Mets’ deGrom tops players for Monday, Sept. 9; Bieber, Greinke rise in top 10 rankings

Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom is Monday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2019 season through the games of Sept. 9.
 
Player Pos Team BTP
1 Cole, Gerrit 3232 pi sp hou al 26.2
2 Verlander, Justin 2112 pi sp hou al 24.8
3 Strasburg, Stephen 2736 pi sp dc nl 18.7
4 Bieber, Shane 4005 pi sp cle al 17.1
5 Morton, Charlie 2503 pi sp tb al 16.8
6 Hader, Josh 3881 pi cp mil nl 16.7
7 Scherzer, Max 2588 pi sp dc nl 15.4
8 Clevinger, Mike 3707 pi sp cle al 15.4
9 Ryu, Hyun-Jin 3139 pi sp lad nl 15.4
10 Greinke, Zack 1871 sp pi hou al 14.9
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Also Monday, Indians pitcher Shane Bieber rises to fourth in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors. Plus, Astros pitcher Zack Greinke rises to 10th in season player rankings and rises to fourth place in Box-Toppers “all-time” career points rankings after earning American League Player of the Day honors.

Player of the Day—deGrom struck out 11 over seven innings, allowing one run, three hits and one walk, in the 3-1 win over the Diamondbacks.

deGrom earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 13.4 for the season, 17th among all players and ninth among National League pitchers.

American League Player of the Day—Astros pitcher Zack Greinke struck out five over six scoreless innings, allowing two hits and no walks, in the 15-0 win over the Athletics.

Greinke earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being AL Player of the Day, giving him 14.9 for the season, 10th among all players and sixth among AL pitchers.

All-time leaders

Here are Box-Toppers top 20 players since record keeping began in 1995:
 

Player Pos Team BTP
1 Randy Johnson pi sp retired 278.8
2 Pedro Martinez pi sp retired 244.8
3 Clayton Kershaw pi sp lad nl 226.5
4 Zack Greinke pi sp hou al 204.1
5 CC Sabathia pi sp nyy al 203.4
6 Justin Verlander pi sp hou al 202.9
7 Albert Pujols 1b dh ana al 200.8
8 Max Scherzer pi sp dc nl 197.2
9 Curt Schilling pi sp retired 194.1
10 Alex Rodriguez dh retired 187.0
11 Felix Hernandez pi sp sea al 174.1
12 Jon Lester pi sp chi nl 172.6
13 Cole Hamels pi sp chi nl 172.2
14 Roy Halladay pi sp retired 170.7
15 Manny Ramirez lf dh retired 167.2
16 Johan Santana pi sp retired 166.6
17 Roger Clemens pi sp retired 164.8
18 John Smoltz pi sp retired 160.9
19 Tim Hudson pi sp retired 157.0
20 Bartolo Colon pi sp free agent 155.9
BTP: Box-Toppers points
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations
List of top 100 players since 1995 as of the 2019 All-Star break.

Greinke also now has 204.1 career Box-Toppers points rising two spots from sixth to fourth place on the “all-time” career points list (tracking began in 1995). With his 1.7 points earned Monday, Greinke passes teammate Justin Verlander (202.9) and Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia (203.4). He now trails third-ranked player, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw (226.5). Passing Verlander and Sabathia, Greinke now ranks second among active players in career points, behind only Kershaw. Verlander had just passed Greinke on the “all-time” points list on Saturday.

Sabathia falls to third place among active players in career points. He had been in second place since April 14, 2017, when he was passed by Kershaw for the lead among active players in career points. Sabathia, 39, plans to retire at the end of the season and is currently on the injured list.

This is Greinke’s first Player of the Game honor since being traded from the Diamondbacks to the Astros on July 31. That day, Greinke ranked 10th in Box-Toppers season player rankings but fell out of the overall top 10 on Aug. 5. With his rise back into the top 10 Monday, the Astros now have three pitchers among the overall top 10—top-ranked Gerrit Cole (26.2), second-ranked Justin Verlander (24.8) and Greinke. Greinke’s rise into the top 10 displaces Nationals pitcher Patrick Corbin (14.4), who falls to 11th, which means the Nationals go from having three to two pitchers on the overall top 10—third-ranked Stephen Strasburg (18.7) and seventh-ranked Max Scherzer (15.4).

National League Batter of the Day—Nico Hoerner of the Cubs tripled and went 3-for-5, scoring twice and driving in four runs, in the 10-2 win over the Padres.

This was Hoerner’s Box-Toppers debut, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors. It was also his Major League debut.

American League Batter of the Day—There is no separate AL Batter of the Day for Monday because no AL batters earned Player of the Game honors.

Rankings—Indians pitcher Shane Bieber rises from sixth to fourth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Monday.

Bieber (7IP 5H R 0BB 8K W in the 6-2 win over the Angels) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 17.1 for the season, third among AL pitchers, behind Astros pitchers Gerrit Cole (26.2) and Justin Verlander (24.8).

Notable—Yankees pitcher James Paxton now has 12.1 Box-Toppers points on the season—21st among all players and ninth among AL pitchers—after earning Player of the Game honors Monday (6.2IP 4H 0R 3BB 7K W in the 5-0 win over the Red Sox).

Debut—Trent Grisham of the Brewers made his Box-Toppers debut Monday with his first career Player of the Game honor.

Grisham (3B 2B 5-6 2R 2BI in the 8-3 win over the Marlins) made his Major League debut Aug. 1 and was playing in his 32nd career game.

Scoring—deGrom earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Greinke earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Hoerner earns 1.5 points for being NL Batter of the Day. All of Monday’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 (BTG)

9/9 BTG Game Player AB R H BI IP H R ER BB K
MLB +12.0 NYM 3, ARI 1 Jacob deGrom (W, 9‑8) 7.0 3 1 1 1 11
+9.0 ATL 7, PHI 2 Mike Foltynewicz (W, 6‑5) 7.0 3 1 1 0 7
AL +9.0 HOU 15, OAK 0 Zack Greinke (W, 15‑5) 6.0 2 0 0 0 5
+8.0 CLE 6, LAA 2 Shane Bieber (W, 14‑7) 7.0 5 1 1 0 8
+6.2 NYY 5, BOS 0 James Paxton (W, 13‑6) 6.2 4 0 0 3 7
BAT +4.0 CHC 10, SD 2 Nico Hoerner SS 5 2 3 4
+3.0 MIL 8, MIA 3 Trent Grisham LF 6 2 5 2
+3.0 PIT 6, SF 4 Felipe Vazquez (S, 26) 1.0 0 0 0 0 2
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 Player of the Game winners. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total for the current season (’19). Also shown are each players’ Box-Toppers point total for this season and last (’18-19), the period 2014-2019 (’14-19) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2019 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2018 total (+/-).

Player of the Game Pos Team ’19 ’18‑19 ’14‑19 Career +/‑
Bieber, Shane 4005 pi sp cle al 17.1 23.5 23.5 23.5 +10.7
Greinke, Zack 1871 pi sp hou al 14.9 27.9 94.9 204.1 +1.9
deGrom, Jacob 3343 pi sp nym nl 13.4 30.2 91.0 91.0 -3.4
Paxton, James 3280 pi sp nyy al 12.1 29.1 51.2 53.9 -4.9
Vazquez, Felipe 3579 pi cp pit nl 8.7 14.7 19.7 19.7 +2.7
Foltynewicz, Mike 3455 pi sp atl nl 3.0 16.7 27.4 27.4 -10.7
Hoerner, Nico 4245 ss chi nl 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 +1.5
Grisham, Trent 4246 lf mil nl 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 +1.0
What are those numbers after players' names?
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations