Dbacks' Zack Greinke tops players for Monday, Aug. 14, rises to 4th in Box-Toppers player rankings

Diamondbacks pitcher Zack Greinke is Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and rises to fourth place in season player rankings.

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2017 season as of Aug. 14:  


Player Pos Team BTP
1 Kershaw, Clayton 2494 pi sp lad nl 22.1
2 Scherzer, Max 2588 pi sp dc nl 22.0
3 Sale, Chris 2806 pi sp bos al 21.1
4 Greinke, Zack 1871 pi sp ari nl 15.4
5 Santana, Ervin 2005 pi sp min al 14.4
6 Kluber, Corey 3200 pi sp cle al 14.0
7 Paxton, James 3280 pi sp sea al 13.7
8 Carrasco, Carlos 2885 pi sp cle al 13.4
9 Wood, Alex 3246 pi sp lad nl 13.0
10 deGrom, Jacob 3343 pi sp nym nl 12.7
What are those numbers after players' names?

Also Monday, Edwin Encarnacion of the Indians becomes the 18th player—and first batter—to reach 10 or more Box-Toppers points, as he widens his Box-Toppers-point lead among American League batters. Plus, Anthony Rizzo of the Cubs rises to lead National League batters in Box-Toppers points after earning National League Batter of the Day honors Monday.

Player of the Day—Greinke struck out nine over 6 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing five hits and two walks, in the 2-0 win over the Astros.

Greinke earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 15.4 for the season, rising from eighth to fourth place in season player rankings, third among NL pitchers, behind Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers (22.1) and Max Scherzer of the Nationals (22.0).

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 Clayton Kershaw pi sp lad nl 205.8
4 Curt Schilling pi sp retired 194.1
5 CC Sabathia pi sp nyy al 191.0
6 Alex Rodriguez dh released 187.0
7 Albert Pujols 1b dh ana al 186.8
8 Zack Greinke pi sp ari nl 171.5
9 Felix Hernandez pi sp sea al 171.4
10 Roy Halladay pi sp retired 170.7
11 Manny Ramirez lf dh retired 167.2
12 Johan Santana pi sp free agent 166.6
13 Roger Clemens pi sp retired 164.8
14 John Smoltz pi sp retired 160.9
15 Tim Hudson pi sp retired 157.0
16 Mike Mussina pi sp retired 155.6
17 Max Scherzer pi sp dc nl 153.7
18 Barry Bonds lf retired 153.2
19 Bartolo Colon pi sp min al 152.2
20 Jon Lester pi sp chi nl 151.9
BTP: Box-Toppers points
List of top 100 players since 1995 as of July 30, 2017.

Greinke also rises to eighth place in career Box-Toppers points since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. Greinke now has 171.5 career points and passes two players on the “all-time” list—Roy Halladay (170.7) and Mariners pitcher Felix Hernandez (171.4). Greinke now trails seventh-ranked player Albert Pujols of the Angels (186.8). Passing Hernandez, Greinke now ranks fourth in career points among active players and third among active pitchers, behind Kershaw (205.8) and CC Sabathia of the Yankees (191.0).

American League Player of the Day—Edwin Encarnacion of the Indians hit two homers and went 2-for-4, driving in four runs, in the 7-3 win over the Red Sox.

Encarnacion earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being AL Player of the Day, giving him 11.1 Box-Toppers points for the season, ranking 14th among all players and extending his lead among AL batters, ahead of second-place player Aaron Judge of the Yankees (9.2).

Encarnacion becomes the 18th player (and first batter) this season to reach 10 or more Box-Toppers points. It is also the highest single-season total of his career; his previous high was 10.4 in 2015 with the Blue Jays.

National League Batter of the Day—Anthony Rizzo of the Cubs homered and went 3-for-5, driving in five runs, in the 15-5 win over the Reds.

Rizzo earns 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being NL Batter of the Day, giving him 9.5 for the season and rising to lead NL batters in player rankings. He passes previous NL batting leader, Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers (8.7), who only took the lead Saturday.

Rizzo ranks 19th among all players in Box-Toppers points. His 9.5 points is a career single-season high; his previous high was 8.5 in 2015 with the Cubs.

American League Batter of the Day—There is no separate AL Batter of the Day for Monday because the overall AL Player of the Day is batter Edwin Encarnacion.

Debut—Cam Gallagher of the Royals made his Box-Toppers debut Monday with his first career Player of the Game honor.

Gallagher (GS 2B 2-3 R 4BI in the 6-2 win over the Athletics) made his Major League debut Aug. 6 and was playing in his fourth career game. He is the 3,884th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.

Scoring—Greinke earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Encarnacion earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Rizzo earns 1.5 points for being NL Batter of the Day. All of Monday’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.

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 

8/14 Score Game Player of the Game AB R H BI IP H R ER BB K
MLB 8.2 ARI 2, HOU 0 Zack Greinke (W, 14-5) - - - - 6.2 5 0 0 2 9
BAT 4.0 CHC 15, CIN 5 Anthony Rizzo 1B 5 1 3 5 - - - - - -
AL 4.0 CLE 7, BOS 3 Edwin Encarnación DH 4 2 2 4 - - - - - -
4.0 SD 7, PHI 4 Cory Spangenberg 3B 3 3 3 1 - - - - - -
4.0 KC 6, OAK 2 Cam Gallagher C 3 1 2 4 - - - - - -
3.2 `TOR 2, TB 1 Aaron Loup (H, 4) - - - - 1.2 0 0 0 1 3
3.0 NYY 4, NYM 2 David Robertson (W, 6-2) - - - - 1.0 0 0 0 1 3
3.0 `COL 3, ATL 0 Chad Bettis - - - - 7.0 6 0 0 0 2
2.0 BAL 11, SEA 3 Chris Davis 1B 5 2 3 2 - - - - - -
2.0 TEX 6, DET 2 Rougned Odor 2B 4 3 3 0 - - - - - -
2.0 MIA 8, SF 3 Giancarlo Stanton RF 4 1 2 3 - - - - - -
MLB—Overall Box-Toppers Player of the Day, worth 2.0 total Box-Toppers points.
AL—Overall American League Player of the Day, worth 1.7 total Box-Toppers points.
NL—Overall National League Player of the Day, worth 1.7 total Box-Toppers points.
BAT—Top AL or NL Batter of the Day, worth 1.5 total Box-Toppers points.
All other players listed here earn Player of the Game honors, worth 1.0 Box-Toppers point.
` 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 the Game Pos Team ’17 ’16-17 ’12-17 Career +/-
Greinke, Zack 1871 pi sp ari nl 15.4 25.1 94.4 171.5 5.7
Encarnacion, Edwin 2098 dh cle al 11.1 19.1 54.2 78.2 3.1
Rizzo, Anthony 3063 1b chi nl 9.5 12.5 36.5 36.5 6.5
Stanton, Giancarlo 2737 rf fla nl 7.0 13.5 37.7 46.2 0.5
Robertson, David 2774 pi cp nyy al 5.0 10.0 27.0 31.0 0.0
Odor, Rougned 3336 2b tex al 4.7 11.2 15.7 15.7 -1.8
Davis, Chris 2478 1b bal al 2.5 10.0 51.9 60.4 -5.0
Spangenberg, Cory 3487 2b 3b sd nl 2.0 2.0 4.0 4.0 2.0
Loup, Aaron 3146 pi mr tb al 2.0 2.0 9.0 9.0 2.0
Bettis, Chad 3481 pi sp col nl 1.0 7.7 13.1 13.1 -5.7
Gallagher, Cam 3884 ca kc al 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0
What are those numbers after players' names?