Dodgers' Kazmir tops players for Tuesday, May 31; Marlins' Fernandez rises to 2nd in Box-Toppers rankings

Dodgers pitcher Scott Kazmir is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day and becomes the 70th player since 1995 to earn 100 or more career Box-Toppers points.

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2016 season as of May 31:  

	Player	Pos	Team	BTP
1	Kershaw, Clayton 2494	pi sp	lad nl	14.0
2	Fernandez, Jose 3147	pi sp	fla nl	9.7
3	Cueto, Johnny 2400	pi sp	sf nl	9.0
4	Arrieta, Jake 2738	pi sp	chi nl	8.7
5	Sale, Chris 2806	pi sp	chi al	8.7
6	Machado, Manny 3087	ss 3b	bal al	8.7
7	Matz, Steven 3516	pi sp	nym nl	8.7
8	Hill, Rich 2215	pi sp	oak al	8.4
9	Syndergaard, Noah 3472	pi sp	nym nl	7.0
10	Hamels, Cole 2135	pi sp	tex al	6.4

What are those numbers after players' names?

Also Tuesday, Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez rose to second place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors.

Player of the Day—Kazmir pitched six scoreless innings, allowing one hit and striking out seven, in the 5-0 win over the Cubs. Kazmir did not earn the win, picking up a no decision because the game was tied when he exited.

Kazmir earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 101.4 career Box-Toppers points. He becomes the 70th player with 100 or more points since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. With his points Tuesday, he rises to 64th place on Box-Toppers “all-time” list, passing seven players—Red Sox pitcher David Price (99.5), Larry Walker (100.1), Jeff Bagwell (100.4), Paul Konerko (100.7), Carlos Beltran of the Yankees (100.9), Jason Schmidt (101.2) and Tim Wakefield (101.4). Kazmir trails 63rd-ranked player Ken Griffey Jr. (102.2).

Kazmir has 5.0 Box-Toppers points for the season, 15th among National League pitchers.

American League Player of the Day—Mookie Betts of the Red Sox hit three home runs, going 3-for-5 and driving in five runs, in the 6-2 win over the Orioles.

National League Batter of the Day—DJ LeMahieu of the Rockies homered and hit two doubles, going 4-for-4, scoring four times and driving in two runs, in the 17-4 win over the Reds.

American League Batter of the Day—There is no separate AL Batter of the Day for Tuesday because the AL Player of the Day is a batter, Mookie Betts.

Rankings—Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez rose to second place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Tuesday.

Fernandez (7IP 3H 0R 6K W in the 3-1 win over the Pirates) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 9.7 for the season, rising to second in season player rankings, trailing only Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw (14.0). 

Notable—Giants pitcher Jake Peavy rises to 24th place among all players in career Box-Toppers points since 1995 after earning Player of the Game honors Tuesday.

Peavy (7IP H 0R 3K W in the 4-0 win over the Braves) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 138.8 career points, passing Andy Pettitte (138.5) on the “all-time” list. He now trails 23rd-ranked player David Ortiz of the Red Sox (141.4). Peavy has 2.0 Box-Toppers points for the season.

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

• Tyler Saladino of the White Sox (HR 2-2 2R 2BI in the 6-4 win over the Mets) made his Major League debut July 10, 2015, and was playing in his 93rd career game. He is the 3,645th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
• Blue Jays pitcher Joe Biagini (1IP H 0R 2K W in the 4-1 win over the Yankees) made his Major League debut April 8 and was playing in his 17th career game. He is the 3,646th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.

Scoring—Kazmir earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Betts earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. LeMahieu earns 1.5 points for being NL 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

5/31	Score	Game	Player of Game	AB	R	H	BI		IP	H	R	ER	BB	K
MLB	11.0	`LAD 5/CHC 0	Scott Kazmir	-	-	-	-		6.0	1	0	0	1	7
	10.0	MIA 3/PIT 1	Jose Fernandez (W,8-2)	-	-	-	-		7.0	3	0	0	0	6
	9.0	SF 4/ATL 0	Jake Peavy (W,2-5)	-	-	-	-		7.0	1	0	0	0	3
AL	6.0	BOS 6/BAL 2	Mookie Betts, RF	5	3	3	5		-	-	-	-	-	-
BAT	6.0	COL 17/CIN 4	DJ LeMahieu, 2B	4	4	4	2		-	-	-	-	-	-
	5.0	STL 10/MIL 3	Matt Carpenter, 3B	5	4	4	2		-	-	-	-	-	-
	5.0	SEA 16/SD 4	Kyle Seager, 3B	4	2	3	4		-	-	-	-	-	-
	5.0	HOU 8/ARI 5	George Springer, RF	4	2	3	4		-	-	-	-	-	-
	5.0	LAA 11/DET 9	C.J. Cron, DH	4	2	2	5		-	-	-	-	-	-
	5.0	DC 5/PHI 1	Joe Ross (W,5-4)	-	-	-	-		7.0	3	1	1	2	5
	4.0	KC 10/TB 5	Lorenzo Cain, CF	4	2	2	4		-	-	-	-	-	-
	4.0	CHW 6/NYM 4	Tyler Saladino, SS	2	2	2	2		-	-	-	-	-	-
	4.0	TEX 7/CLE 3	Colby Lewis (W,5-0)	-	-	-	-		6.0	2	0	0	2	2
	3.0	OAK 7/MIN 4	Danny Valencia, 3B	4	2	2	3		-	-	-	-	-	-
	2.0	TOR 4/NYY 1	Joe Biagini (W,3-1)	-	-	-	-		1.0	1	0	0	0	2
		`Denotes that the 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 (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	+/-
Fernandez, Jose 3147	pi sp	fla nl	9.7	14.4	40.4	40.4	5.0
Lewis, Colby 1567	pi sp	tex al	5.7	13.4	31.6	43.0	-2.0
Kazmir, Scott 1947	pi sp	lad nl	5.0	17.7	45.6	101.4	-7.7
Cain, Lorenzo 3171	cf	kc al	5.0	13.2	19.2	19.2	-3.2
Ross, Joe 3499	pi sp	dc nl	4.7	9.7	9.7	9.7	-0.3
Betts, Mookie 3404	rf	bos al	4.7	7.7	9.7	9.7	1.7
Valencia, Danny 2772	3b	oak al	4.5	8.0	10.0	13.0	1.0
LeMahieu, DJ 3091	2b	col nl	3.5	10.5	16.5	16.5	-3.5
Carpenter, Matt 2987	3b 1b	stl nl	3.5	9.0	23.5	23.5	-2.0
Seager, Kyle 3031	3b	sea al	3.5	8.5	22.5	22.5	-1.5
Springer, George 3337	rf	hou al	3.5	4.5	7.5	7.5	2.5
Peavy, Jake 1635	pi sp	sf nl	2.0	7.0	35.1	138.8	-3.0
Cron, C.J. 3338	dh 1b	ana al	1.0	7.0	8.0	8.0	-5.0
Biagini, Joe 3646	pi mr	tor al	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0
Saladino, Tyler 3645	ss	chi al	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0

What are those numbers after players' names?