Red Sox pitcher Doug Fister is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2017 season as of Aug. 22:| 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 | Severino, Luis 3567 | pi sp | nyy nl | 14.1 |
| 7 | Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 14.0 |
| 8 | Wood, Alex 3246 | pi sp | lad nl | 14.0 |
| 9 | Paxton, James 3280 | pi sp | sea al | 13.7 |
| 10 | Carrasco, Carlos 2885 | pi sp | cle al | 13.4 |
Also Tuesday, Albert Pujols of the Angels passes Alex Rodriguez to take the lead in career Box-Toppers points among all batters (since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began). Plus, Anthony Rizzo of the Cubs extends his season Box-Toppers points lead among National League batters after earning Player of the Game honors.
Player of the Day—Fister pitched a complete-game one-hitter, allowing one run, two walks and striking out six in the 9-1 win over the Indians. Fister gave up a home run to the first batter of the game in the first inning and then no-hit the Indians for the remainder of the game.
National League Player of the Day—Diamondbacks pitcher Patrick Corbin gave up one run over eight innings, allowing four hits, two walks and striking out six, in the 7-4 win over the Mets.
National League Batter of the Day—Yangervis Solarte of the Padres homered, doubled and went 3-for-5, driving in six runs, in the 12-4 win over the Cardinals.
American League Batter of the Day—Gary Sanchez of the Yankees hit two homers and went 3-for-6, driving in four runs, in the 13-4 win over the Tigers.
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 | Albert Pujols | 1b dh | ana al | 187.8 |
| 7 | Alex Rodriguez | dh | released | 187.0 |
| 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 |
List of top 100 players since 1995 as of July 30, 2017.
Pujols—Albert Pujols of the Angels rises to become the “all-time” career leader in Box-Toppers points among batters after earning Player of the Game honors Tuesday.
Pujols (HR 2B 2-5 R 4BI in the 10-1 win over the Rangers) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 187.8 for his career, which is now the most among batters since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. He passes Alex Rodriguez (187.0), who had led batters in career points since 2011.
Pujols rises to sixth place in career points among all players, trailing fifth-ranked player, Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia (191.0). Pujols ranks third among active players in points, behind Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw (205.8) and Sabathia. Pujols has led active batters in career points since Rodriguez was released by the Yankees in August 2016.
Pujols has 5.5 Box-Toppers points on the season (20th among AL batters), which would be his second-lowest single-season career total in the 17 straight seasons he’s earned Box-Toppers points (he had 4.0 in 2013 with the Angels). Pujols had 8.0 points in 2016.
Rankings—Anthony Rizzo of the Cubs bolsters his season Box-Toppers points lead among NL batters after earning Player of the Game honors Tuesday.
Rizzo (2B 2-3 3R BI in the 13-9 win over the Reds) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 11.5 for the season, most among the 16 who earned Player of the Game honors Tuesday. Rizzo now leads second-place NL batter Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers (8.7) by 2.8 points. Rizzo ranks 14th among all players and passes Edwin Encarnacion of the Indians (11.1) for most points among all batters in 2017.
Rizzo’s 11.5 points in 2017 also guarantees that NL batters will not break the record for lowest Box-Toppers points total to win a season category for the fourth straight year. In 2016, Nolan Arenado of the Rockies led NL batters with 10.7 points, which was the lowest total to lead any category since 1995. It was the third straight year an NL batter (and specifically, a batter from the Colorado Rockies) had set the dubious record. In 2014, Troy Tulowitzki led NL batters with 11.6 points, then the all-time low for a category leader. In 2015, Carlos Gonzalez broke that record, leading NL batters with 11.5 points and in 2016, Arenado led NL batters with the even-lower total of 10.7. (A look at the 10 lowest Box-Toppers point totals to lead a category.)
Top 10 watch—Indians pitcher Carlos Carrasco (13.4 Box-Toppers points, ranked 10th) started Tuesday but did not earn Player of the Game honors.
Carrasco (6.2IP 8H 6R BB 6K L in the 9-1 loss to the Red Sox) had a Box-Toppers game score of -8.8. Player of the Game was overall Player of the Day, Red Sox pitcher Doug Fister, who had a Box-Toppers game score of +10.0.
Debut—Braves pitcher Lucas Sims made his Box-Toppers debut Tuesday with his first career Player of the Game honor.
Sims (6IP 3H 0R 2BB 4K W in the 4-0 win over the Mariners) made his Major League debut Aug. 1 and was playing in his fifth career game. He is the 3,892nd player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
Scoring—Fister earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Corbin earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Solarte and Sanchez each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s 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| 8/22 | Score | Game | Player of the Game | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 10.0 | BOS 9, CLE 1 | Doug Fister (W, 3-6) | - | - | - | - | 9.0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | |
| 7.0 | TB 6, TOR 5 | Chris Archer (W, 9-7) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 10 | ||
| NL | 6.0 | ARI 7, NYM 4 | Patrick Corbin (W, 11-11) | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | |
| 6.0 | MIA 12, PHI 8 | Dan Straily (W, 8-8) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 10 | ||
| BAT | 5.0 | SD 12, STL 4 | Yangervis Solarte 3B | 5 | 1 | 3 | 6 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 5.0 | MIN 4, CHW 1 | Kyle Gibson (W, 7-10) | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | ||
| 5.0 | KC 3, COL 2 | Danny Duffy (W, 8-8) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 | ||
| 5.0 | ATL 4, SEA 0 | Lucas Sims (W, 2-3) | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | ||
| 4.1 | `MIL 4, SF 3 | Josh Hader (H, 4) | - | - | - | - | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 4.0 | LAD 8, PIT 5 | Kenley Jansen (S, 34) | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| BAT | 3.0 | NYY 13, DET 4 | Gary Sánchez C | 6 | 2 | 3 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 3.0 | OAK 6, BAL 4 | Ryon Healy DH | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | CHC 13, CIN 9 | Anthony Rizzo 1B-3B | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | LAA 10, TEX 1 | Albert Pujols DH | 5 | 1 | 2 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | MIA 7, PHI 4 | Christian Yelich CF | 5 | 2 | 1 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | WSH 4, HOU 3 | Matt Wieters C | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
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 | +/- |
| Rizzo, Anthony 3063 | 1b | chi nl | 11.5 | 14.5 | 38.5 | 38.5 | 8.5 |
| Straily, Dan 3080 | pi sp | fla nl | 9.7 | 16.7 | 27.4 | 27.4 | 2.7 |
| Healy, Ryon 3685 | dh 1b | oak al | 9.7 | 12.7 | 12.7 | 12.7 | 6.7 |
| Corbin, Patrick 3027 | pi sp | ari nl | 6.7 | 10.4 | 39.2 | 39.2 | 3.0 |
| Archer, Chris 3194 | pi sp | tb al | 6.0 | 15.0 | 55.1 | 55.1 | -3.0 |
| Jansen, Kenley 2871 | pi cp | lad nl | 6.0 | 12.0 | 37.7 | 42.4 | 0.0 |
| Pujols, Albert 1438 | dh | ana al | 5.5 | 13.5 | 38.0 | 187.8 | -2.5 |
| Duffy, Danny 2915 | pi sp | kc al | 4.0 | 14.7 | 32.7 | 33.7 | -6.7 |
| Yelich, Christian 3334 | cf | fla nl | 3.5 | 9.0 | 19.0 | 19.0 | -2.0 |
| Fister, Doug 2688 | pi sp | bos al | 3.0 | 7.0 | 44.1 | 58.2 | -1.0 |
| Solarte, Yangervis 3304 | 3b | sd nl | 3.0 | 6.0 | 12.0 | 12.0 | 0.0 |
| Sanchez, Gary 3701 | ca | nyy al | 2.5 | 7.0 | 7.0 | 7.0 | -2.0 |
| Wieters, Matt 2643 | ca | dc nl | 2.0 | 13.0 | 25.0 | 37.7 | -9.0 |
| Hader, Josh 3881 | pi mr | mil nl | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| Gibson, Kyle 3312 | pi sp | min al | 1.0 | 4.0 | 18.0 | 18.0 | -2.0 |
| Sims, Lucas 3892 | pi sp | atl nl | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |