Dodgers' Kershaw tops players for Tuesday, Sept. 29, maintains 2nd place in player rankings

Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and maintains his spot at second place in season player rankings.

Kershaw pitched a complete-game, one-hit shutout, striking out 13, in the 8-0 win over the Giants.

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2015 season as of Sept. 29.  


 Player Pos Team BTP
1 Arrieta, Jake 2738 pi sp chi nl 27.1
2 Kershaw, Clayton 2494 pi sp lad nl 24.7
3 deGrom, Jacob 3343 pi sp nym nl 21.4
4 Keuchel, Dallas 3050 pi sp hou al 21.4
5 Price, David 2593 pi sp tor al 21.1
6 Greinke, Zack 1871 pi sp lad nl 19.7
7 Hernandez, Felix 2064 pi sp sea al 19.4
8 Scherzer, Max 2588 pi sp dc nl 19.0
9 Cole, Gerrit 3232 pi sp pit nl 19.0
10 Carrasco, Carlos 2885 pi sp cle al 18.0
What are those numbers after players' names?

Kershaw earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 24.7 for the season. He still trails overall and National League pitching leader Jake Arrieta (27.1) by 2.4 Box-Toppers points. And with five days left in the season, Kershaw has no realistic shot of catching him, ending his streak of four straight years leading NL pitchers and two straight years of leading all players in Box-Toppers points.

Kershaw had a Box-Toppers game score Tuesday of +20. It is the eighth time this season that a player has had a Box-Toppers game score of +20 or more.

Kershaw also rose to 13th place among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers record keeping began. With his points Tuesday, Kershaw has 158.3 career Box-Toppers points and passes Tim Hudson (157.0), who had earlier passed Kershaw. John Smoltz (160.9) is ranked just ahead of Kershaw on the “all-time” list at 12th place. Kershaw is the third-ranked active pitcher in career Box-Toppers points, behind CC Sabathia of the Yankees (187.0) and Felix Hernandez of the Mariners (162.7).

American League Player of the Day—Angels pitcher Nick Tropeano struck out 11 over 6 2/3 innings, allowing one run and three hits, in the 8-1 win over the Athletics.

American League Batter of the Day—Blake Swihart of the Red Sox hit two homers and drove in five runs in the 10-4 win over the Yankees.

National League Batter of the Day—A.J. Pierzynski of the Braves hit two homers and went 3-for-3 in the 2-1 win over the Nationals.

With Tuesday’s Player of the Game honor, his first of the season, Pierzynski has now earned Box-Toppers points for 13 straight seasons. He earned his first Box-Toppers point in 2001 with the Twins, but his current 13-season streak began in 2003 with the Twins. His best year was 2012 with the White Sox, when he had 6.0 Box-Toppers points, ranked fourth among AL catchers. In 2014, he had 1.0 Box-Toppers point with the Red Sox (and later played with the Cardinals that season).

Pierzynski has 47.2 career Box-Toppers points, which ranks 331st among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers record keeping began. However, he ranks sixth among all catchers in that time and ranks second among active catchers in career Box-Toppers points, behind Brian McCann of the Yankees (55.2).

Notable—Others who earned Player of the Game honors Tuesday had notable achievements:

  • Adrian Beltre of the Rangers rose to third place among AL batters in season Box-Toppers points. Beltre (3-5 R 2BI in the 7-6 win over the Tigers) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 10.5 for the season. He trails Mike Trout of the Angels (12.0) and Prince Fielder of the Rangers (11.5). Beltre becomes the 43rd player—and eighth batter—this season with 10.0 or more Box-Toppers points.
  • Phillies pitcher Adam Loewen earned his first Box-Toppers points in four years and his first points as a pitcher in nine years Tuesday. Loewen (0.1IP 0H 0R K W in the 4-3 win over the Mets) last earned Box-Toppers points as a right fielder with the Blue Jays on Sept. 28, 2011. He last earned Box-Toppers points as a pitcher with the Orioles on Aug. 22, 2006.
  • Cubs pitcher Dan Haren maintains his rank of 49th among all players since 1995 (when Box-Toppers record keeping began). Haren (7.1IP 3H 0R 6K W in the 4-1 win over the Reds) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 112.2 for his career. He trails 48th-ranked player Kevin Brown (112.8). Haren has 4.0 Box-Toppers points on the season.

Debut—Diamondbacks pitcher Silvino Bracho made his Box-Toppers debut Tuesday, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors. Bracho (1.2IP 0H 0R 2K ND in the 4-3 win over the Rockies) made his Major League debut Aug. 30 and was playing in his 11th career game. He is the 3,605th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.

Scoring—Kershaw earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Tropeano earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being AL Player of the Day. Swihart and Pierzynski each earn 1.5 Box-Toppers 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.

Top player from each game

Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score

9/29 Score Team Player AB R H BI BB K IP H R ER BB K
MLB 20.0 Dodgers Clayton Kershaw (W,16-7) - - - - - - 9.0 1 0 0 1 13
AL 11.2 Angels Nick Tropeano (W,3-2) - - - - - - 6.2 3 1 1 1 11
10.1 Cubs Dan Haren (W,10-9) - - - - - - 7.1 3 0 0 0 6
BAT 5.0 Red Sox Blake Swihart, C 4 2 2 5 0 1 - - - - - -
BAT 4.0 Braves A.J. Pierzynski, C 3 2 3 2 0 0 - - - - - -
3.2 `Dbacks Silvino Bracho (MR) - - - - - - 1.2 0 0 0 0 2
2.0 Brewers Jean Segura, SS 4 1 2 3 0 0 - - - - - -
2.0 Mariners Robinson Cano, 2B 3 1 1 3 0 0 - - - - - -
2.0 Rays Asdrubal Cabrera, SS 3 2 1 2 1 0 - - - - - -
2.0 White Sox Carlos Sanchez, 2B 2 2 2 0 1 0 - - - - - -
1.1 Phillies Adam Loewen (MR) (W,1-0) - - - - - - 0.1 0 0 0 0 1
1.0 Rangers Adrian Beltre, 3B 5 1 3 2 0 1 - - - - - -
`Denotes that the pitcher had a no-decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save.

Catching up on baseball with Box-Toppers, after falling behind by a ‘fair’ amount

Baseball proceeds whether we are ready or not.

In the past few weeks, other duties put me behind staying up-to-date with the Box-Toppers daily blog and I have been scrambling to catch up. I fell behind three weeks and three days ago, on Aug. 13 and only caught up today (Monday, Sept. 7) with yesterday’s games.

Usually when a person falls behind doing something, it’s best to just move ahead and ignore most of what was missed. But when you’re trying to keep comprehensive track of the baseball season, to assess and evaluate teams and players across an entire season, it is a mistake to simply ignore a chunk of the season, simply due to lack of convenience or lack of attention. So I’ve gone back and picked up the days I’ve missed, posting each day’s summary in the blog, even if was sometimes more than a week late.

During my catch-up phase, I did not post daily highlights to Box-Toppers’ Twitter and Facebook feeds. Instead, I’ve opted to post a summary of highlights of what was missed in the interim while I wasn’t posting to social media here in this post, with links to the relevant posts in the Box-Toppers blog:

New Box-Toppers leaders—Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta took over the lead in Box-Toppers season player rankings on Saturday, Sept. 5. Arrieta has 21.1 Box-Toppers points and passed previous leader, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, who took the lead Wednesday, Sept. 2. (Kershaw has 20.7 Box-Toppers points.) Previously, Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom led from July 26 to Sept. 1. He currently ranks third with 19.4 points.

Arrieta picked up 6.7 Box-Toppers points during the catch-up period (Aug. 13 to Sept. 6), including earning Player of the Day honors twice—on Sunday, Aug. 30 (when he pitched a no-hitter) and on Sept. 5.

New American League pitching leader—Astros pitcher Dallas Keuchel took the lead among AL pitchers on Sunday, Sept. 6 with 19.4 Box-Toppers points. Previously, Blue Jays pitcher David Price led AL pitchers. He currently ranks second among AL pitchers with 19.1 points.

New American League batting leader—Edwin Encarnacion of the Blue Jays took the lead among AL batters on Saturday, Aug. 29 with 10.4 Box-Toppers points. Previously, Mike Trout of the Angels led AL batters. Trout currently has 10.0 Box-Toppers points and ranks second among AL batters.

New National League batting leader—Carlos Gonzalez of the Rockies took the lead among NL batters on Thursday, Sept. 3 with 11.5 Box-Toppers points. Previously, Yoenis Cespedes of the Mets took the lead among NL batters on Friday, Aug. 21 with 9.9 points. Before that, Randal Grichuk of the Cardinals led NL batters. He currently ranks fourth with 9.5 points.

New Box-Toppers team rankings leader—The Kansas City Royals took over the lead among teams at the last Box-Toppers team ranking report, as of Thursday, Sept. 3. The St. Louis Cardinals rose to top NL teams. For three weeks previously (Aug. 13, 20 and 27), the Pittsburgh Pirates were the top-ranked team. The Pirates ranked third as of Sept. 3.

Notable—Here are some notable achievements by players that happened during the catch-up phase (Aug. 13 to Sept. 6):

  • Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw was the first player with 20.0 or more points this season, earning it on Wednesday, Sept. 2, the same day he took the Box-Toppers points lead. Kershaw, who led players in Box-Toppers points in three of the past four seasons (2011, 2013 and 2014) and led National League pitchers the past four seasons, has now exceeded 20.0 Box-Toppers points for five straight seasons. Kershaw also rose to 15th place in Box-Toppers points among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers record keeping began. He has 154.3 career Box-Toppers points.
  • Mets pitcher Bartolo Colon rose to 22nd place among all players in Box-Toppers points since 1995. He earned Player of the Day for Monday, Aug. 31, giving him 138.5 Box-Toppers points.
  • Michael Cuddyer of the Mets extended to 12 the number of consecutive seasons in which he’s earned at least 1.0 Box-Toppers point on Sunday, Aug. 30.
  • Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke earned 3.0 Box-Toppers points during the catch-up period and is currently ranked sixth among all players with 18.0 points. In addition, with his point earned Tuesday, Sept. 1, Greinke has 143.7 career Box-Toppers points and ranks 21st among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers record keeping began.
  • Astros pitcher Mike Fiers pitched a no-hitter on Friday, Aug. 21, earning Box-Toppers Player of the Day honors.
  • Carlos Beltran of the Yankees earned Box-Toppers points in his 17th straight season, tying the record for the longest-active season streak on Friday, Aug. 14. 

Debuts—Twenty-three players made their Box-Toppers debut during the catch-up phase. Here is the list with links to the blog post for the day they made their debut with more information:

•

So what was I doing that was keeping me from Box-Toppers? I served as a volunteer coordinator for our local high school band’s major fundraiser. Over the course of the 11-day Iowa State Fair, I helped wrangle nearly 300 student and parent volunteers to fill 550 volunteer spots to serve ice cream and shakes at the fair’s Dairy Barn.

It’s a task that requires a few months of preparation to set up—to get volunteers signed up, to comply with various red-tape regulations and to develop and implement logistics to make it all work. But when the fair starts, the task can sometimes become even more time-consuming. As soon as the fair started on Aug. 13, Box-Toppers fell to the wayside. 

My last “on-time” post was Thursday, Aug. 13, covering the games of Wednesday, Aug. 12. The very next post was more than a week later on Friday, Aug. 21, covering the games of Thursday, Aug. 13. After the fair ended on Aug. 23, I kept plugging away, finally catching up two more weeks later.

The fundraiser went well, by the way. All our volunteers made it, worked hard, had a little fun (and a little ice cream) and raised a lot of money for our high school band program. It was my fifth and final year of coordinating volunteers for the fundraiser. And though it put me a little behind updating the Box-Toppers blog, it was a lot of fun and now that it’s over, tremendously satisfying.

And now, with my attention returned more fully to baseball, onto the homestretch of the season …

Astros' Mike Fiers pitches no-hitter, tops players for Friday, Aug. 21; Price, Sale rise in Box-Toppers top 10 rankings

(Other duties have put us behind updating Box-Toppers. Playing catch up …)

Astros pitcher Mike Fiers, pitching a no-hitter, is Box-Toppers Player of the Day for Friday, Aug. 21.

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2015 season as of Aug. 21.  


 Player Pos Team BTP
1 deGrom, Jacob 3343 pi sp nym nl 19.4
2 Price, David 2593 pi sp tor al 17.1
3 Sale, Chris 2806 pi sp chi al 17.1
4 Kershaw, Clayton 2494 pi sp lad nl 16.7
5 Scherzer, Max 2588 pi sp dc nl 16.0
6 Greinke, Zack 1871 pi sp lad nl 16.0
7 Gray, Sonny 3259 pi sp oak al 15.8
8 Hernandez, Felix 2064 pi sp sea al 15.4
9 Arrieta, Jake 2738 pi sp chi nl 15.4
10 Harvey, Matt 3075 pi sp nym nl 15.4
What are those numbers after players' names?

Also Friday, Blue Jays pitcher David Price rose to second place in Box-Toppers season player rankings and White Sox pitcher Chris Sale rose to third. Plus, Yoenis Cespedes of the Mets took the lead among NL batters in Box-Toppers points.

Player of the Day—Fiers threw 134 pitches in the 3-0 no-hitter over the Dodgers. He struck out 10 and walked three.

Fiers earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 6.0 for the season. They were his first Box-Toppers points since being traded from the Brewers.

National League Player of the Day—Yoenis Cespedes of the Mets hit three home runs—a grand-slam, a two-run homer and a solo shot—in the 14-9 win over the Rockies. Cespedes also hit a double and went 5-for-6, scoring five times and driving in seven runs.

Cespedes earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being NL Player of the Day, giving him 9.9 for the season and rising to first among NL batters. He passes previous leader Randal Grichuk of the Cardinals (9.5 Box-Toppers points). Cespedes has 3.2 of his Box-Toppers points since being traded from the Tigers.

American League Batter of the Day—Blake Swihart of the Red Sox doubled and went 4-for-4, scoring three times and driving in two runs, in the 7-2 win over the Royals.

This was Swihart’s Box-Toppers debut, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors. Swihart made his Major League debut May 2 and was playing in his 59th career game. He is the 3,565th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.

National League Batter of the Day—There is no separate NL Batter of the Day for Friday because the overall NL Player of the Day is a batter—Yoenis Cespedes.

Rankings—Two players rose in Box-Toppers season player rankings top 10 after earning Player of the Game honors Friday:

  • Blue Jays pitcher David Price rose to second place. Price (8IP 6H 2R 9K W in the 9-2 win over the Angels) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 17.1 for the season. He maintains his lead among AL pitchers and trails only Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom (19.4 Box-Toppers points).
  • White Sox pitcher Chris Sale rose to third place. Sale (7IP 4H 3R 14K W in the 11-4 win over the Mariners) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 17.1 for the season. While he has the same 2015 Box-Toppers point total as Price, he loses the tie-breaker and ranks second among AL pitchers because he had fewer points than Price in 2014—17.4 vs. 19.1.

Notable—Indians pitcher Carlos Carrasco (6IP 5H R 11K W in the 7-3 win over the Yankees) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being Player of the Game, giving him 15.0 for the season. He ranks 12th among all players and sixth among AL pitchers.

Debut—In addition to Swihart, one other player made his Box-Toppers debut Friday—Phillies pitcher Jerad Eickhoff (6IP 5H 0R 5K W in the 7-1 win over the Marlins), who also was making his Major League debut. He is the 3,566th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.

Scoring—Fiers earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Cespedes earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being NL Player of the Day. Swihart earns 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being AL Batter of the Day. All of Friday’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.

Top player from each game

Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score

8/21 Score Team Player AB R H BI BB K IP H R ER BB K
MLB 16.0 Astros Mike Fiers (W,6-9) - - - - - - 9.0 0 0 0 3 10
NL 11.0 Mets Yoenis Cespedes, CF-LF 6 5 5 7 0 0 - - - - - -
10.0 White Sox Chris Sale (W,12-7) - - - - - - 7.0 4 3 3 1 14
9.2 Indians Carlos Carrasco (W,12-9) - - - - - - 6.0 5 1 1 1 11
7.0 Padres Andrew Cashner (W,5-12) - - - - - - 6.0 4 1 0 2 8
6.0 Blue Jays David Price (W,12-4) - - - - - - 8.0 6 2 2 1 9
BAT 5.0 Red Sox Blake Swihart, C 4 3 4 2 0 0 - - - - - -
5.0 Phillies Jerad Eickhoff (W,1-0) - - - - - - 6.0 5 0 0 1 5
4.0 Twins Kevin Jepsen (S,6) - - - - - - 1.0 0 0 0 0 3
3.0 Dbacks A.J. Pollock, CF 5 3 4 1 0 0 - - - - - -
3.0 Rangers Shawn Tolleson (S,24) - - - - - - 1.0 1 0 0 0 3
2.0 Brewers Kyle Lohse (S,1) - - - - - - 3.0 1 1 1 2 4
2.0 Cubs Jason Motte (MR) (W,8-1) - - - - - - 1.0 0 0 0 0 1
1.2 Rays Drew Smyly (W,1-2) - - - - - - 5.0 6 0 0 0 2
1.0 Giants Marlon Byrd, RF 5 1 3 2 0 1 - - - - - -