Padres pitcher Clayton Richard is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Tuesday, Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia resumed the lead among active players in career Box-Toppers points only one day after losing that lead to Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw.
All-time leaders
Here are Box-Toppers top 20 players since record keeping began in 1995:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Randy Johnson | pi sp | retired | 278.8 |
| 2 | Pedro Martinez | pi sp | retired | 244.8 |
| 3 | Curt Schilling | pi sp | retired | 194.1 |
| 4 | Alex Rodriguez | dh | released | 187.0 |
| 5 | CC Sabathia | pi sp | nyy al | 186.0 |
| 6 | Clayton Kershaw | pi sp | lad nl | 185.7 |
| 7 | Albert Pujols | 1b dh | ana al | 182.3 |
| 8 | Roy Halladay | pi sp | retired | 170.7 |
| 9 | Felix Hernandez | pi sp | sea al | 168.7 |
| 10 | Manny Ramirez | lf dh | retired | 167.2 |
| 11 | Johan Santana | pi sp | free agent | 166.6 |
| 12 | Roger Clemens | pi sp | retired | 164.8 |
| 13 | John Smoltz | pi sp | retired | 160.9 |
| 14 | Tim Hudson | pi sp | retired | 157.0 |
| 15 | Zack Greinke | pi sp | ari nl | 156.1 |
| 16 | Mike Mussina | pi sp | retired | 155.6 |
| 17 | Barry Bonds | lf | retired | 153.2 |
| 18 | Greg Maddux | pi sp | retired | 151.7 |
| 19 | Chipper Jones | 3b | retired | 149.0 |
| 20 | Bartolo Colon | pi sp | atl nl | 148.5 |
List of top 100 players since 1995 at the close of the 2016 season.
Sabathia earned Player of the Game honors in the win over the Rays, earning 1.0 Box-Toppers point and giving him 186.0 for his career. On Monday, Kershaw passed him by earning overall Player of the Day honors, giving him 185.7 career points. With Tuesday’s point, Sabathia resumes his spot in fifth place in Box-Toppers points among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began.
In addition, Sabathia has now earned Box-Toppers points for 17 straight seasons, tied for the seventh-longest streak in Box-Toppers tracking history and currently the second-longeststreak among active players (behind only Carlos Beltran’s 18-season streak).
Player of the Day—Richard pitched eight scoreless innings, allowing five hits and striking out five, in the 4-0 win over the Dodgers.
Richard now ranks third among all players in season Box-Toppers points with 2.0.
American League Player of the Day—Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander struck out 10 over 6 1/3 innings, allowing two runs and six hits, in the 6-3 win over the White Sox.
Verlander has now earned Box-Toppers points for 11 straight seasons and has 141.0 career Box-Toppers points, 28th among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. He trails 27th-ranked player Jake Peavy (141.8). Verlander ranks 10th among active players in career Box-Toppers points.
Verlander, who has played his entire career with the Tigers, earned his first Box-Toppers points in 2006. His best seasons were 2011 (24.4 points) and 2012 (24.8), when he led all AL pitchers.
National League Batter of the Day—Gorkys Hernandez of the Giants doubled and went 2-for-5, scoring once and driving in four runs, in the 8-4 win over the Diamondbacks.
This was Hernandez’s Box-Toppers debut, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors. He made his Major League debut May 21, 2012, and was playing in his 105th career game. He is the 3,758th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
American League Batter of the Day—There is no AL Batter of the Day for Tuesday because no AL batter earned Player of the Game honors.
Notable—Sabathia, one day after losing the lead, regained the lead among active players in career Box-Toppers points after earning Player of the Game honors Tuesday.
Sabathia (5IP 3H 0R 2BB 2K W in the 5-0 win over the Rays) earned 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being Player of the Game, giving him 186.0 for his career. That puts him ahead of Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw (185.7), who only passed Sabathia on Monday. Sabathia again ranks fifth among all players in Box-Toppers points since 1995, when tracking began. He now trails fourth-ranked player Alex Rodriguez (187.0) by only 1.0 Box-Toppers point.
Sabathia also has now earned Box-Toppers points for 17 straight seasons, tied for the seventh-longest streak in Box-Toppers history with six others who had 17-year streaks—Mariano Rivera (1995-2011), Derek Jeter (1996-2012), Paul Konerko (1998-2014), Tim Hudson (1999-2015), Torii Hunter (1999-2015) and David Ortiz (2000-2016). Sabathia’s streak is the second-longest streak among active players, behind only Carlos Beltran, who has earned Box-Toppers points for 18 straight seasons from 1999-2016 and could extend it to 19 seasons if he earns Box-Toppers points in 2017.
Sabathia earned his first Box-Toppers points in 2001 with the Indians. His best season was 2008 with the Indians and Brewers when he had 26.7 Box-Toppers points, ending the season ranked first among NL pitchers. In 2014, he barely kept the streak alive earning only 1.0 Box-Toppers point as a Yankee.
Scoring—Richard earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Verlander earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Hernandez earns 1.5 points for being NL 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.
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Top player from each game
Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score
| 4/4 | Score | Game | Player | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 6.0 | SD 4, LAD 0 | Clayton Richard (W,1-0) | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | |
| 5.0 | CHC 2, STL 1 | Jake Arrieta (W,1-0) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 6 | ||
| AL | 4.1 | DET 6, CHW 3 | Justin Verlander (W,1-0) | - | - | - | - | 6.1 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 10 | |
| 4.0 | HOU 2, SEA 1 | Lance McCullers Jr. (W,1-0) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 7 | ||
| 3.2 | CLE 4, TEX 3 | Carlos Carrasco (W,1-0) | - | - | - | - | 5.2 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 7 | ||
| 3.0 | COL 6, MIL 5 | Greg Holland (S,2) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| BAT | 2.0 | SF 8, ARI 4 | Gorkys Hernandez, CF | 5 | 1 | 2 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 2.0 | NYY 5, TB 0 | CC Sabathia (W,1-0) | - | - | - | - | 5.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | ||
| 2.0 | LAA 7, OAK 6 | Cam Bedrosian (S,1) | - | - | - | - | 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 (’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 | +/- |
| Richard, Clayton 2584 | pi sp | sd nl | 2.0 | 4.0 | 12.2 | 31.6 | 0.0 |
| Verlander, Justin 2112 | pi sp | det al | 1.7 | 16.4 | 61.6 | 141.0 | -13.0 |
| Hernandez, Goryks 3758 | cf | sf nl | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| Arrieta, Jake 2738 | pi sp | chi nl | 1.0 | 16.7 | 71.5 | 76.5 | -14.7 |
| Carrasco, Carlos 2885 | pi sp | cle al | 1.0 | 13.4 | 42.1 | 47.5 | -11.4 |
| McCullers, Lance 3488 | pi sp | hou al | 1.0 | 7.1 | 13.8 | 13.8 | -5.1 |
| Sabathia, C.C. 1492 | pi sp | nyy al | 1.0 | 7.0 | 33.5 | 186.0 | -5.0 |
| Bedrosian, Cam 3694 | pi cp | ana al | 1.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | -2.0 |
| Holland, Greg 2906 | pi cp | col nl | 1.0 | 1.0 | 31.0 | 34.0 | 1.0 |