Dodgers’ Evan Phillips tops players in Seoul Series opening game win over Padres

Dodgers closing pitcher Evan Phillips is Box-Toppers Player of the Day in Wednesday’s regular season opening game in Seoul, South Korea.

Phillips struck out one in one scoreless, hitless inning, walking none and picking up the save, in the 5-2 win over the Padres, the first official game of the 2024 season.

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Astros’ Framber Valdez tops players in Thursday, April 7’s Opening Day games

Astros pitcher Framber Valdez is Box-Toppers Player of the Day in Thursday’s Opening Day games.

Also Thursday, Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright has now earned Box-Toppers points in 11 straight seasons after earning Player of the Game honors.

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A Box-Toppers look at each team’s 2022 opening game starting pitcher

Starting a new baseball season means putting your best foot forward, which for teams usually means putting your best pitcher on the mound to start the first game of the season.

However, only four of Box-Toppers’ top-ranked pitchers in 2021 are starting their team’s first game of 2022.

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Rays’ Glasnow tops players in Thursday, April 1’s opening day games

Rays pitcher Tyler Glasnow is Box-Toppers Player of the Day in Thursday’s opening day games.

Also Thursday, Astros pitcher Zack Greinke has now earned Box-Toppers points in 15 straight seasons after earning Player of the Game honors.

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Here we go anyway: Box-Toppers opening day preview of 2021 season

A Box-Toppers preview of the 2021 baseball season.

First, a commentary on baseball and COVID-19. Though case rates are declining and vaccines are slowly arriving, coronavirus cases are higher now than during most of the shortened 2020 baseball season. Yet baseball is on the fast track to return to normalcy.

Second, an introduction to the Box-Toppers metric, used to track and compare players since 1995.

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Play ball? Trouble with COVID's curve: Do we even deserve baseball in 2020?

To get a reward, you need to complete a task. As other nations sacrificed to bring coronavirus case counts down, to flatten the curve, we didn’t. Cases increased. It seems crazy to reward ourselves now with baseball, putting many at risk, simply because we want it. We are not worthy.

And yet, here we are: So here’s an opening day introduction to Box-Toppers, tracking who most helps their teams win the most games, based on box score statistics. We begin our 26th season of tracking and our eighth season on the web.

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Twins’ Jose Berrios tops players in Thursday, March 28's opening day games

Twins pitcher Jose Berrios is Box-Toppers Player of the Day in Thursday’s Opening Day games.

Berrios struck out 10 over 7 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing two hits and one walk, in the 2-0 win over the Indians.

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An opening day introduction to Box-Toppers, starting 25th season tracking players

As the 2019 Major League Baseball season opens, Box-Toppers begins its 25th season tracking who most helps their teams win the most games, based on box score statistics. Here is an introduction to Box-Toppers.

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An opening day introduction to Box-Toppers, starting 24th season tracking players

What’s the most important thing in baseball?

Winning the game, right?

But what baseball statistic provides the fan an indication of the player who most contributed to the win? Logically, you might answer “the win” statistic, but it only applies to pitchers. Plus, in some circumstances, the win is not awarded to the pitcher most responsible for earning the win, but simply the pitcher who was in the game when the team took the lead.

What is needed is a metric that will select the player—from among pitchers and batters—who most contributed to his team’s win. And that’s where Box-Toppers comes in.

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Cardinals' Carlos Martinez tops players on opening day, Sunday, April 2

Cardinals pitcher Carlos Martinez is Sunday’s opening day Box-Toppers Player of the Day.

Martinez pitched 7 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing six hits, no walks and striking out 10 in the 4-3 win over the Cubs. Martinez did not earn the win because after he exited, the Cubs tied the game in the top of the ninth inning before the Cardinals won the game in the bottom of the ninth.

While it is relatively rare for a pitcher to earn overall Box-Toppers Player of the Day without earning a win or a save, it did happen nine times in 2016, including once by Martinez on Aug. 29.

American League Player of the Day—Logan Morrison of the Rays homered and went 3-for-4, driving in three runs, in the 7-3 win over the Yankees.

National League Batter of the Day—A.J. Pollock of the Diamondbacks hit a two-run homer and went 3-for-5, scoring twice, in the 6-5 win over the Giants.

Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner had a magnificent day, hitting two home runs and pitching a perfect game through five innings (his final line was 7IP 6H 3R 0BB 11K ND), but earns no Box-Toppers points for his effort (despite having a Box-Toppers game score of +6.0 for pitching, highest of any player on either team) simply because the Giants did not win.

American League Batter of the Day—There is no separate AL Batter of the Day for Sunday because the overall AL Player of the Day was batter Logan Morrison. Also, only one AL game was played Sunday.

Scoring—Martinez earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and becomes the de facto early leader in season Box-Toppers points. Morrison earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Pollock earns 1.5 points for being NL Batter of the Day.

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

4/2 Score Game Player AB R H BI IP H R ER BB K
MLB 11.1 `STL 4, CHC 3 Carlos Martinez - - - - 7.1 6 0 0 0 10
AL 3.0 TB 7, NYY 3 Logan Morrison, 1B 4 1 3 3 - - - - - -
BAT 2.0 ARI 6, SF 5 A.J. Pollock, CF 5 2 3 2 - - - - - -
` 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 Game Pos Team '17 '16-17 '12-17 Career +/-
Martinez, Carlos 3371 pi sp stl nl 2.0 14.4 29.1 29.1 -10.4
Morrison, Logan 2794 1b tb al 1.7 3.7 13.7 19.2 -0.3
Pollock, A.J. 3142 cf ari nl 1.5 1.5 16.2 16.2 1.5
What are those numbers after players' names?

Pirates' Francisco Liriano tops players in Sunday, April 3's opening day games

Pirates pitcher Francisco Liriano is Sunday’s Box-Toppers opening day Player of the Day.

Liriano struck out 10 over six scoreless innings, allowing three hits, in the 4-1 win over the Cardinals.

Liriano receives 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being opening day Player of the Day and now leads all players in Box-Toppers points with 2.0. He had 14.9 Box-Toppers points in 2015, ranked ninth among National League pitchers.

American League Player of the Day—Royals pitcher Edinson Volquez pitched six scoreless innings, allowing two hits and striking out five, in the 4-3 win over the Mets.

Volquez has now earned Box-Toppers points in 11 consecutive seasons. He first earned Box-Toppers points in 2006 with the Rangers and has 59.5 career Box-Toppers points, ranked 19th among active AL pitchers. His best year was 2008 with the Reds when he had 15.1 points, ranked sixth among NL pitchers. He had 7.0 Box-Toppers points in 2015 with the Royals.

Notable—Blue Jays closer Roberto Osuna was Player of the Game in the other regular season game Sunday. Osuna struck out two in one scoreless inning and earned the save in the 5-3 win over the Rays.

Also, Sunday, Angels pitcher A.J. Achter was Player of the Game in the final spring training game of the season, a 6-4 win over the Cubs. Achter struck out two in a scoreless seventh inning, picking up a no decision. (Achter earns no Box-Toppers points because he was playing in a spring training game.)

Scoring—Liriano earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Volquez earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. All of Sunday’s other regular season 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

4/3 Score Team Player AB R H BI BB K IP H R ER BB K
MLB 8.0 Pirates Francisco Liriano (W,1-0) - - - - - - 6.0 3 0 0 5 10
AL 6.0 Royals Edinson Volquez (W,1-0) - - - - - - 6.0 2 0 0 3 5
2.0 Blue Jays Roberto Osuna (S,1) - - - - - - 1.0 1 0 0 0 2
Spring training
3.0 `Angels A.J. Achter - - - - - - 1.0 0 0 0 0 2
`Denotes that the pitcher had a no-decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save.

Cards' Adam Wainwright (6IP 0R 6K) tops players in Sunday, April 5's opening night

Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright is Sunday’s Player of the Day on baseball’s opening night of the season.

Wainwright pitched six scoreless innings and struck out six in the 3-0 win over the Cubs.

Wainwright receives 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day. And by virtue of the fact that this is the only game played so far in the Major League season, Wainwright leads all players in Box-Toppers points with 2.0.

However, Wainwright did lead all players in Box-Toppers points at several points in the 2014 season, as late as June 28, when he had 13.0. Wainwright finished 2014 with 18.7 Box-Toppers points, ranked eighth among all players and fourth among NL pitchers.

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

405 Score Team BATTERS AB R H RBI BB K IP H R ER BB K
MLB 7.0 Cardinals Adam Wainwright (W, 1-0) - - - - - - 6.0 5 0 0 0 6