Rays pitcher Chris Archer 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 Aug. 17:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 20.0 |
| 2 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 18.7 |
| 3 | Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 17.2 |
| 4 | Fernandez, Jose 3147 | pi sp | fla nl | 16.4 |
| 5 | Cueto, Johnny 2400 | pi sp | sf nl | 14.4 |
| 6 | Lester, Jon 2173 | pi sp | chi nl | 14.4 |
| 7 | Hamels, Cole 2135 | pi sp | tex al | 14.1 |
| 8 | Strasburg, Stephen 2736 | pi sp | dc nl | 14.1 |
| 9 | Happ, J.A. 2536 | pi sp | tor al | 12.7 |
| 10 | Altuve, Jose 3007 | 2b | hou al | 12.5 |
Also Wednesday, Cubs pitcher Jon Lester rises to sixth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors.
Player of the Day—Archer pitched 7 1/3 scoreless innings, striking out nine and allowing four hits and one walk, in the 2-0 win over the Padres.
National League Player of the Day—Yasmany Tomas of the Diamondbacks hit two homers and tripled, going 3-for-4, scoring three times and driving in six runs, in the 13-5 win over the Mets.
American League Batter of the Day—Jackie Bradley Jr. of the Red Sox hit a two-run homer and doubled, going 2-for-3, scoring twice and driving in four runs, in the 8-1, six-inning, rain-shortened win over the Orioles.
National League Batter of the Day—There is no separate NL Batter of the Day for Wednesday because the NL Player of the Day was batter Yasmany Tomas.
Rankings—Cubs pitcher Jon Lester rises from eighth to sixth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Wednesday.
Lester (6.2IP 3H R 2BB 7K W in the 6-1 win over the Brewers) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 14.4 for the season. He ranks fifth among NL pitchers.
Lester also now has 135.5 career Box-Toppers points, ranked 28th among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. He trails 27th-ranked player Andy Pettitte (138.5).
Scoring—Archer earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Tomas earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Bradley earns 1.5 points for being AL 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
| 8/17 | Score | Game | Player of Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 11.1 | TB 2, SD 0 | Chris Archer (W,7-16) | - | - | - | - | 7.1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | |
| NL | 8.0 | ARI 13, NYM 5 | Yasmany Tomas, RF | 4 | 3 | 3 | 6 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 8.0 | STL 8, HOU 2 | Carlos Martinez (W,11-7) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | ||
| 6.2 | CHC 6, MIL 1 | Jon Lester (W,13-4) | - | - | - | - | 6.2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 | ||
| 5.0 | LAD 7, PHI 2 | Adrian Gonzalez, 1B | 4 | 2 | 2 | 5 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| BAT | 5.0 | BOS 8, BAL 1 (6) | Jackie Bradley Jr., CF | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 4.1 | `KC 4, DET 1 | Yordano Ventura | - | - | - | - | 6.1 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 | ||
| 4.0 | TOR 7, NYY 4 | Melvin Upton Jr., CF | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | COL 12, WSH 10 | Gerardo Parra, RF | 5 | 2 | 2 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | PIT 6, SF 5 | Matt Joyce, PH | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | TEX 6, OAK 2 | Yu Darvish (W,4-3) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 9 | ||
| 2.1 | SEA 4, LAA 3 | Drew Storen (W,3-3) | - | - | - | - | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 2.0 | MIN 10, ATL 3 | Trevor Plouffe, 3B | 5 | 1 | 3 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | CHW 10, CLE 7 | Adam Eaton, RF | 5 | 1 | 2 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | CIN 3, MIA 2 | Josh Smith (W,2-1) | - | - | - | - | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | ||
| `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 of Game | Pos | Team | 16 | 15-16 | 11-16 | Career | +/- |
| Lester, Jon 2173 | pi sp | chi nl | 14.4 | 26.4 | 72.6 | 135.5 | 2.4 |
| Archer, Chris 3194 | pi sp | tb al | 8.0 | 24.0 | 48.1 | 48.1 | -8.0 |
| Martinez, Carlos 3371 | pi sp | stl nl | 6.7 | 20.4 | 21.4 | 21.4 | -7.0 |
| Tomas, Yasmany 3489 | rf lf | ari nl | 6.2 | 9.7 | 9.7 | 9.7 | 2.7 |
| Ventura, Yordano 3294 | pi sp | kc al | 6.0 | 17.7 | 27.4 | 27.4 | -5.7 |
| Darvish, Yu 3003 | pi sp | tex al | 4.7 | 4.7 | 49.9 | 49.9 | 4.7 |
| Plouffe, Trevor 2869 | 3b | min al | 4.5 | 7.5 | 23.5 | 23.5 | 1.5 |
| Bradley, Jackie Jr. 3293 | cf | bos al | 4.0 | 13.5 | 14.5 | 14.5 | -5.5 |
| Gonzalez, Adrian 2193 | 1b | lad nl | 4.0 | 8.0 | 34.7 | 70.6 | 0.0 |
| Joyce, Matt 2480 | rf dh ph | pit nl | 4.0 | 4.0 | 20.2 | 29.7 | 4.0 |
| Eaton, Adam 3253 | rf cf | chi al | 3.0 | 8.5 | 11.0 | 11.0 | -2.5 |
| Parra, Gerardo 2746 | rf | col nl | 2.5 | 9.0 | 20.0 | 21.0 | -4.0 |
| Upton, Melvin 1922 | lf cf | tor al | 2.5 | 2.5 | 15.5 | 37.2 | 2.5 |
| Smith, Josh 3674 | pi mr | cin nl | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| Storen, Drew 2750 | pi mr | sea al | 1.0 | 3.0 | 11.0 | 13.0 | -1.0 |