Blog
The Los Angeles Dodgers lead Box-Toppers team rankings report for the second week.
Meanwhile, the Houston Astros rise to lead American League teams, passing the New York Yankees, who led AL teams for the past 13 weeks. Plus, the Atlanta Braves are the week’s hottest team, rising to second place overall.
Read MoreBoth American League Division Series begin Monday.
The Houston Astros face the Oakland Athletics in one best-of-five game series and the New York Yankees take on the Tampa Bay Rays in the other series.
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The Los Angeles Dodgers finish the 2020 season atop Box-Toppers team rankings, leading rankings for the sixth straight week.
Meanwhile, the Oakland Athletics rise to lead American League teams and the Cleveland Indians are the hottest team since the last rankings report Sept. 17.
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The Los Angeles Dodgers rise to lead Box-Toppers weekly team rankings.
Meanwhile, the Oakland Athletics maintain their lead among American League teams and the Cleveland Indians are the week’s hottest team.
Read MoreBraves pitcher Robbie Erlin is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Erlin struck out five over four scoreless innings, allowing one hit and no walks, in the 4-0 win over the Marlins. Erlin did not earn the win, picking up a no-decision, because he did not pitch the required five innings needed to earn the win. Also, the game was in a scoreless tie when he exited.
Read MoreNationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg is Thursday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Thursday, Indians pitcher Trevor Bauer rises to lead Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning American League Player of the Day honors.
Read MoreMets pitcher Noah Syndergaard is Sunday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Sunday, Anthony Rizzo of the Cubs rises to lead National League batters in Box-Toppers points after earning NL Batter of the Day honors.
Read MoreRockies pitcher Tyler Anderson is Wednesday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Wednesday, Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola rises to fifth place in Box-Toppers season player rankings after earning Player of the Game honors.
Read MoreBrewers pitcher Jimmy Nelson is Friday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Friday, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw retakes the season Box-Toppers player rankings lead only four days after losing it to Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer. Kershaw, making his first start Friday after returning from five weeks on the disabled list, earns Player of the Game honors and retakes the 2017 Box-Toppers points lead he held for more than three months.
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Mike Moustakas of the Royals is Thursday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.
Also Thursday, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw did not earn Player of the Game honors in his start, greatly reducing the chances that he will take the Box-Toppers point lead this season and further solidifying Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta’s chances that he will end the season as leader.
| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Arrieta, Jake 2738 | pi sp | chi nl | 25.1 |
| 2 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 22.7 |
| 3 | Price, David 2593 | pi sp | tor al | 21.1 |
| 4 | deGrom, Jacob 3343 | pi sp | nym nl | 20.4 |
| 5 | Keuchel, Dallas 3050 | pi sp | hou al | 20.4 |
| 6 | Greinke, Zack 1871 | pi sp | lad nl | 19.7 |
| 7 | Hernandez, Felix 2064 | pi sp | sea al | 19.4 |
| 8 | Cole, Gerrit 3232 | pi sp | pit nl | 18.0 |
| 9 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | chi al | 17.1 |
| 10 | Bumgarner, Madison 2753 | pi sp | sf nl | 17.0 |
Player of the Day—Moustakas homered, doubled and went 3-for-3, scoring three times and driving in two runs, in the 10-4 win over the Mariners.
National League Player of the Day—Stephen Piscotty of the Cardinals homered and went 3-for-4, driving in four runs, in the 7-3 win over the Brewers.
American League and National League Batters of the Day—There are no separate AL and NL Batters of the Day for Thursday because both the overall Player of the Day and the NL Player of the Day were batters—Mike Moustakas and Stephen Piscotty.
Notable—Mets closing pitcher Jeurys Familia has the highest Box-Toppers point total of any of the 12 who earned Player of the Game honors Thursday. Familia (1IP 0H 0R K Sv in the 6-4 win over the Reds) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 8.0 for the season. He ranks 81st among all players, 27th among NL pitchers and second among NL closers, behind Aroldis Champman of the Reds (8.0 points).
Kershaw, Arrieta and the Box-Toppers points lead—While Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers won his game, he did not earn Player of the Game honors. Kershaw (5IP 6H 3R 9K W in the 6-3 win over the Diamondbacks) had a Box-Toppers game score of +1. Player of the Game was Chris Heisey (1-3 R 4BI) with a Box-Toppers game score of +3.
Kershaw’s chances to repeat as Box-Toppers points leaders and his chances to repeat as leader among NL pitchers for the fifth straight season now seem to be greatly diminished. With 10 days left in the season, Kershaw probably will not make more than one more start and he already trails overall Box-Toppers points leader, Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta (25.1), by 2.4 points. If Kershaw makes one more start, the most he can earn is 2.0 points, giving him 24.7, short of Arrieta’s total.
But if Kershaw does make two more starts—or even two more appearances this season—he may have a chance, but would have to earn at least Player of the Game honors in both games. However, if Arrieta earns overall Player of the Day honors in his start Sunday, he would probably wrap up Box-Toppers Player of the Year honors, barring any miracle by another player.
The only other player who has a realistic chance of catching or passing Arrieta is Blue Jays pitcher David Price. Price has 21.1 Box-Toppers points, third place among all players and trails Arrieta by 4.0 Box-Toppers points. Price likely has two starts remaining, the first of which is Saturday. Price would have to earn overall Player of the Day honors in both starts, earning 2.0 Box-Toppers points each time, to give him 25.1 Box-Toppers points, the same total Arrieta currently has. Price would win the tiebreaker over Arrieta because he had more Box-Toppers points in 2014—19.1 vs. 14.7. But again, if Arrieta even earns Player of the Game honors in a start, Price would have no realistic shot of catching him.
Rankings—Two other pitchers in Box-Toppers top 10 season player rankings started Thursday, but neither earned Player of the Game honors:
Scoring—Moustakas earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Piscotty earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being NL 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.
Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score
| 9/24 | Score | Team | Player | AB | R | H | BI | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 6.0 | Royals | Mike Moustakas, 3B | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 5.0 | Rays | Erasmo Ramirez (W,11-6) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 6 | ||
| NL | 4.0 | Cardinals | Stephen Piscotty, 1B-LF | 4 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 3.1 | `Marlins | Chris Narveson | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 3.0 | Padres | Derek Norris, C | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | Dodgers | Chris Heisey, CF-RF | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | Pirates | Mark Melancon (S,50) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 2.0 | Rangers | Delino DeShields, CF | 5 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | Yankees | Carlos Beltran, RF | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | Orioles | Matt Wieters, C | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | Indians | Carlos Santana, DH | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | Mets | Jeurys Familia (S,42) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| `Denotes that the pitcher had a no-decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save. | ||||||||||||||||
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):
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:
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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 …
(Other duties have put us behind updating Box-Toppers. Playing catch up …)
Mets pitcher Logan Verrett is Box-Toppers Player of the Day for Sunday, Aug. 23.
Verrett struck out eight over eight innings, allowing one run and four hits, in the 5-1 win over the Rockies.
| Player | Pos | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | deGrom, Jacob 3343 | pi sp | nym nl | 19.4 |
| 2 | Price, David 2593 | pi sp | tor al | 17.1 |
| 3 | Sale, Chris 2806 | pi sp | chi al | 17.1 |
| 4 | Kershaw, Clayton 2494 | pi sp | lad nl | 16.7 |
| 5 | Scherzer, Max 2588 | pi sp | dc nl | 16.0 |
| 6 | Greinke, Zack 1871 | pi sp | lad nl | 16.0 |
| 7 | Gray, Sonny 3259 | pi sp | oak al | 15.8 |
| 8 | Hernandez, Felix 2064 | pi sp | sea al | 15.4 |
| 9 | Arrieta, Jake 2738 | pi sp | chi nl | 15.4 |
| 10 | Harvey, Matt 3075 | pi sp | nym nl | 15.4 |
American League Player of the Day—Edwin Encarnacion of the Blue Jays homered and went 4-for-4, scoring twice and driving in four runs, in the 12-5 win over the Angels.
Encarnacion earned 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being AL Player of the Day, giving him 8.4 for the season, rising to third among AL batters, behind Mike Trout of the Angels (10.0 Box-Toppers points) and Josh Donaldson of the Blue Jays (9.9 points).
National League Batter of the Day—Stephen Piscotty of the Cardinals homered twice, hit a triple and went 3-for-4, driving in five runs, in the 10-3 win over the Padres.
This was Piscotty’s Box-Toppers debut, the first time in his career he earned Player of the Game honors. Piscotty made his Major League debut July 21 and was playing in his 30th career game. He is the 3,570th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
American League Batter of the Day—There is no separate AL Batter of the Day for Sunday because the overall AL Player of the Day is a batter, Edwin Encarnacion.
Notable—Kris Bryant of the Cubs had the highest Box-Toppers player ranking of any of the 15 who earned Player of the Game honors Sunday. Bryant (2HR 3-4 4R 3BI in the 9-3 win over the Braves) earned 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 8.5 for the season. He ranks 42nd among all players and fourth among NL batters.
Debut—In addition to Piscotty, one other player made his Box-Toppers debut Sunday—Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola had his first career Player of the Game honor. Nola (8IP 3H 0R 6K W in the 2-0 win over the Marlins) made his Major League debut July 21 and was playing in his seventh career game. He is the 3,569th player to debut in Box-Toppers since record keeping began in 1995.
Nola had a Box-Toppers game score of +9.0, the same as Mets pitcher Logan Verrett, Sunday’s overall Player of the Day. But Verrett won Player of the Day on a tiebreaker because he had more strikeouts than Nola—eight vs. six.
Scoring—Verrett earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day and Encarnacion earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being AL Player of the Day. Piscotty earns 1.5 Box-Toppers points for being NL 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.
Listed from highest to lowest Box-Toppers game score
| 8/23 | Score | Team | Player | AB | R | H | BI | BB | K | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | |
| MLB | 9.0 | Mets | Logan Verrett (W,1-1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | |
| 9.0 | Phillies | Aaron Nola (W,4-1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 8.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | ||
| AL | 6.0 | Blue Jays | Edwin Encarnacion, DH | 4 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| BAT | 6.0 | Cardinals | Stephen Piscotty, LF-RF | 4 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | |
| 6.0 | Cubs | Kris Bryant, 3B | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 5.0 | `Athletics | Kendall Graveman | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | ||
| 4.1 | Indians | Cody Allen (S,26) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 3.0 | Royals | Mike Moustakas, 3B | 5 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | Nationals | Anthony Rendon, 3B | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 3.0 | Twins | Tommy Milone (S,1) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 3.0 | `Astros | Lance McCullers | - | - | - | - | - | - | 7.0 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 8 | ||
| 2.0 | Mariners | Robinson Cano, DH | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 2.0 | Pirates | Mark Melancon (S,39) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 1.0 | Rangers | Chris Gimenez, C | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||
| 0.2 | Dbacks | Chase Anderson (W,6-5) | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6.0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | ||
| `Denotes that the pitcher had a no-decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save. | ||||||||||||||||
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. Players earn Box-Toppers points 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.