Trout, Schwarber, Kimbrel among players rising into Box-Toppers’ All-Star teams in past week

Mike Trout, Kyle Schwarber and Craig Kimbrel are among the players rising into Box-Toppers’ All-Star teams in the past week.

With Major League All-Star voting underway, here is a look at who is leading at Box-Toppers points at each position in both leagues.

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Padres' Tyson Ross tops players for Friday, April 20; Nationals' Scherzer rises to top player rankings

Padres pitcher Tyson Ross is Friday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.

Also Friday, Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer reclaims top spot in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors.

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Dbacks' Zack Godley tops players for Thursday, July 27; 2nd-ranked Scherzer edges closer to leader Kershaw

Diamondbacks pitcher Zack Godley is Thursday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.

Also Thursday, Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer, ranked second in Box-Toppers season player rankings, earns Player of the Game honors. He becomes the second player this season with 20 Box-Toppers points, his fourth straight season with 20 points. Also, he rises to 19th place onBox-Toppers’ “all-time” career points list.

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Jake Arrieta tops players in World Series Game 2 as Cubs even series with Indians, 1-1

Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta is Box-Toppers Player of the Game in World Series Game 2 Wednesday.

The Chicago Cubs win 5-1 to even the best-of-seven series with the Cleveland Indians, 1-1.

Arrieta allowed one run over 5 2/3 innings, allowing two hits, three walks and striking out six. He had a Box-Toppers game score of +4.2, most of any Cubs player Wednesday. It is the first time this postseason he has earned Player of the Game honors.

Arrieta has 15.7 Box-Toppers points during the regular season, ninth among all players, sixth among NL pitchers. He led all players in Box-Toppers points in 2015 with 29.1.

Kyle Schwarber had the highest Box-Toppers game score (+1.0) among Cubs batters Wednesday (2-4 R 2BI). Opposing starting pitcher Trevor Bauer of the Indians had a Box-Toppers game score of −6.8 (3.2IP 6H 2R 2BB 2K L).

Thursday is a travel day and the World Series resumes Friday in Chicago with Game 3.

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 Cubs in World Series Game 2: Cubs 5, Indians 1

Here are the Box-Toppers game scores of all Cubs who played in World Series Game 2 listed from highest-to-lowest Box-Toppers game score.

BTG Player AB R H BI BB K IP H R ER BB K
4.2 * Jake Arrieta (W,1-1) - - - - - - 5.2 2 1 1 3 6
3.0 Mike Montgomery - - - - - - 2.0 2 0 0 1 4
2.1 Aroldis Chapman - - - - - - 1.1 0 0 0 1 2
1.0 Kyle Schwarber, DH 4 1 2 2 1 2 - - - - - -
1.0 Anthony Rizzo, 1B 3 2 1 1 2 0 - - - - - -
0.0 Ben Zobrist, LF 4 1 2 1 1 0 - - - - - -
-2.0 Addison Russell, SS 4 0 1 1 0 0 - - - - - -
-2.0 Jorge Soler, RF 2 0 0 0 1 0 - - - - - -
-2.0 Jason Heyward, PR-RF 2 0 0 0 0 1 - - - - - -
-3.0 Kris Bryant, 3B 5 1 1 0 0 1 - - - - - -
-3.0 Willson Contreras, C 3 0 0 0 2 0 - - - - - -
-4.0 Dexter Fowler, CF 5 0 1 0 0 2 - - - - - -
-4.0 Javier Baez, 2B 5 0 1 0 0 2 - - - - - -
* Player of the Game
BTG: Box-Toppers game score

Coming Friday in Chicago:

World Series Game 3, Indians at Cubs, series tied, 1-1

The pitching matchup Friday:

Indians—Josh Tomlin, 5.0 Box-Toppers points, 202nd among all players, 63rd among American League pitchers. Tomlin was Player of the Game in the American League Championship Series Game 2 vs. the Blue Jays.

Cubs—Kyle Hendricks, 13.4 Box-Toppers points, ranked 17th among all players, 10th among National League pitchers. Hendricks was Player of the Game in the National League Championship Game 6 vs. the Dodgers.

Box-Toppers World Series preview

Box-Toppers 2016 final team rankings

Box-Toppers 2016 final top 10 player rankings

Box-Toppers point totals of all Cubs players active at season’s end

Box-Toppers point totals of all Indians players active at season’s end

Box-Toppers ALCS Preview

Box-Toppers NLCS Preview

Game 2 narrative via Box-Toppers Twitter feed

Here are real-time tweets from Box-Toppers Wednesday as World Series Game 2 progressed:

Angels' Shoemaker tops players for Tuesday, July 21; Mets' deGrom rises to 3rd in Box-Toppers player rankings

Angels pitcher Matt Shoemaker is Tuesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.

Also Tuesday, Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom rose to third place in Box-Toppers season player rankings, Giants pitcher Chris Heston became the 16th player this season with 10 Box-Toppers points and Matt Holliday of the Cardinals earned Box-Toppers points for the 12th straight season.

Top 10 players

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


 Player Pos Team BTP
1 Scherzer, Max 2588 pi sp dc nl 15.0
2 Hernandez, Felix 2064 pi sp sea al 14.4
3 deGrom, Jacob 3343 pi sp nym nl 14.4
4 Sale, Chris 2806 pi sp chi al 13.4
5 Price, David 2593 pi sp det al 13.1
6 Keuchel, Dallas 3050 pi sp hou al 12.7
7 Greinke, Zack 1871 pi sp lad nl 12.0
8 Archer, Chris 3194 pi sp tb al 12.0
9 Cole, Gerrit 3232 pi sp pit nl 12.0
10 Martinez, Carlos 3371 pi sp stl nl 11.7
What are those numbers after players' names?

Player of the Day—Shoemaker pitched six scoreless innings, striking out 10 and allowing two hits, in the 7-0 win over the Twins.

National League Player of the Day—Giants pitcher Chris Heston pitched 7 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing one hit and striking out six, in the 9-3 win over the Padres.

Heston earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being NL Player of the Day, giving him 10.4 for the season, rising to 15th place in Box-Toppers season player rankings, ninth among NL pitchers. He is the 16th player this season with 10 or more Box-Toppers points.

American League Batter of the Day—Shin-Soo Choo of the Rangers hit for the cycle and went 4-for-5, scoring three times and driving in three, in the 9-0 win over the Rockies.

National League Batter of the Day—Matt Holliday of the Cardinals hit a grand slam and went 2-for-4, scoring two runs, in the 8-5 win over the White Sox.

Holliday earned 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being NL Batter of the Day, his first points of the season, and has now earned Box-Toppers points for 12 straight seasons. He earned his first Box-Toppers points in 2004 with the Rockies. His best season was 2007 with the Rockies when he had 16.2 points, first among NL batters and seventh among all players. In 2014, he had 7.5 points with the Cardinals, eighth among NL batters.

Holliday has 91.8 career Box-Toppers points and ranks 88th among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers record keeping began. Holliday ranks first among active NL outfielders in career Box-Toppers points and third among active NL batters, behind Aramis Ramirez of the Brewers (103.3) and Ryan Howard of the Phillies (93.2).

Rankings—Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom rose to third place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors Tuesday.

deGrom (6IP 3H 2R 8K W in the 7-2 win over the Nationals) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 14.4 for the season. He ranks second among NL pitchers behind overall leader Max Scherzer of the Nationals (15.0).

Debut—Kyle Schwarber of the Cubs made his Box-Toppers debut Tuesday, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors. Schwarber hit two home runs—a game-tying two-run homer in the ninth and a go-ahead homer in the 13th—in the 5-4 win over the Reds. Schwarber (4-7 2R 4BI) made his Major League debut June 16 and was playing in his 11th career game. He is the 3,536th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.

Scoring—Shoemaker earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Heston earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being NL Player of the Day. Choo and Holliday 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

7/21 Score Team Player AB R H BI BB K IP H R ER BB K
MLB 11.0 Angels Matt Shoemaker (W,5-7) - - - - - - 6.0 2 0 0 3 10
NL 10.1 Giants Chris Heston (W,10-5) - - - - - - 7.1 1 0 0 2 6
9.0 Marlins Mat Latos (W,4-6) - - - - - - 7.0 4 0 0 1 7
7.0 Mets Jacob deGrom (W,10-6) - - - - - - 6.0 3 2 2 0 8
6.2 `Royals Joe Blanton - - - - - - 3.2 2 0 0 0 5
BAT 5.0 Rangers Shin-Soo Choo, RF 5 3 4 3 0 0 - - - - - -
5.0 Mariners Franklin Gutierrez, PH-LF 1 1 1 4 0 0 - - - - - -
BAT 4.0 Cardinals Matt Holliday, DH 4 2 2 4 1 0 - - - - - -
4.0 Rays Nathan Karns (W,5-5) - - - - - - 5.0 3 0 0 2 4
3.0 Cubs Kyle Schwarber, C 7 2 4 4 0 2 - - - - - -
3.0 Brewers Jean Segura, SS 4 2 3 2 0 0 - - - - - -
3.0 Astros Chris Carter, DH 3 2 2 2 1 0 - - - - - -
2.1 `Yankees Dellin Betances (H,15) - - - - - - 1.1 1 0 0 0 2
2.0 Blue Jays Russell Martin, C 4 1 2 3 0 0 - - - - - -
1.0 Braves Chris Johnson, 1B 4 0 3 2 0 0 - - - - - -
`Denotes that the pitcher had a no-decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save.