White Sox pitcher Chris Sale is Thursday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and rises to second place in player rankings.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2016 season as of May 19:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 10.0 |
| 2 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | chi al | 8.7 |
| 3 | Cueto, Johnny 2400 | pi sp | sf nl | 8.0 |
| 4 | Arrieta, Jake 2738 | pi sp | chi nl | 7.7 |
| 5 | Machado, Manny 3087 | 3b ss | bal al | 6.7 |
| 6 | Hill, Rich 2215 | pi sp | oak al | 6.4 |
| 7 | Salazar, Danny 3223 | pi sp | cle al | 6.1 |
| 8 | Velasquez, Vince 3611 | pi sp | phi nl | 6.0 |
| 9 | Price, David 2593 | pi sp | bos al | 5.7 |
| 10 | Quintana, Jose 3040 | pi sp | chi al | 5.7 |
Sale pitched a complete game, allowing one run and four hits, striking out nine, in the 2-1 win over the Astros. He earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 8.7 for the season, rising to second in season player rankings, trailing only Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw (10.0). Sale also extends his Box-Toppers points lead among American League players.
National League Player of the Day—Giants pitcher Jeff Samardzija allowed one run over eight innings, allowing three hits and striking out eight, in the 3-1 win over the Padres.
National League Batter of the Day—Matt Carpenter of the Cardinals hit a three-run homer, doubled twice and drove in six runs, in the 13-7 win over the Rockies. Carpenter went 3-for-5 and scored twice.
American League Batter of the Day—Mike Trout of the Angels homered and went 2-for-3, scoring twice and driving in three runs, in the 7-4 win over the Dodgers.
Notable—Thursday marked the first time this season that all of the Players of the Games had already earned Player of the Game honors at least once this season. In other words, none of Thursday’s Players of the Games were making their Box-Toppers season debut and already had at least 1.0 Box-Toppers point in 2016. (See the chart below, Box-Toppers point totals of the day’s top players, for details.)
Scoring—Sale earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Samardzija earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Carpenter and Trout each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Thursday’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
| 5/19 | Score | Team | Player | AB | R | H | BI | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 12.0 | White Sox | Chris Sale (W,9-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 9.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 9 | |
| NL | 11.0 | Giants | Jeff Samardzija (W,6-2) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 8 | |
| 10.0 | `Blue Jays | Marco Estrada | - | - | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 9 | ||
| 7.0 | Nationals | Stephen Strasburg (W,7-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 10 | ||
| BAT | 6.0 | Cardinals | Matt Carpenter, 1B | 5 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 4.2 | Indians | Josh Tomlin (W,6-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.2 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 7 | ||
| BAT | 4.0 | Angels | Mike Trout, CF | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 4.0 | Brewers | Junior Guerra (W,3-0) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 11 | ||
| 4.0 | Mariners | Nathan Karns (W,4-1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 5.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | ||
| 3.0 | Yankees | Ivan Nova (W,3-1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 2.0 | Pirates | John Jaso, 1B | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 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 | +/- |
| Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | chi al | 8.7 | 27.5 | 79.7 | 81.7 | -10.1 |
| Strasburg, Stephen 2736 | pi sp | dc nl | 4.7 | 18.7 | 64.8 | 72.5 | -9.3 |
| Trout, Mike 2949 | cf | ana al | 4.5 | 16.5 | 41.0 | 41.0 | -7.5 |
| Jaso, John 2705 | 1b | pit nl | 4.0 | 4.0 | 9.0 | 15.0 | 4.0 |
| Samardzija, Jeff 2495 | pi sp | sf nl | 3.7 | 13.1 | 41.8 | 42.8 | -5.7 |
| Estrada, Marco 2847 | pi sp | tor al | 3.0 | 11.0 | 35.1 | 35.1 | -5.0 |
| Karns, Nathan 3414 | pi sp | sea al | 3.0 | 8.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 | -2.0 |
| Tomlin, Josh 2771 | pi sp | cle al | 3.0 | 7.7 | 20.4 | 22.4 | -1.7 |
| Carpenter, Matt 2987 | 3b 1b | stl nl | 2.5 | 8.0 | 22.5 | 22.5 | -3.0 |
| Nova, Ivan 2796 | pi sp mr | nyy al | 2.0 | 3.0 | 24.1 | 25.1 | 1.0 |
| Guerra, Junior 3633 | pi sp | mil nl | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 |