Box-Toppers highest-ranked pitchers in each league for the season were selected Wednesday as 2013‘s Cy Young Award winners.
Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw was chosen as National League Cy Young Award winner. He led all players in Box-Toppers points for the season with 21.7.
Tigers pitcher Max Scherzer was chosen as American League Cy Young Award winner. He led all AL pitchers in Box-Toppers points with 18.1. He ranked fifth among all players.
Voting by the Baseball Writers Association of America for the Cy Young Award for top pitcher coincided, generally, with Box-Toppers Player Rankings. There were some anomalies and snubs.
Five pitchers who ranked in the top 10 among pitchers in their league were completely left off all ballots. Among those who received no votes for Cy Young:
- Patrick Corbin of the Diamondbacks. He had 17.4 Box-Toppers points and ranked fifth among all NL pitchers. Corbin briefly led all players in Box-Toppers rankings in July.
- Justin Masterson of the Indians. He had 16.4 Box-Toppers points and ranked third among all AL pitchers and 10th among all players. Masterson led all players in Box-Toppers points at five different times in the season, including being the overall leader for nearly a month from July 21 to Aug. 17. He led all AL pitchers in Box-Toppers points until Sept. 15, when he was finally passed by Scherzer. True, Masterson did not pitch much or pitch well down the stretch. His last Box-Toppers Player of the Game honor came on July 27. Still he was the player who most helped his team win 11 games—more than many pitchers who received votes—and should have been given some consideration among voters.
- Lance Lynn of the Cardinals. He had 16.1 Box-Toppers points and ranked seventh among all NL pitchers.
- Shelby Miller of the Cardinals. He had 15.4 Box-Toppers points and ranked ninth among all NL pitchers.
- Ubaldo Jimenez of the Indians. He had 14.5 Box-Toppers points and ranked ninth among all AL pitchers.
Closing pitchers were another anomaly. In Box-Toppers scoring, closing pitchers often rank lower in player rankings, as they are less likely than starters to be the player who most helps his team win the game—and thus earn Player of the Game honors and Box-Toppers points. So in the American League, Red Sox closer Koji Uehara ranked seventh among AL pitchers in voting but ranked 52nd in Box-Toppers points (with 6.0).
In the NL, Braves closer Craig Kimbrel finished fourth in voting and 17th in Box-Toppers points among NL pitchers (with 12.7).
Box-Toppers tracks who most helps their team win the most games. Top players from the winning team of each game are determined by a formula using standard box score statistics. The player on the winning team with the highest Box-Toppers game score is Player of the Game and receives 1.0 Box-Toppers point. The Player of the Game with the highest overall Box-Toppers game score for all the games played that day is Player of the Day and earns a total of 2.0 Box-Toppers points. The top player in the opposite league receives a total of 1.7 Box-Toppers points. If both the day’s top overall player and top player in the opposite league are pitchers, then the top American League and top National League batter of the day receive a total of 1.5 Box-Toppers points each.
Box-Toppers rankings of Cy Young Award candidates
Here are the results of Cy Young Award voting in both leagues. Players are listed in order of their vote total. The far right columns show how many Box-Toppers points (BTP) they earned during the 2013 season and how each player ranked in Box-Toppers points among pitchers in their league.
| Cy Young vote | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AL | ||||||||||
| Player | Pos | Club | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | Points | BTP | Rank* |
| Max Scherzer | pi sp | Tigers | 28 | 1 | 1 | 203 | 18.1 | 1 | ||
| Yu Darvish | pi sp | Rangers | 19 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 93 | 16.0 | 7 | |
| Hisashi Iwakuma | pi sp | Mariners | 6 | 12 | 6 | 1 | 73 | 16.1 | 6 | |
| Anibal Sanchez | pi sp | Tigers | 1 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 8 | 46 | 17.1 | 2 |
| Chris Sale | pi sp | White Sox | 1 | 5 | 8 | 6 | 44 | 16.1 | 4 | |
| Bartolo Colon | pi sp | Athletics | 2 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 25 | 13.1 | 10 | |
| Koji Uehara | pi cp | Red Sox | 1 | 2 | 10 | 6.0 | 52 | |||
| Felix Hernandez | pi sp | Mariners | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 14.8 | 8 | ||
| Matt Moore | pi sp | Rays | 2 | 4 | 16.1 | 5 | ||||
| Greg Holland | pi cp | Royals | 1 | 2 | 4 | 11.0 | 17 | |||
| James Shields | pi sp | Royals | 1 | 2 | 9.7 | 23 | ||||
| Notable AL snubs | ||||||||||
| Justin Masterson | pi sp | Indians | 0 | 16.4 | 3 | |||||
| Ubaldo Jimenez | pi sp | Indians | 0 | 14.5 | 9 | |||||
| NL | ||||||||||
| Player | Pos | Club | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | Points | BTP | Rank* |
| Clayton Kershaw | pi sp | Dodgers | 29 | 1 | 207 | 21.7 | 1 | |||
| Adam Wainwright | pi sp | Cardinals | 1 | 15 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 86 | 20.2 | 2 |
| Jose Fernandez | pi sp | Marlins | 9 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 62 | 19.0 | 4 | |
| Craig Kimbrel | pi cp | Braves | 4 | 1 | 8 | 4 | 39 | 12.7 | 17 | |
| Matt Harvey | pi sp | Mets | 1 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 39 | 15.0 | 10 | |
| Cliff Lee | pi sp | Phillies | 6 | 6 | 2 | 32 | 13.4 | 14 | ||
| Jordan Zimmerman | pi sp | Nationals | 6 | 3 | 21 | 14.7 | 11 | |||
| Zack Greinke | pi sp | Dodgers | 2 | 4 | 4 | 18 | 19.4 | 3 | ||
| Madison Bumgarner | pi sp | Giants | 1 | 1 | 3 | 15.7 | 8 | |||
| Francisco Liriano | pi sp | Pirates | 1 | 1 | 3 | 16.7 | 6 | |||
| Notable NL snubs | ||||||||||
| Patrick Corbin | pi sp | Diamondbacks | 0 | 17.4 | 5 | |||||
| Lance Lynn | pi sp | Cardinals | 0 | 16.1 | 7 | |||||
| Shelby Miller | pi sp | Cardinals | 0 | 15.4 | 9 |
* Rank among pitchers in the league (AL or NL) in Box-Toppers points for the 2013 season.