Mets' Jacob deGrom tops players for Sunday, July 17; Rangers' Hamels rises to 6th in Box-Toppers rankings

Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom is Sunday’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 July 17:  

	Player	Pos	Team	BTP
1	Kershaw, Clayton 2494	pi sp	lad nl	20.0
2	Fernandez, Jose 3147	pi sp	fla nl	14.4
3	Scherzer, Max 2588	pi sp	dc nl	14.0
4	Cueto, Johnny 2400	pi sp	sf nl	13.4
5	Kluber, Corey 3200	pi sp	cle al	12.5
6	Hamels, Cole 2135	pi sp	tex al	12.1
7	Strasburg, Stephen 2736	pi sp	dc nl	11.4
8	Bumgarner, Madison 2753	pi sp	sf nl	11.0
9	Arrieta, Jake 2738	pi sp	chi nl	10.7
10	Sale, Chris 2806	pi sp	chi al	10.7

What are those numbers after players' names?

Also Sunday, Rangers pitcher Cole Hamels rises to sixth in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors.

Player of the Day—deGrom pitched a complete-game, one-hit shutout, striking out seven and walking one, in the 5-0 win over the Phillies.

American League Player of the Day—Rangers pitcher Cole Hamels allowed one run over eight innings, striking out seven and allowing four hits and no walks, in the 4-1 win over the Cubs.

Hamels earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being American League Player of the Day, giving him 12.1 for the season and rising to sixth in player rankings, second among AL pitchers, behind Corey Kluber of the Indians (12.5).

Hamels also rises to 26th place in career Box-Toppers points among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. Hamels now has 138.3 career points, passing Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers (136.9) on the “all-time” list. Hamels now trails 25th-place player Andy Pettitte (138.5). Hamels now also ranks 10th among active players in career points.

American League Batter of the Day—Albert Pujols of the Angels hit a pair of two-run homers an went 2-for-3, in the 8-1 win over the White Sox.

Pujols now has 177.8 career Box-Toppers points, maintaining his sixth-place rank among all players since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. (See the updated top 20 rankings on the home page.) He trails Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw (179.3). He remains in second among all batters since 1995, trailing Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees (187.0). Pujols has 3.5 Box-Toppers points for the season, 35th among AL batters.

National League Batter of the Day—Christian Bethncourt of the Padres homered and went 2-for-4, scoring twice, in the 5-3 win over the Giants.

Streak—Tigers closing pitcher Francisco Rodriguez has now earned Box-Toppers points in 14 straight seasons after earning his first Player of the Game honors of the year Sunday.

Rodriguez (1IP 0H 0R 0BB K W in the 4-2 win over the Royals) earned his first Box-Toppers points in 2003 with the Angels and has 61.4 career points, most among active closing pitchers and 11th among all closing pitchers since 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. His best years were 2005 and 2008 with the Angels when he had 10.0 Box-Toppers points each season—he was second among AL closers in 2005 and third in 2008. Rodriguez had 1.0 Box-Toppers point in 2015 with the Brewers.

Debut—Pirates pitcher Chad Kuhl made his Box-Toppers debut Sunday, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors.

Kuhl (6IP H 0R 0BB 5K ND in the 2-1, 18-inning win over the Nationals) made his Major League debut June 26 and was playing in his fourth career game. He is the 3,687th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.

Scoring—deGrom earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Hamels earns 1.7 points for being AL Player of the Day. Pujols and Bethancourt 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.

Top player from each game

Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score

7/17	Score	Game	Player of Game	AB	R	H	BI		IP	H	R	ER	BB	K
MLB	14.0	NYM 5/PHI 0	Jacob deGrom (W,6-4)	-	-	-	-		9.0	1	0	0	1	7
AL	10.0	TEX 4/CHC 1	Cole Hamels (W,10-2)	-	-	-	-		8.0	4	1	0	0	7
	10.0	`PIT 2/DC 1	Chad Kuhl	-	-	-	-		6.0	1	0	0	0	5
	8.0	ARI 6/LAD 5	Robbie Ray (W,5-8)	-	-	-	-		7.0	4	0	0	2	7
	8.0	HOU 8/SEA 1	Collin McHugh (W,6-6)	-	-	-	-		6.0	4	0	0	4	10
	8.0	`ATL 1/COL 0	Julio Teheran	-	-	-	-		7.0	3	0	0	1	5
	7.0	NYY 3/BOS 1	Masahiro Tanaka (W,7-2)	-	-	-	-		6.0	3	1	1	1	7
	7.0	`CIN 1/MIL 0	Dan Straily	-	-	-	-		7.0	3	0	0	1	4
BAT	5.0	LAA 8/CHW 1	Albert Pujols, DH	3	2	2	4		-	-	-	-	-	-
	4.2	MIA 6/STL 3	Kyle Barraclough (W,5-2)	-	-	-	-		1.2	0	0	0	0	3
	3.0	TB 5/BAL 2	Oswaldo Arcia, LF	1	1	1	2		-	-	-	-	-	-
	3.0	TOR 5/OAK 3	Jason Grilli (W,4-3)	-	-	-	-		1.0	0	0	0	0	2
	2.2	CLE 6/MIN 1	Josh Tomlin (W,10-2)	-	-	-	-		7.2	6	1	1	1	4
	2.0	DET 4/KC 2	Francisco Rodriguez (W,1-0)	-	-	-	-		1.0	0	0	0	0	1
BAT	1.0	SD 5/SF 3	Christian Bethancourt, C	4	2	2	1		-	-	-	-	-	-
		`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	+/-
Hamels, Cole 2135	pi sp	tex al	12.1	27.5	79.1	138.3	-3.3
Tanaka, Masahiro 3305	pi sp	nyy al	7.7	15.7	28.4	28.4	-0.3
deGrom, Jacob 3343	pi sp	nym nl	6.0	28.4	41.4	41.4	-16.4
Teheran, Julio 3176	pi sp	atl nl	6.0	13.7	41.8	41.8	-1.7
McHugh, Collin 3316	pi sp	hou al	5.0	14.7	26.5	26.5	-4.7
Tomlin, Josh 2771	pi sp	cle al	5.0	9.7	22.4	24.4	0.3
Ray, Robbie 3502	pi sp	ari nl	3.7	7.7	7.7	7.7	-0.3
Pujols, Albert 1438	1b dh	ana al	3.5	10.5	40.5	177.8	-3.5
Bethancourt, Christian 3407	ca ph	sd nl	3.0	4.0	5.0	5.0	2.0
Grilli, Jason 2209	pi mr cp	tor al	1.0	6.0	16.7	25.4	-4.0
Rodriguez, Francisco 1707	pi cp	det al	1.0	2.0	15.0	61.4	0.0
Barraclough, Kyle 3583	pi mr	fla nl	1.0	2.0	2.0	2.0	0.0
Arcia, Oswaldo 3166	lf	tb al	1.0	1.0	8.0	8.0	1.0
Straily, Dan 3080	pi sp	cin nl	1.0	1.0	11.7	11.7	1.0
Kuhl, Chad 3687	pi sp	pit nl	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0

What are those numbers after players' names?