White Sox’ Cease tops players for Tuesday, Aug. 3; Braves’ Fried tops NL players

White Sox pitcher Dylan Cease is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.

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White Sox pitcher Dylan Cease is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.

Cease struck out 11 over six scoreless innings, allowing one hit and two walks, in the 7-1 win over the Royals.

Cease earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 8.7 for the season, 32nd among all players and ninth among American League pitchers.

National League Player of the Day—Braves pitcher Max Fried struck out seven over six scoreless innings, allowing four hits and one walk, in the 6-1 win over the Cardinals.

Braves pitcher Max Fried is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers NL Player of the Day.

National League Batter of the Day—Elias Diaz of the Rockies hit a grand slam, doubled and went 3-for-4, scoring three times and driving in four runs in the 7-2 win over the Indians.

Elias Diaz of the Rockies is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers NL Batter of the Day.

American League Batter of the Day—Teoscar Hernandez of the Blue Jays homered and went 3-for-3, scoring twice and driving in three runs, in the 7-2 win over the Indians.

Teoscar Hernandez of the Blue Jays is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers AL Batter of the Day.

Notable—Diamondbacks pitcher Madison Bumgarner now has 133.4 career Box-Toppers points after earning Player of the Game honors Tuesday.

Bumgarner (7IP 6H R BB 4K W in the 3-1 win over the Giants) now ranks 34th among all players in career points since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995. With his 1.0 point earned Tuesday, he passes two players on the “all-time” list—Dodgers pitcher David Price (133.0) and Jason Giambi (133.4). He trails 33rd-ranked player, Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg (133.8). Passing Price, Bumgarner rises to 11th among all active players in career points and sixth among active NL pitchers.

Bumgarner also now has 8.0 Box-Toppers points for 2021, 35th among all players and 25th among NL pitchers.

Diamondbacks pitcher Madison Bumgarner is Box-Toppers Player of the Game in Tuesday’s win over the Giants.

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 in Box-Toppers season player rankings for 2021. Players are ranked by Box-Toppers points (BTP) earned this season through Tuesday, Aug. 3.

Player Pos Team BTP
1 deGrom, Jacob 3343 pi sp nym nl 16.7
2 Cole, Gerrit 3232 pi sp nyy al 16.4
3 Wheeler, Zack 3204 pi sp phi nl 15.1
4 Woodruff, Brandon 3868 pi sp mil nl 14.4
5 Marquez, German 3788 pi sp col nl 13.7
6 Glasnow, Tyler 3948 pi sp tb al 12.7
7 Manaea, Sean 3637 pi sp oak al 12.7
8 Bassitt, Chris 3413 pi sp oak al 11.7
9 Peralta, Freddy 3965 pi sp mil nl 11.7
10 Kershaw, Clayton 2494 pi sp lad nl 11.4
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About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations

Debut—Three players made their Box-Toppers debut Tuesday, each with their first career Player of the Game honor:

  • Yankees pitcher Luis Gil (6IP 4H 0R BB 6K W in the 13-1 win over the Orioles) was also making his Major League debut.

  • Pirates pitcher David Bednar (2IP 0H 0R 0BB 2K W in the 8-5, 10-inning win over the Brewers) made his Major League debut Sept. 1, 2019, and was playing in his 63rd career game.

  • Bryan De La Cruz of the Marlins (3-4 0R 2BI in the 5-4 win over the Mets) made his Major League debut July 30 and was playing in his fifth career game.

Scoring—Cease earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Fried earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Diaz and Hernandez each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Tuesday’s other Player of the Game winners (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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Box-Toppers Player of the Game winners

Here is the top player from each of the day’s games listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score (BTG).

8/3 BTG Game Player AB R H BI IP H R ER BB K
MLB +14.0 CHW 7, KC 1 Dylan Cease, (W 8‑6) 6.0 1 0 0 2 11
+8.2 HOU 3, LAD 0 Lance McCullers Jr., (W 9‑2) 6.2 4 0 0 3 9
NL +8.0 ATL 6, STL 1 Max Fried, (W 8‑7) 6.0 4 0 0 1 7
+7.0 NYY 13, BAL 1 Luis Gil, (W 1‑0) 6.0 4 0 0 1 6
BAT +6.0 COL 13, CHC 6 Ellas Díaz, C 4 3 3 4
BAT +5.0 TOR 7, CLE 2 Teoscar Hernández, RF‑LF 3 2 3 3
+4.0 PIT 8, MIL 5 (F/10) David Bednar, (W 3‑1) 2.0 0 0 0 0 2
+3.0 LAA 11, TEX 3 Phil Gosselin, 1B 5 2 3 3
+3.0 PHI 5, WSH 4 Jose Alvarado, (S 4) 1.0 0 0 0 0 2
+3.0 `DET 4, BOS 2 Michael Fulmer, (Hld 5) 1.0 1 0 0 0 3
+2.0 SD 8, OAK 1 Austin Nola, C 5 1 4 2
+2.0 ARI 3, SF 1 Madison Bumgarner, (W 6‑6) 7.0 6 1 1 1 4
+1.2 `MIN 7, CIN 5 John Gant 1.2 1 0 0 1 2
+1.0 MIA 5, NYM 4 Bryan De La Cruz, RF 4 0 3 2
+1.0 SEA 4, TB 2 Abraham Toro, 2B 4 2 2 1
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 Player of the Game winners

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 (’21). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (’20-21), the period 2016-2021 (’16-21) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2021 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2020 total (+/-).

Player of the Game Pos Team ’21 ’20‑21 ’16‑21 Career +/-
Cease, Dylan 4231 pi sp chi al 8.7 8.7 10.7 10.7 +8.7
Bumgarner, Madison 2753 pi sp ari nl 8.0 9.0 40.7 133.4 +7.0
McCullers, Lance 3488 pi sp hou al 6.7 9.4 35.6 42.3 +4.0
Fried, Max 4011 pi sp atl nl 5.4 11.1 22.1 22.1 ‑0.3
Gant, John 3660 pi sp mr min al 3.0 4.0 16.7 16.7 +2.0
Diaz, Elias 3813 ca col nl 3.0 3.0 6.5 6.5 +3.0
Toro, Abraham 4447 3b 2b sea al 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 +2.5
Gosselin, Philip 3398 1b dh 2b lf ph ana al 2.0 4.7 6.7 8.7 ‑0.7
Nola, Austin 4197 1b ca sd nl 2.0 2.0 3.0 3.0 +2.0
Fulmer, Michael 3640 pi mr sp det al 2.0 2.0 21.4 21.4 +2.0
Hernandez, Teoscar 3713 rf lf tor al 1.5 3.0 13.7 13.7 +0.0
Alvarado, Jose 3797 pi cp mr phi nl 1.0 1.0 5.0 5.0 +1.0
Bednar, David 4499 pi cp pit nl 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 +1.0
De La Cruz, Bryan 4500 rf fla nl 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 +1.0
Gil, Luis 4498 pi sp nyy al 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 +1.0
What are those numbers after players' names?
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
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