(This post was edited Wednesday, November 21, 2018, to correct an error in the Box-Toppers point total of Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom . During the 2018 season, an extra, unearned point was added to his total. There is more information about this at the bottom of the post.)
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2018 season through the games of Aug. 8:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 20.1 |
| 2 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 17.1 |
| 3 | Severino, Luis 3567 | pi sp | nyy al | 16.7 |
| 4 | Berrios, Jose 3791 | pi sp | min al | 16.1 |
| 5 | Paxton, James 3280 | pi sp | sea al | 16.0 |
| 6 | Verlander, Justin 2112 | pi sp | hou al | 15.4 |
| 7 | Nola, Aaron 3569 | pi sp | phi nl | 14.4 |
| 8 | Corbin, Patrick 3027 | pi sp | ari nl | 14.0 |
| 9 | Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | hou al | 14.0 |
| 10 | Morton, Charlie 2503 | pi sp | hou al | 13.8 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
Diamondbacks pitcher Patrick Corbin is Wednesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and rises to eighth place in season player rankings.
Corbin struck out nine over 7 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing four hits and no walks, in the 6-0 win over the Phillies.
Corbin earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 14.0 for the season, third among National League pitchers.
American League Player of the Day—Athletics pitcher Mike Fiers struck out eight over 5 1/3 innings, allowing one run, four hits and no walks, in the 3-2 win over the Dodgers. Fiers did not earn the win, picking up a no-decision, because the Dodgers tied the game, 2-2, after he exited.
American League Batter of the Day—Joey Gallo of the Rangers homered twice and went 3-for-5, scoring twice and driving in four runs, in the 11-7 win over the Mariners.
National League Batter of the Day—Tyler Flowers of the Braves homered and went 3-for-4, scoring twice and driving in two runs, in the 8-3 win over the Nationals.
Notable—Yankees pitcher Luis Severino, who ranks third in Box-Toppers season player rankings with 16.7 Box-Toppers points, did not earn Player of the Game honors Wednesday despite earning the win.
Severino (7IP 7H 3H 0BB 8K W in the 7-3 win over the White Sox) had a Box-Toppers game score of +2.0, narrowly losing Player of the Game honors to teammate Giancarlo Stanton (GS 1-4 R 4BI). While Stanton also had a Box-Toppers game score of +2.0, he held the edge to earn Player of the Game honors because in cases of game score ties, batters rank ahead of pitchers.
Stanton now has 5.0 Box-Toppers points for the season, 17th among AL batters. In 2017, he had 14.2 points with the Marlins, second among NL batters.
Debut—Two players made their Box-Toppers debut Wednesday, each earning their first career Player of the Game honors:
Royals pitcher Heath Fillmyer (7IP 3H 0R 2BB 3K W in the 9-0 win over the Cubs) made his Major League debut June 24 and was playing in his ninth career game.
Rafael Devers of the Red Sox (HR 2B 2-4 2R 2BI in the 10-5 win over the Blue Jays) made his Major League debut July 25, 2017, and was playing in his 155th career game.
Scoring—Corbin earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Fiers earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Gallo and Flowers 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.
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.
NOTE ABOUT JACOB DEGROM: After this post was published, Box-Toppers discovered an error: Jacob deGrom was credited with 1.0 more Box-Toppers point than he actually earned in 2018. This post has been changed to include deGrom’s actual Box-Toppers point total and player ranking position at the time of this post. Subtracting a point from deGrom’s season total meant he had 16.8 Box-Toppers points, rather than 17.8. Despite the change, he still finished third among National League pitchers. However, the change moves him from ninth place to 12th place in overall season player rankings, moving him out of the top 10 and keeping Yankees pitcher Luis Severino (17.7 points) in the top 10 for the season, in 10th place.
This is made all the more odd and awkward because the error was discovered while compiling the post about deGrom winning the NL Cy Young Award on Wednesday, Nov. 14. deGrom was the near-unanimous choice for the award, but even with his higher, incorrect Box-Toppers point total (17.8), Box-Toppers had him ranked third among NL pitchers, needing nearly 50 percent more points to catch the NL pitching leader, Max Scherzer of the Nationals (25.1).
My post was about how Scherzer was more deserving of the award than the widely acclaimed deGrom because Scherzer actually helped his team win more games. Despite deGrom’s great performances, the Mets lost most of the games he pitched. Since winning is the name of the game and since Box-Toppers points are only awarded in wins, deGrom’s point total was far lower—but it was still remarkable, given all the losses, that he reached as high as third place among NL pitchers. While writing about how deGrom wasn’t as deserving of the award, I found the error (the extra point), and correcting the record (subtracting the point), I found he was even more undeserving.
Top player from each game
Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score (BTG)| 8/8 | BTG | Game | Player | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | +12.1 | ARI 6, PHI 0 | Patrick Corbin (W, 9‑4) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 7.1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | |
| +11.0 | NYM 8, CIN 0 | Jacob deGrom (W, 6‑7) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 6.0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 10 | ||
| AL | +7.1 | `OAK 3, LAD 2 | Mike Fiers | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 5.1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 8 | |
| +5.0 | KC 9, CHC 0 | Heath Fillmyer (W, 1‑1) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 7.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | ||
| +5.0 | STL 7, MIA 1 | John Gant (W, 4‑4) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 6.0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||
| +4.2 | LAA 6, DET 0 | Jaime Barria (W, 7‑7) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 5.2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | ||
| BAT | +4.0 | TEX 11, SEA 7 | Joey Gallo RF | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | |
| +4.0 | `CLE 5, MIN 2 | Mike Clevinger | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 7.0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | ||
| BAT | +3.0 | ATL 8, WSH 3 | Tyler Flowers C | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | |
| +2.0 | MIL 8, SD 4 | Jesus Aguilar 1B | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +2.0 | BOS 10, TOR 5 | Rafael Devers 3B | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +2.0 | NYY 7, CHW 3 | Giancarlo Stanton DH | 4 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +1.1 | PIT 4, COL 3 | Felipe Vazquez (S, 26) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| +1.0 | BAL 5, TB 4 | Joey Rickard PR‑RF | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ |
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 Player of the Game winners. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total for the current season (’18). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (’17-18), the period 2013-2018 (’13-18) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2018 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2017 total (+/-).| Player of the Game | Pos | Team | ’18 | ’17‑18 | ’13‑18 | Career | +/‑ |
| Corbin, Patrick 3027 | pi sp | ari nl | 14.0 | 23.7 | 50.2 | 56.2 | +4.3 |
| deGrom, Jacob 3343 | pi sp | nym nl | 9.4 | 25.1 | 70.2 | 70.2 | -6.3 |
| Clevinger, Mike 3707 | pi sp | cle al | 7.0 | 18.4 | 21.4 | 21.4 | -4.4 |
| Vazquez, Felipe 3579 | pi cp | pit nl | 6.0 | 10.0 | 11.0 | 11.0 | +2.0 |
| Fiers, Michael 3029 | pi sp | oak al | 5.7 | 12.1 | 30.5 | 38.2 | -0.7 |
| Aguilar, Jesus 3787 | 1b | mil nl | 5.5 | 10.5 | 10.5 | 10.5 | +0.5 |
| Stanton, Giancarlo 2737 | rf lf dh | nyy al | 5.0 | 19.2 | 42.9 | 58.4 | -9.2 |
| Gant, John 3660 | pi sp cp mr | stl nl | 4.0 | 4.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | +4.0 |
| Flowers, Tyler 3101 | ca | atl nl | 3.2 | 6.7 | 15.7 | 17.7 | -0.3 |
| Barria, Jaime 3964 | pi sp | ana al | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | +3.0 |
| Gallo, Joey 3485 | 1b rf 3b | tex al | 2.5 | 9.0 | 10.5 | 10.5 | -4.0 |
| Rickard, Joey 4034 | rf cf pr | bal al | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | +2.0 |
| Devers, Rafael 4038 | 3b | bos al | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | +1.0 |
| Fillmyer, Heath 4037 | pi sp | kc al | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | +1.0 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
Box-Toppers
Tracking who most helps their teams win the most games, based on box score stats. A method to measure & compare baseball's top players.
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. Players earn Box-Toppers points 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.