Reds pitcher Luis Castillo is Saturday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Top 10 players
Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2018 season through the games of Sept. 1:| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 21.1 |
| 2 | Snell, Blake 3688 | pi sp | tb al | 19.8 |
| 3 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | bos al | 19.1 |
| 4 | Nola, Aaron 3569 | pi sp | phi nl | 19.1 |
| 5 | Severino, Luis 3567 | pi sp | nyy al | 17.7 |
| 6 | Kluber, Corey 3200 | pi sp | cle al | 16.7 |
| 7 | Carrasco, Carlos 2885 | pi sp | cle al | 16.4 |
| 8 | Berrios, Jose 3791 | pi sp | min al | 16.1 |
| 9 | Paxton, James 3280 | pi sp | sea al | 16.0 |
| 10 | Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | hou al | 16.0 |
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
Also Saturday, Rays pitcher Blake Snell rises to lead American League players in Box-Toppers points—rising to second place overall—after earning Player of the Game honors.
Player of the Day—Castillo struck out 11 over 6 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing two hits and two walks, in the 4-0 win over the Cardinals.
Castillo earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 7.0 for the season, 35th among National League pitchers.
American League Player of the Day—Red Sox pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez struck out 12 over 5 2/3 innings, allowing one run, three hits and one walk, in the 6-1 win over the White Sox.
Rodriguez earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being AL Player of the Day, giving him 11.4 for the season, becoming the 32nd player this season with 10 or more Box-Toppers points.
American League Batter of the Day—Ronald Guzman of the Rangers hit a three-run homer and went 1-for-2, in the 7-4 win over the Twins.
National League Batter of the Day—Juan Soto of the Nationals doubled and went 3-for-4, scoring once and driving in two runs, in the 5-4 win over the Brewers.
Rankings—Rays pitcher Blake Snell rises to lead AL players in Box-Toppers points, rising to second place overall, after earning Player of the Game honors Saturday.
Snell (6.2IP 8H 2R ER BB 9K W in the 5-3 win over the Indians) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 19.8 for the season. He passes previous AL pitching leader, Chris Sale of the Red Sox (19.1), and is only 1.3 points behind overall leader Max Scherzer of the Nationals (21.1).
Notable—Two pitchers among the top three players whose Box-Toppers point total has declined most since 2017 started Saturday and their teams both won.
Neither of them—Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg nor Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw—earned Player of the Game honors but both had positive Box-Toppers game scores.
Strasburg had a Box-Toppers game score of +2.0 (6IP 5H 2R 2BB 7K ND in the 5-4 win over the Brewers) but Player of the Game honors went to Juan Soto (2B 3-4 R 2BI), who also had a game score of +2.0, but ranked ahead of Strasburg because in cases of game score ties, batters hold the advantage.
Strasburg ranks first among players whose Box-Toppers point total has declined most since 2017. In 2017, he had 22.5 Box-Toppers points, fourth among all players. In 2018, he has 4.7 points, meaning he has declined 17.8 points. He has not earned Player of the Game honors since May 27.
Kershaw had a Box-Toppers game score of +2.0 (6IP 5H 2R 2BB 7K ND in the 3-2 win over the Diamondbacks) but Player of the Game honors went to Kenta Maeda in a rare middle-relief appearance (1IP 0H 0R 0BB 2K W), who had a game score of +3.0.
Kershaw ranks third among players whose Box-Toppers point total has declined most since. 2017, falling 16.1 points. In 2017, he had 23.1 points, third among all players. In 2018, he has 7.0 points.
Debut—Astros pitcher Josh James made his Box-Toppers debut Saturday with his first career Player of the Game honor.
James (5IP 3H 3R 3BB 9K ND in the 7-3 win over the Angels) was also making his Major League debut.
Scoring—Castillo earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Rodriguez earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Guzman and Soto each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Saturday’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 (BTG)| 9/1 | BTG | Game | Player | AB | R | H | BI | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | +13.2 | CIN 4, STL 0 | Luis Castillo (W, 8‑11) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 6.2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 11 | |
| +12.0 | `NYM 2, SF 1 (F/11) | Steven Matz | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 7.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 11 | ||
| AL | +11.2 | BOS 6, CHW 1 | Eduardo Rodriguez (W, 12‑3) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 5.2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 | |
| +10.0 | MIA 6, TOR 3 | Wei‑Yin Chen (W, 6‑9) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 8.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7 | ||
| +3.2 | TB 5, CLE 3 | Blake Snell (W, 17‑5) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 6.2 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 9 | ||
| +3.1 | SEA 8, OAK 7 | Edwin Diaz (S, 51) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 1.1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | ||
| BAT | +3.0 | TEX 7, MIN 4 | Ronald Guzman 1B | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | |
| +3.0 | NYY 2, DET 1 | Masahiro Tanaka (W, 10‑5) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 7.0 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | ||
| +3.0 | LAD 3, ARI 2 | Kenta Maeda (W, 8‑8) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| +3.0 | COL 4, SD 2 | Adam Ottavino (H, 29) | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| BAT | +2.0 | WSH 5, MIL 4 | Juan Soto LF | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | |
| +2.0 | ATL 5, PIT 3 | Dansby Swanson SS | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +2.0 | KC 5, BAL 4 | Brett Phillips RF | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +2.0 | CHC 7, PHI 1 | David Bote PH | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ||
| +2.0 | `HOU 7, LAA 3 | Josh James | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | ‑ | 5.0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 9 |
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 | +/‑ |
| Snell, Blake 3688 | pi sp | tb al | 19.8 | 24.8 | 28.8 | 28.8 | +13.8 |
| Rodriguez, Eduardo 3480 | pi sp | bos al | 11.4 | 21.1 | 30.8 | 30.8 | +2.7 |
| Tanaka, Masahiro 3305 | pi sp | nyy al | 9.7 | 21.1 | 55.9 | 55.9 | -1.7 |
| Maeda, Kenta 3609 | pi sp | lad nl | 9.7 | 19.7 | 29.7 | 29.7 | -0.3 |
| Diaz, Edwin 3690 | pi cp | sea al | 8.0 | 17.0 | 24.0 | 24.0 | -1.0 |
| Castillo, Luis Miguel 3840 | pi sp | cin nl | 7.0 | 15.4 | 15.4 | 15.4 | -1.4 |
| Guzman, Ronald 3978 | 1b | tex al | 5.5 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 5.5 | +5.5 |
| Soto, Juan 3994 | lf | dc nl | 4.5 | 4.5 | 4.5 | 4.5 | +4.5 |
| Matz, Steven 3516 | pi sp | nym nl | 4.0 | 5.0 | 20.6 | 20.6 | +3.0 |
| Chen, Wei-Yin 3026 | pi sp | fla nl | 4.0 | 5.0 | 23.4 | 32.1 | +3.0 |
| Bote, David 4032 | 2b 3b | chi nl | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 | +4.0 |
| Swanson, Dansby 3751 | ss ph | atl nl | 3.0 | 6.5 | 7.5 | 7.5 | -0.5 |
| Ottavino, Adam 3054 | pi mr cp | col nl | 3.0 | 4.0 | 9.0 | 11.0 | +2.0 |
| Phillips, Brett 3914 | rf | mil nl | 1.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 |
| James, Josh 4059 | pi sp | hou 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.