astros, but Gonzalez ranked ahead because he had more runs batted in than Judge (five vs. four).
Scoring—Sale earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Cahill earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Gonzalez and Baez 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.
Box-Toppers strives for accuracy. See a mistake in a post? A wrong name, wrong team, grammar error, spelling goof, etc.? Thanks for pointing it out! Contact Box-Toppers here. Let's fix it and make it right.
Top player from each game
Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score| 5/2 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 10.0 | BOS 5, BAL 2 | Chris Sale (W,2-2) | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 11 | |
| 9.0 | CHW 6, KC 0 | Jose Quintana (W,2-4) | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | ||
| NL | 9.0 | SD 6, COL 2 | Trevor Cahill (W,2-2) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7 | |
| 7.0 | MIN 9, OAK 1 | Ervin Santana (W,5-0) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 | ||
| BAT | 6.0 | HOU 8, TEX 7 | Marwin Gonzalez, LF | 3 | 2 | 2 | 5 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 6.0 | NYY 11, TOR 5 | Aaron Judge, RF | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 5.1 | STL 2, MIL 1 | Carlos Martinez (W,1-3) | - | - | - | - | 7.1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | ||
| BAT | 5.0 | CHC 8, PHI 3 | Javier Baez, 2B-3B | 4 | 2 | 4 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 4.0 | LAD 13, SF 5 | Yasiel Puig, RF | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 4.0 | PIT 12, CIN 3 | Wade LeBlanc (S,1) | - | - | - | - | 3.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | ||
| 4.0 | LAA 6, SEA 4 (F/11) | Deolis Guerra (W,2-1) | - | - | - | - | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | ||
| 3.0 | TB 3, MIA 1 | Alex Colome (S,7) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | ||
| 2.1 | ARI 6, WSH 3 | T.J. McFarland (W,1-0) | - | - | - | - | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 1.1 | ATL 9, NYM 7 | Jim Johnson (S,5) | - | - | - | - | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 0.0 | DET 5, CLE 2 | Alex Avila, C | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
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.
All other players listed here 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.
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 (’17). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (’16-17), the period 2012-2017 (’12-17) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2017 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2016 total (+/-).| Player of the Game | Pos | Team | ’17 | ’16-17 | ’12-17 | Career | +/- |
| Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 6.7 | 20.1 | 88.1 | 93.1 | -6.7 |
| Santana, Ervin 2005 | pi sp | min al | 6.7 | 10.7 | 43.5 | 104.0 | 2.7 |
| Judge, Aaron 3767 | rf | nyy al | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 |
| Cahill, Trevor 2658 | pi sp mr | sd nl | 3.4 | 6.4 | 21.1 | 43.6 | 0.4 |
| Martinez, Carlos 3371 | pi sp | stl nl | 3.0 | 15.4 | 30.1 | 30.1 | -9.4 |
| Puig, Yasiel 3193 | rf | lad nl | 3.0 | 6.5 | 12.5 | 12.5 | -0.5 |
| Quintana, Jose 3040 | pi sp | chi al | 2.0 | 12.4 | 37.2 | 37.2 | -8.4 |
| Colome, Alex 3189 | pi cp | tb al | 2.0 | 11.0 | 19.7 | 19.7 | -7.0 |
| Johnson, Jim 2417 | pi cp | atl nl | 2.0 | 6.0 | 17.0 | 23.7 | -2.0 |
| Avila, Alex 2642 | ca | det al | 2.0 | 3.0 | 9.5 | 19.0 | 1.0 |
| Baez, Javier 3395 | 2b 3b | chi nl | 1.5 | 3.5 | 6.0 | 6.0 | -0.5 |
| Gonzalez, Marwin 3078 | lf | hou al | 1.5 | 2.5 | 7.0 | 7.0 | 0.5 |
| LeBlanc, Wade 2669 | pi cp sp | pit nl | 1.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 11.0 | -2.0 |
| Guerra, Deolis 3521 | pi cp mr | ana al | 1.0 | 2.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 0.0 |
| McFarland, T.J. 3585 | pi mr | ari nl | 1.0 | 1.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 1.0 |