Brewers’ Burnes tops players for Wednesday, Sept. 9; Reds’ Bauer rises to 5th in player rankings

Brewers pitcher Corbin Burnes is Wednesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.

Also Wednesday, Reds pitcher Trevor Bauer rises to fifth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors.

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 in Box-Toppers season player rankings for 2020. Players are ranked by Box-Toppers points (BTP) earned this season through Wednesday, Sept. 9.

Player Pos Team BTP
1 Bieber, Shane 4005 pi sp cle al 9.7
2 Darvish, Yu 3003 pi sp chi nl 8.7
3 deGrom, Jacob 3343 pi sp nym nl 7.7
4 Lynn, Lance 2992 pi sp tex al 7.4
5 Bauer, Trevor 3065 pi sp cin nl 7.0
6 Giolito, Lucas 3900 pi sp chi al 7.0
7 Kershaw, Clayton 2494 pi sp lad nl 6.7
8 Nola, Aaron 3569 pi sp phi nl 6.7
9 Maeda, Kenta 3609 pi sp min al 6.4
10 Glasnow, Tyler 3948 pi sp tb al 6.0
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Plus, Adam Duvall of the Braves earns National League Batter of the Day honors Wednesday with a Box-Toppers game score of +13.0, which seems to be the fifth-highest game score for a batter earning Player of the Game honors in Box-Toppers tracking history, which began in 1995.

Player of the Day—Burnes struck out 11 over seven scoreless innings, allowing one hit and no walks, in the 19-0 win over the Tigers.

Burnes earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 6.0 for the season, rising to 13th place among all players and seventh among NL pitchers.

American League Player of the Day—James McCann of the White Sox hit two home runs and went 2-for-3, scoring twice and driving in four runs, in the 8-1 win over the Pirates.

National League Batter of the Day—Adam Duvall of the Braves hit three home runs, including a grand slam and a three-run homer, in the 29-9 win over the Marlins. Duvall went 3-for-4, scoring five times and driving in nine runs.

Duvall had a Box-Toppers game score Wednesday of +13.0, highest among all batters who have earned Player of the Game honors so far in 2020, ahead of the previous high +10.0 by Alex Dickerson of the Giants on Sept. 1. It is also apparently the fifth-highest game score for a batter earning Player of the Game honors since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995.

In 2017, Anthony Rendon of the Nationals had a Box-Toppers game score of +15.0 on April 30 and Scooter Gennett of the Reds had a Box-Toppers game score of +14.0 on June 6, which are apparently the two highest such scores for batters since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995. The third-highest was +13.0 by Shawn Green of the Dodgers on May 23, 2002. Fourth-highest was +13.0 by Mark Reynolds of the Nationals on July 7, 2018. While Green, Reynolds and Duvall all have game scores of +13.0, Green ranks highest because he had the most at bats (4HR 2B 6-6 6R 7BI in the 16-3 win over the Brewers), Reynolds ranks next because he had the second-most at bats (2HR 2B 5-5 3R 10BI in the 18-4 win over the Marlins) and Duvall ranks behind both because he had the fewest at bats (four) among the three.

We say Duvall’s Box-Toppers game score is “apparently” fifth-highest since 1995 for a batter earning Player of the Game honors, because while Box-Toppers has records for Player of the Game since the start of 1995, the data from actual game scores derived from box scores only goes back to the start of 2011. But examining games from 1995 to 2010 that were most likely to produce high Box-Toppers game scores (games in which batters had six hits, hit four home runs or drove in 10 runs), none had a game score higher than Green’s +13.0 in 2002.

Duvall earns 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being NL Batter of the Day, giving him 4.0 for the season, rising to first place among NL batters, passing previous leader Jason Heyward of the Cubs (3.7). Duvall is 29th among all players in Box-Toppers season player rankings.

While Duvall had a Box-Toppers game score Wednesday of +13.0, he earned fewer Box-Toppers points than James McCann, who had a Box-Toppers game score Wednesday of +5.0. McCann was the highest-ranked AL player earning Player of the Game honors Wednesday and so earned AL Player of the Day, worth 1.7 points. Duvall was beaten out as top overall player and top NL player by two pitchers earning Player of the Game honors who had higher Box-Toppers game scores, so Duvall only earned NL Batter of the Day honors worth 1.5 points. (Corbin Burnes of the Brewers won Player of the Day honors with a Box-Toppers game score of +17.0 and Trevor Bauer of the Reds earned Player of the Game honors with a game score of +14.2.)

American League Batter of the Day—There is no separate AL Batter of the Day for Wednesday because AL Player of the Day honors was batter James McCann of the White Sox.

Rankings—Reds pitcher Trevor Bauer rises from ninth to fifth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Wednesday.

Bauer (7.2IP 3H 0R 0BB 10K W in the 3-0 win over the Cubs) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 7.0 for the season. He ranks third among NL pitchers, behind Yu Darvish of the Cubs (8.7) and Jacob deGrom of the Mets (7.7).

Scoring—Burnes earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and McCann earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Duvall earns 1.5 points for being NL 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.

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Top player from each game

Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score (BTG)

9/9 BTG Game Player AB R H BI IP H R ER BB K
MLB +17.0 MIL 19, DET 0 Corbin Burnes, (W 3‑0) 7.0 1 0 0 0 11
+14.2 CIN 3, CHC 0 Trevor Bauer, (W 4‑3) 7.2 3 0 0 0 10
BAT +13.0 ATL 29, MIA 9 Adam Duvall, LF 4 5 3 9
+6.0 SF 10, SEA 1 Tyler Anderson, (W 2‑3) 6.0 3 0 0 1 4
AL +5.0 CHW 8, PIT 1 James McCann, C 3 2 2 4
+5.0 `OAK 3, HOU 2 Jesus Luzardo 7.0 4 2 2 1 7
+4.0 NYY 7, TOR 2 Deivi García, (W 1‑1) 7.0 5 2 2 0 6
+3.0 NYM 7, BAL 6 Jeff McNeil, LF 3 1 2 3
+3.0 LAD 6, ARI 4 (F/10) Jake McGee, (W 3‑1) 1.0 0 0 0 0 2
+2.0 TEX 7, LAA 3 Isiah Kiner‑Falefa, 3B 4 2 4 0
+2.0 SD 5, COL 3 Mitch Moreland, 1B 3 2 1 2
+1.2 KC 3, CLE 0 Danny Duffy, (W 3‑3) 5.2 4 0 0 4 4
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 Player of the Game winners. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total for the current season (’20). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (’19-20), the period 2015-2020 (’15-20) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2020 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2019 total (+/-).

Player of the Game Pos Team ’20 ’19‑20 ’15‑20 Career +/-
Bauer, Trevor 3065 pi sp cin nl 7.0 21.1 65.7 74.4 ‑7.1
Burnes, Corbin 4029 pi sp mil nl 6.0 6.0 9.0 9.0 +6.0
Duvall, Adam 3573 lf dh rf ph atl nl 4.0 5.0 22.0 22.0 +3.0
Luzardo, Jesus 4282 pi sp oak al 3.7 3.7 3.7 3.7 +3.7
Anderson, Tyler 3656 pi sp sf nl 2.7 2.7 15.7 15.7 +2.7
Moreland, Mitch 2799 1b sd nl 2.0 6.0 24.2 33.2 ‑2.0
Duffy, Danny 2915 pi sp kc al 2.0 5.0 31.4 46.4 ‑1.0
McGee, Jake 3385 pi cp mr lad nl 2.0 2.0 5.0 8.0 +2.0
Garcia, Deivi 4318 pi sp nyy al 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 +2.0
McCann, James 3649 ca chi al 1.7 8.2 13.2 13.2 ‑4.8
McNeil, Jeff 4050 lf rf 2b nym nl 1.0 4.0 5.0 5.0 ‑2.0
Kiner‑Falefa, Isiah 4130 3b ca tex al 1.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 +0.0
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About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations