Yankees' Tanaka, Red Sox' Ramirez top players in Sunday's AL Division Series games

Yankees pitcher Masahiro Tanaka and Hanley Ramirez of the Red Sox are Box-Toppers Players of the Game in Sunday’s two American League Division Series games.

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Royals' Ian Kennedy tops players for Sunday, April 16; Braves' Colon tops NL players

Royals pitcher Ian Kennedy is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.

Kennedy struck out 10 over eight scoreless innings, allowing two hits and two walks, in the 1-0 win over the Angels. Kennedy picked up a no-decision and did not earn the win or save because when he exited, the game was in a scoreless tie.

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2017 season as of April 16:  


 Player Pos Team BTP
1 Santana, Ervin 2005 pi sp min al 4.7
2 Kershaw, Clayton 2494 pi sp lad nl 4.0
3 Keuchel, Dallas 3050 pi sp hou al 3.4
4 Morrison, Logan 2794 1b tb al 3.2
5 Syndergaard, Noah 3472 pi sp nym nl 3.0
6 Marte, Starling 3122 lf cf pit nl 3.0
7 Vargas, Jason 2055 pi sp kc al 3.0
8 Holland, Greg 2906 pi cp col nl 3.0
9 Verlander, Justin 2112 pi sp det al 2.7
10 Sale, Chris 2806 pi sp bos al 2.7
What are those numbers after players' names?

National League Player of the Day—Braves pitcher Bartolo Colon allowed one hit and one run in seven innings, striking out six, in the 9-2 win over the Padres.

Colon earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being NL Player of the Day, giving him 151.2 for his career. He ranks 19th among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began, trailing 18th-ranked player Greg Maddux (151.7). (It should be noted that Maddux made his debut in 1986 and had seven 15-plus win seasons before Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995 and so, based on very rough extrapolations, would likely have about 250 career Box-Toppers points if his entire career were tracked.)

National League Batter of the Day—Bryce Harper of the Nationals hit two home runs, including a game-winning, walk-off, three-run homer, in the 6-4 win over the Phillies. Harper also hit a two-run homer and went 3-for-5, driving in five total runs.

American League Batter of the Day—Greg Bird of the Yankees homered, doubled and went 3-for-3, scoring twice and driving in two runs, in the 9-3 win over the Cardinals.

Rankings—Rockies closing pitcher Greg Holland rises to eighth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Sunday. 

Holland (1IP 0H 0R 0BB K Sv in the 4-3 win over the Giants) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 3.0 for the season.

Debuts—Two players made their Box-Toppers debut Sunday, the first time in their career they earned Player of the Game honors:

  • Adam Frazier of the Pirates (3-R HR 2B 3-4 R 3BI in the 6-1 win over the Cubs) made his Major League debut June 24, 2016, and was playing in his 77th career game. He is the 3,771st player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
  • Mitch Haniger of the Mariners (3-R HR 1-3 R 4BI in the 8-7 win over the Rangers) made his Major League debut Aug. 16, 2016, and was playing in his 47th career game. He is the 3,772nd player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.

Scoring—Kennedy earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Colon earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day. Harper and Bird each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Sunday’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.

Top player from each game

Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score 

4/16 Score Game Player of the Game AB R H BI IP H R ER BB K
MLB 14.0 `KC 1, LAA 0 Ian Kennedy - - - - 8.0 2 0 0 2 10
NL 9.0 ATL 9, SD 2 Bartolo Colon (W,1-1) - - - - 7.0 1 1 1 1 6
6.0 BAL 11, TOR 4 Dylan Bundy (W,2-1) - - - - 6.0 5 0 0 1 6
5.1 `MIA 4, NYM 2 Dan Straily - - - - 5.1 0 0 0 5 5
BAT 5.0 WSH 6, PHI 4 Bryce Harper, RF 5 2 3 5 - - - - - -
5.0 ARI 3, LAD 1 Taijuan Walker (W,2-1) - - - - 5.0 4 1 1 1 7
BAT 4.0 NYY 9, STL 3 Greg Bird, 1B 3 2 3 2 - - - - - -
3.0 PIT 6, CHC 1 Adam Frazier, LF 4 1 3 3 - - - - - -
3.0 SEA 8, TEX 7 Mitch Haniger, RF 3 1 1 4 - - - - - -
3.0 DET 4, CLE 1 Alex Avila, C 2 1 2 2 - - - - - -
3.0 MIL 4, CIN 2 Neftali Feliz (S,4) - - - - 1.0 0 0 0 0 2
3.0 BOS 7, TB 5 Craig Kimbrel (S,5) - - - - 1.0 0 0 0 0 2
3.0 CHW 3, MIN 1 (F/10) Nate Jones (W,1-0) - - - - 1.0 0 0 0 0 2
2.0 COL 4, SF 3 Greg Holland (S,7) - - - - 1.0 0 0 0 0 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 top players

Here are Box-Toppers point totals of each of the Players of the Game. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total for the current season (’17). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (’16-17), the period 2012-2017 (’12-17) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2017 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2016 total (+/-).  

Player of the Game Pos Team ’17 ’16-17 ’12-17 Career +/-
Holland, Greg 2906 pi cp col nl 3.0 3.0 33.0 36.0 3.0
Colon, Bartolo pi sp atl nl 2.7 11.1 52.0 151.2 -5.7
Kennedy, Ian 2723 pi sp kc al 2.0 12.0 43.1 68.5 -8.0
Kimbrel, Craig 2825 pi cp bos al 2.0 10.0 54.7 60.7 -6.0
Bundy, Dylan 3655 pi sp bal al 2.0 8.0 8.0 8.0 -4.0
Harper, Bryce 3011 rf dc nl 1.5 4.5 28.9 28.9 -1.5
Bird, Greg 3562 1b nyy al 1.5 1.5 4.5 4.5 1.5
Walker, Taijuan 3453 pi sp ari nl 1.0 8.7 22.4 22.4 -6.7
Straily, Dan 3080 pi sp fla nl 1.0 8.0 18.7 18.7 -6.0
Jones, Nate 3125 pi mr chi al 1.0 5.0 13.0 13.0 -3.0
Feliz, Neftali 2651 pi cp mr mil nl 1.0 2.0 8.0 19.7 0.0
Avila, Alex 2642 ca det al 1.0 2.0 8.5 18.0 0.0
Frazier, Adam 3771 lf pit nl 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0
Haniger, MItch 3772 rf sea al 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0
What are those numbers after players' names?

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 …

Nationals' Strasburg (7IP R H 5K) tops players for Wednesday, Aug. 19

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

Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg is Box-Toppers Player of the Day for Wednesday, Aug. 19.

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2015 season as of Aug. 19.  


 Player Pos Team BTP
1 deGrom, Jacob 3343 pi sp nym nl 19.4
2 Kershaw, Clayton 2494 pi sp lad nl 16.7
3 Price, David 2593 pi sp tor al 16.1
4 Sale, Chris 2806 pi sp chi al 16.1
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 Harvey, Matt 3075 pi sp nym nl 15.4
10 Keuchel, Dallas 3050 pi sp hou al 14.7
What are those numbers after players' names?

Also Wednesday, Angels pitcher Jered Weaver earned Player of the Game honors, giving him 122.1 career Box-Toppers points, 34th-most among all players since 1995.

Player of the Day—Strasburg allowed one run and two hits over seven innings, striking out five, in the 4-1 win over the Rockies.

American League Player of the Day—Angels pitcher Jered Weaver pitched six scoreless innings, allowing five hits and striking out five, in the 1-0 win over the White Sox.

Weaver earned 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being AL Player of the Day, giving him 122.1 career points, rising to 34th among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers record keeping began. With his points Wednesday, Weaver passes two players on the “all-time” list—Cole Hamels (120.8 Box-Toppers points) and Justin Verlander (120.9 points). Weaver trails 33rd-ranked player Gary Sheffield (122.1).

Weaver ranks third among active AL pitchers in career Box-Toppers points, trailing CC Sabathia of the Yankees (178.0 Box-Toppers points) and Felix Hernandez of the Mariners (158.7 points). Weaver has 6.7 Box-Toppers points this season, ranking 31st among AL pitchers.

American League Batter of the Day—Nick Castellanos of the Tigers hit two homers, including a grand slam, and two doubles in the 15-8 win over the Cubs. Castellanos went 4-for-5 and drove in five runs.

National League Batter of the Day—Khris Davis of the Brewers hit two home runs and went 2-for-4, driving in five runs, in the 8-7 win over the Marlins.

Notable—Athletics pitcher Jesse Chavez had the highest Box-Toppers player ranking of any of the 15 who earned Player of the Game honors Wednesday. Chavez (8IP 2H 2R 6K W in the 5-2 win over the Dodgers) earned 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 8.4 for the season. He ranks 40th among all players and 20th among AL pitchers.

Debuts—Two players made their Box-Toppers debut Wednesday, the first time in their career they earned Player of the Game honors:

  • Greg Bird of the Yankees (HR 2-4 2R 4BI in the 4-3 win over the Twins) made his Major League debut Aug. 13 and was playing in his fifth career game. He is the 3,562nd player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
  • Aaron Altherr of the Phillies (HR 2B 2-3 R 3BI in the 7-4 win over the Blue Jays) made his Major League debut June 16, 2014, and was playing in his fourth career game. He is the 3,563rd player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.

Scoring—Strasburg earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Weaver earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being AL Player of the Day. Castellanos and Davis each earn 1.5 Box-Toppers 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.

Top player from each game

Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score

8/19 Score Team Player AB R H BI BB K IP H R ER BB K
MLB 9.0 Nationals Stephen Strasburg (W,7-6) - - - - - - 7.0 2 1 0 0 5
AL 6.1 Angels Jered Weaver (W,5-9) - - - - - - 6.0 5 0 0 0 5
BAT 6.0 Tigers Nick Castellanos, 3B 5 2 4 5 0 0 - - - - - -
6.0 Athletics Jesse Chavez (W,7-12) - - - - - - 8.0 2 2 2 2 6
BAT 5.0 Brewers Khris Davis, LF 4 2 2 5 0 1 - - - - - -
5.0 Pirates J.A. Happ (W,5-7) - - - - - - 6.0 2 0 0 2 3
4.0 Yankees Greg Bird, 1B 4 2 2 4 0 1 - - - - - -
3.2 Royals Luke Hochevar (MR) (W,1-0) - - - - - - 1.0 0 0 0 0 2
3.0 Padres Yangervis Solarte, 3B 3 1 3 2 0 0 - - - - - -
3.0 Phillies Aaron Altherr, LF 3 1 2 3 1 - - - - - -
3.0 `Astros Chad Qualls (MR) - - - - - - 1.0 1 0 0 0 3
3.0 Cardinals Trevor Rosenthal (S,38) - - - - - - 1.0 0 0 0 0 2
2.0 Rangers Mitch Moreland, DH 5 2 2 3 0 1 - - - - - -
2.0 Orioles Adam Jones, CF 3 2 2 1 1 0 - - - - - -
2.0 Red Sox Jackie Bradley Jr., CF 3 1 1 3 0 0 - - - - - -
`Denotes that the pitcher had a no-decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save.