Pirates' Gerrit Cole tops players for Wednesday, July 27; Nationals' Strasburg rises to 6th in Box-Toppers rankings

Pirates pitcher Gerrit Cole is Wednesday’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 July 27:  


Player Pos Team BTP
1 Kershaw, Clayton 2494 pi sp lad nl 20.0
2 Fernandez, Jose 3147 pi sp fla nl 16.4
3 Scherzer, Max 2588 pi sp dc nl 16.0
4 Cueto, Johnny 2400 pi sp sf nl 14.4
5 Kluber, Corey 3200 pi sp cle al 12.5
6 Strasburg, Stephen 2736 pi sp dc nl 12.4
7 Hamels, Cole 2135 pi sp tex al 12.1
8 Bumgarner, Madison 2753 pi sp sf nl 11.0
9 Syndergaard, Noah 3472 pi sp nym nl 11.0
10 Arrieta, Jake 2738 pi sp chi nl 10.7
What are those numbers after players' names?

Also Wednesday, Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg rises to sixth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors.

Player of the Day—Cole pitched a complete game, allowing one run, three hits, no walks and striking out six, in the 10-1 win over the Mariners.

American League Player of the Day—Astros pitcher Lance McCullers struck out 10 over six innings, allowing one run, five hits and two walks, in the 4-1 win over the Yankees.

National League Batter of the Day—Freddie Freeman of the Braves homered and went 4-for-4, driving in five runs, in the 9-7 win over the Twins.

American League Batter of the Day—Khris Davis of the Athletics hit two home runs, doubled and went 3-for-4, driving in three runs, in the 6-4 win over the Rangers.

Rankings—Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg rises to sixth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Wednesday.

Strasburg (7IP 3H 0R 2BB 7K W in the 4-1 win over the Indians) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 12.4 for the season. He ranks fifth among NL pitchers.

Debut—Cardinals closing pitcher Seung Hwan Oh made his Box-Toppers debut Wednesday with his first career Player of the Game honor.

Oh (1IP 0H 0R 0BB K Sv in the 5-4 win over the Mets) made his Major League debut April 3 and was playing in his 52nd career game. He is the 3,693rd player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.

Scoring—Cole earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and McCullers earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Freeman and Davis each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Wednesday’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

7/27 Score Game Player of Game AB R H BI IP H R ER BB K
MLB 10.0 PIT 10, SEA 1 Gerrit Cole (W,6-6) - - - - 9.0 3 1 1 0 6
9.0 WSH 4, CLE 1 Stephen Strasburg (W,14-1) - - - - 7.0 3 0 0 2 7
AL 7.0 HOU 4, NYY 1 Lance McCullers (W,6-4) - - - - 6.0 5 1 1 2 10
6.2 CIN 2, SF 1 Dan Straily (W,6-6) - - - - 7.2 3 1 1 1 5
BAT 6.0 ATL 9, MIN 7 Freddie Freeman, 1B 4 1 4 5 - - - - - -
5.0 CHC 8, CHW 1 Jason Hammel (W,10-5) - - - - 7.0 5 1 1 2 7
4.0 ARI 8, MIL 1 Yasmany Tomas, RF 5 2 2 5 - - - - - -
BAT 4.0 OAK 6, TEX 4 Khris Davis, DH 4 2 3 3 - - - - - -
3.0 SD 8, TOR 4 Brett Wallace, 1B 3 2 2 2 - - - - - -
2.2 TB 3, LAD 1 Matt Moore (W,7-7) - - - - 6.2 4 1 0 4 5
2.0 MIA 11, PHI 1 Don Kelly, 1B 5 2 3 2 - - - - - -
2.0 DET 4, BOS 3 Victor Martinez, DH 4 0 4 2 - - - - - -
2.0 KC 7, LAA 5 Paulo Orlando, RF 4 2 3 1 - - - - - -
2.0 COL 3, BAL 1 Carlos Estevez (S,10) - - - - 1.0 0 0 0 0 1
2.0 STL 5, NYM 4 Seung Hwan Oh (S,6) - - - - 1.0 0 0 0 0 1

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 of Game Pos Team 16 15-16 11-16 Career +/-
Strasburg, Stephen 2736 pi sp dc nl 12.4 26.4 72.5 80.2 -1.6
Hammel, Jason 2235 pi sp chi nl 7.0 16.7 40.1 53.2 -2.7
Moore, Matt 2975 pi sp tb al 6.7 6.7 32.2 32.2 6.7
Cole, Gerrit 3232 pi sp pit nl 6.5 25.5 35.9 35.9 -12.5
McCullers, Lance 3488 pi sp hou al 6.1 12.8 12.8 12.8 -0.6
Martinez, Victor 1695 dh 1b det al 6.0 9.5 29.4 69.6 2.5
Davis, Khris 3242 lf oak al 5.7 9.7 15.7 15.7 1.7
Tomas, Yasmany 3489 lf rf ari nl 4.5 8.0 8.0 8.0 1.0
Estevez, Carlos 3641 pi cp col nl 4.0 4.0 4.0 4.0 4.0
Freeman, Freddie 2887 1b atl nl 3.0 6.0 34.2 34.2 0.0
Orlando, Paulo 3526 rf kc al 2.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 1.0
Straily, Dan 3080 pi sp cin nl 2.0 2.0 12.7 12.7 2.0
Wallace, Brett 2837 3b 1b sd nl 2.0 2.0 4.5 4.5 2.0
Kelly, Don 2890 1b fla nl 1.0 1.0 5.5 5.5 1.0
Oh, Seung Hwan 3693 pi cp stl nl 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0
What are those numbers after players' names?