Padres' Clayton Richard tops players for Thursday, Sept. 8; Yankees' McCann tops AL players

Padres pitcher Clayton Richard is Thursday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2016 season as of Sept. 8:  


 Player Pos Team BTP
1 Scherzer, Max 2588 pi sp dc nl 22.7
2 Kershaw, Clayton 2494 pi sp lad nl 20.0
3 Fernandez, Jose 3147 pi sp fla nl 18.4
4 Kluber, Corey 3200 pi sp cle al 18.2
5 Lester, Jon 2173 pi sp chi nl 17.1
6 Hamels, Cole 2135 pi sp tex al 16.8
7 Strasburg, Stephen 2736 pi sp dc nl 15.1
8 Cueto, Johnny 2400 pi sp sf nl 14.4
9 Syndergaard, Noah 3472 pi sp nym nl 14.0
10 Arrieta, Jake 2738 pi sp chi nl 13.7
What are those numbers after players' names?

Richard pitched seven scoreless innings, striking out eight and allowing six hits and two walks, in the 14-1 win over the Rockies.

American League Player of the Day—Brian McCann of the Yankees hit two homers and went 3-for-4 in the 5-4 win over the Rays.

National League Batter of the Day—Hernan Perez of the Brewers hit two doubles and went 4-for-5, scoring once and driving in three runs, in the 12-5 win over the Cardinals.

American League Batter of the Day—There is no separate AL Batter of the Day for Thursday because the overall AL Player of the Day was batter Brian McCann.

Notable—Kyle Seager of the Mariners has the most season Box-Toppers points of any of the seven who earned Player of the Game honors Thursday.

Seager (HR 3-4 2R 2BI in the 6-3 win over the Rangers) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 9.5 for the season. He ranks 41st among all players and seventh among AL batters.

Seager had a Box-Toppers game score of +3.0, the same as AL Player of the Day Brian McCann. Both also had identical line scores (3-4 2R 2BI), but McCann held the tiebreaker to earn AL Player of the Day because he had two home runs and Seager had one.

Debut—Phillies pitcher Alec Asher made his Box-Toppers debut Thursday with his first career Player of the Game honor.

Asher (6IP 2H 0R BB 0K W in the 4-1 win over the Nationals) made his Major League debut Aug. 30, 2015, and was playing in his eighth career game. He is the 3,735th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.

Scoring—Richard 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. Perez earns 1.5 points for being NL Batter of the Day. All of Thursday’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

9/8 Score Game Player of Game AB R H BI IP H R ER BB K
MLB 7.0 SD 14, COL 1 Clayton Richard (W,2-3) - - - - 7.0 6 0 0 2 8
5.0 PIT 4, CIN 1 Ivan Nova (W,12-6) - - - - 9.0 6 1 1 0 4
BAT 3.0 MIL 12, STL 5 Hernan Perez, 2B-3B 5 1 4 3 - - - - - -
AL 3.0 NYY 5, TB 4 Brian McCann, C 4 2 3 2 - - - - - -
3.0 SEA 6, TEX 3 Kyle Seager, 3B 4 2 3 2 - - - - - -
3.0 CLE 10, HOU 7 Francisco Lindor, SS 3 1 2 3 - - - - - -
3.0 PHI 4, WSH 1 Alec Asher (W,1-0) - - - - 6.0 2 0 0 1 0

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 (16). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (15-16), the period 2011-2016 (11-16) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2016 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2015 total (+/-).  

Player of Game Pos Team 16 15-16 11-16 Career +/-
Seager, Kyle 3031 3b sea al 9.5 14.5 28.5 28.5 4.5
Nova, Ivan 2796 pi sp pit nl 6.0 7.0 28.1 29.1 5.0
Lindor, Francisco 3586 ss cle al 5.5 6.5 6.5 6.5 4.5
Perez, Hernan 3577 3b ss 2b mil nl 5.0 6.0 6.0 6.0 4.0
McCann, Brian 2179 ca nyy al 3.2 9.7 35.4 58.4 -3.3
Richard, Clayton 2584 pi sp sd nl 2.0 3.0 11.2 29.6 1.0
Asher, Alec 3735 pi sp phi nl 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0
What are those numbers after players' names?

Dbacks' Braden Shipley tops players for Thursday, Aug. 11; Astros' Altuve rises to 10th in Box-Toppers rankings

Diamondbacks pitcher Braden Shipley is Thursday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2016 season as of Aug. 11:  


 Player Pos Team BTP
1 Kershaw, Clayton 2494 pi sp lad nl 20.0
2 Scherzer, Max 2588 pi sp dc nl 18.7
3 Fernandez, Jose 3147 pi sp fla nl 16.4
4 Kluber, Corey 3200 pi sp cle al 16.2
5 Cueto, Johnny 2400 pi sp sf nl 14.4
6 Hamels, Cole 2135 pi sp tex al 14.1
7 Strasburg, Stephen 2736 pi sp dc nl 14.1
8 Lester, Jon 2173 pi sp chi nl 13.4
9 Happ, J.A. 2536 pi sp tor al 12.7
10 Altuve, Jose 3007 2b hou al 12.5
What are those numbers after players' names?

Also Thursday, Jose Altuve of the Astros became the first batter in nearly two months to land a spot among Box-Toppers top 10 season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors. Altuve, the Box-Toppers points leader among American League batters, rises to 10th place among all players.

Player of the Day—Shipley pitched seven scoreless innings, striking out seven and allowing three hits and one walk, in the 9-0 win over the Mets.

American League Player of the Day—Astros pitcher Chris Devenski pitched five scoreless innings, allowing two hits, no walks and striking out five, in the 10-2 win over the Twins.

This was Devenski’s Box-Toppers debut, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors. Devenski made his Major League debut April 8 and was playing in his 32nd career game. He is the 3,702nd player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.

American League Batter of the Day—Mike Napoli of the Indians hit a three-run homer and two doubles, going 4-for-4, scoring three times and driving in four runs, in the 14-4 win over the Angels.

National League Batter of the Day—Hernan Perez of the Brewers homered and went 3-for-4, scoring twice and driving in two runs, in the 11-3 win over the Braves.

Rankings—Jose Altuve of the Astros rises to 10th place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Thursday.

Altuve (2B 4-5 3R 3BI in the 15-7 win over the Twins) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 12.5 for the season. He extends his Box-Toppers points lead among AL batters (second place Manny Machado of the Orioles has 10.2 points).

Altuve is the first batter in the overall top 10 in Box-Toppers points since June 14, when Machado was among the top 10 with 8.7 points. Altuve’s 12.5 points for the season also matches the 12.5 points Adrian Beltre of the Rangers had in 2015 to lead AL batters at the end of the season.

Debut—Yankees pitcher Luis Cessa made his Box-Toppers debut Thursday with his first career Player of the Game honor.

Cessa (2IP 0H 0R 0BB 2K W in the 4-2 win over the Red Sox) made his Major League debut April 8 and was playing in his seventh career game. He is the 3,703rd player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.

Scoring—Shipley earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Devenski earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Napoli and Perez each earn 1.5 points for being their league’s Batter of the Day. All of Thursday’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

8/11 Score Game Player of Game AB R H BI IP H R ER BB K
MLB 10.0 ARI 9, NYM 0 Braden Shipley (W,2-1) - - - - 7.0 3 0 0 1 7
AL 8.0 HOU 10, MIN 2 Chris Devenski (W,1-4) - - - - 5.0 2 0 0 0 5
BAT 7.0 CLE 14, LAA 4 Mike Napoli, 1B 4 3 4 4 - - - - - -
7.0 PIT 4, SD 0 Jameson Taillon (W,3-2) - - - - 8.0 3 0 0 2 4
6.0 KC 2, CHW 1 Danny Duffy (W,9-1) - - - - 9.0 7 1 1 0 6
5.0 HOU 15, MIN 7 Jose Altuve, 2B 5 3 4 3 - - - - - -
5.0 BAL 9, OAK 6 Mark Trumbo, RF 4 2 2 5 - - - - - -
4.0 NYY 4, BOS 2 Luis Cessa (W,2-0) - - - - 2.0 0 0 0 0 2
4.0 COL 12, TEX 9 Adam Ottavino (S,1) - - - - 1.0 0 0 0 0 3
BAT 3.0 MIL 11, ATL 3 Hernan Perez, 3B 4 2 3 2 - - - - - -
3.0 CHC 4, STL 3 (11) Mike Montgomery (W,4-5) - - - - 2.0 1 0 0 2 4

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 (16). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (15-16), the period 2011-2016 (11-16) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2016 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2015 total (+/-).  

Player of Game Pos Team 16 15-16 11-16 Career +/-
Altuve, Jose 3007 2b hou al 12.5 19.5 29.0 29.0 5.5
Duffy, Danny 2915 pi sp kc al 9.7 13.7 28.7 28.7 5.7
Trumbo, Mark 2851 rf bal al 8.2 10.7 33.9 33.9 5.7
Napoli, Mike 2161 1b cle al 5.0 9.5 37.2 56.2 0.5
Taillon, Jameson 3658 pi sp pit nl 5.0 5.0 5.0 5.0 5.0
Montgomery, Mike 3513 pi cp mr sp chi nl 4.0 8.0 8.0 8.0 0.0
Perez, Hernan 3577 3b ss ph mil nl 3.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 2.5
Shipley, Braden 3695 pi sp ari nl 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0
Devenski, Chris 3702 pi sp hou nl 1.7 1.7 1.7 1.7 1.7
Ottavino, Adam 3054 pi cp col nl 1.0 3.0 5.0 5.0 -1.0
Cessa, Luis 3703 pi mr nyy 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 …

Rockies' Gonzalez tops players for Thursday, Sept. 3, rises to lead NL batters in Box-Toppers points

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

Carlos Gonzalez of the Rockies is Box-Toppers Player of the Day for Thursday, Sept. 3, and rises to lead National League batters in Box-Toppers player rankings.

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2015 season as of Sept. 3.  


 Player Pos Team BTP
1 Kershaw, Clayton 2494 pi sp lad nl 20.7
2 deGrom, Jacob 3343 pi sp nym nl 19.4
3 Arrieta, Jake 2738 pi sp chi nl 19.1
4 Price, David 2593 pi sp tor al 18.1
5 Greinke, Zack 1871 pi sp lad nl 18.0
6 Keuchel, Dallas 3050 pi sp hou al 17.7
7 Sale, Chris 2806 pi sp chi al 17.1
8 Hernandez, Felix 2064 pi sp sea al 16.4
9 Scherzer, Max 2588 pi sp dc nl 16.0
10 Archer, Chris 3194 pi sp tb al 16.0
What are those numbers after players' names?

Gonzalez homered twice and doubled, going 4-for-5, scoring three times and driving in four runs, in the 11-3 win over the Giants.

Gonzalez earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 11.5 for the season and rising to lead NL batters in Box-Toppers points, passing previous leader, Yoenis Cespedes of the Mets (9.9 Box-Toppers points).

Gonzalez becomes the 31st player this season with 10.0 or more Box-Toppers points and is the first NL batter to reach that mark. Gonzalez now also has more Box-Toppers points than any Major League batter, passing Edwin Encarnacion of the Blue Jays (10.4).

This is the second straight day Gonzalez has earned Player of the Game honors. On Wednesday, he was NL Batter of the Day. He has earned 3.5 Box-Toppers points in two days.

American League Player of the Day—Kendrys Morales of the Royals doubled and went 4-for-5, scoring three times and driving in four runs, in the 15-7 win over the Tigers.

Morales had a Box-Toppers game score of 6.0, tied with Carlos Gonzalez. But Gonzalez won overall Player of the Day on a tiebreaker—he had more home runs than Morales (two vs. zero).

AL and NL Batters of the Day—There are no separate AL and NL Batters of the Day for Thursday because the overall Players of the Day in the two leagues were batters—Gonzalez and Morales. In fact, all of the six who earned Player of the Game honors Thursday were batters—no pitchers earned Player of the Game honors Thursday.

Debut—Hernan Perez of the Brewers made his Box-Toppers debut Thursday, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors. Perez (3B 3-3 R 2BI in the 5-3 win over the Pirates) made his Major League debut June 9, 2012, and was playing in his 131st career game. He is the 3,577th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.

Scoring—Gonzalez earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Morales earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being AL Player of the Day. All of Thursday’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

9/3 Score Team Player AB R H BI BB K IP H R ER BB K
MLB 6.0 Rockies Carlos Gonzalez, RF 5 3 4 4 0 1 - - - - - -
AL 6.0 Royals Kendrys Morales, DH 5 3 4 4 0 0 - - - - - -
6.0 Nationals Ryan Zimmerman, 1B 3 2 3 4 0 0 - - - - - -
4.0 Padres Yangervis Solarte, 3B-1B 5 3 4 2 0 0 - - - - - -
3.0 Brewers Hernan Perez, 3B 3 1 3 2 0 0 - - - - - -
3.0 White Sox J.B. Shuck, PH 1 1 1 2 0 0 - - - - - -