Box-Toppers’ two top-ranked pitchers won each league’s Cy Young Award Wednesday.
Overall Box-Toppers points leader Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers easily won the National League Cy Young Award for top pitcher in a unanimous vote. The race in the American League was tighter, but Corey Kluber of the Indians, who led all AL pitchers in Box-Toppers points, edged out Felix Hernandez of the Mariners to win the AL Cy Young Award.
Kershaw led all players with 31.5 Box-Toppers points in 2014, the most by any player in a single season since 2002 and the fourth-highest single-season point total since Box-Toppers record keeping began in 1995. It is his third Cy Young Award.
Kershaw is also a favorite to win the NL Most Valuable Player Award to be given Thursday. If he wins, he would be only the fourth pitcher to win the honor in either league in the past 30 years.
Kershaw won Box-Toppers Player of the Year for the third time in four years in 2014 (also winning in 2011 and 2013). He also won the Cy Young Award both of those years. He has never won an MVP.
Johnny Cueto of the Reds finished second in NL Cy Young voting. He ranked third among NL pitchers in Box-Toppers points with 22.4, just behind Madison Bumgarner of the Giants (22.6). Bumgarner finished fourth in voting.
Kluber led AL players with 25.8 Box-Toppers points in 2014, becoming only one of 11 players in Box-Toppers’ 20 years of record keeping to reach 25 Box-Toppers points in a season. He didn’t rise into the top five among AL pitchers in Box-Toppers points until mid-August and did not take the lead until mid-September, passing Max Scherzer of the Tigers, who had led since July. Scherzer finished with 22.1 Box-Toppers points, ranked second among AL pitchers. Scherzer, who won the Cy Young last year, finished fifth in voting.
Hernandez, who finished second in AL Cy Young voting, had 20.8 Box-Toppers points, third among AL pitchers.
The awards are voted on by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
Pitchers with highest Box-Toppers point who did not receive votes were:
• In the AL: Garrett Richards of the Angels, 15.7 Box-Toppers points, 13th among all players. Richards was injured in August and was out the remainder of the season.
• In the NL: Julio Teheran of the Braves, 14.4 Box-Toppers points, 18th among all players.
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.
National League Cy Young Award voting
Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers was unanimously voted NL Cy Young Award winner for the league’s top pitcher. Below are the AL pitchers in order of their voting finish, shown with their first- through fifth-place votes and their voting points total. Also shown are each player’s Box-Toppers points (BTP) for 2014 and their overall rank in points among all players.
| Finish | NL pitcher | Team | Pos | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | Points | BTP | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Clayton Kershaw | Dodgers | pi sp | 30 | 210 | 31.5 | 1 | ||||
| 2 | Johnny Cueto | Reds | pi sp | 23 | 6 | 1 | 112 | 22.4 | 4 | ||
| 3 | Adam Wainwright | Cardinals | pi sp | 7 | 23 | 97 | 18.7 | 8 | |||
| 4 | Madison Bumgarner | Giants | pi sp | 13 | 2 | 28 | 22.6 | 3 | |||
| 5 | Jordan Zimmermann | Nationals | pi sp | 1 | 7 | 8 | 25 | 15.0 | 16 | ||
| 6 | Cole Hamels | Phillies | pi sp | 6 | 5 | 17 | 12.4 | 31 | |||
| 7 | Zack Greinke | Dodgers | pi sp | 2 | 2 | 6 | 16.5 | 11 | |||
| 8 | Doug Fister | Nationals | pi sp | 1 | 3 | 5 | 14.4 | 19 | |||
| 9 | Jake Arrieta | Cubs | pi sp | 3 | 3 | 14.7 | 17 | ||||
| 10 | Craig Kimbrel | Braves | pi cp | 3 | 3 | 11.0 | 45 | ||||
| 11 | Stephen Strasburg | Nationals | pi sp | 3 | 3 | 16.7 | 10 | ||||
| 12 | Henderson Alvarez | Marlins | pi sp | 1 | 1 | 11.7 | 37 | ||||
| * | Julio Teheran | Braves | pi sp | 0 | 14.4 | 18 |
* Pitcher with highest Box-Toppers point total in the league who did not receive any Cy Young votes.
American League Cy Young Award voting
Corey Kluber of the Indians was voted AL Cy Young Award winner for the league’s top pitcher. Below are the AL pitchers in order of their voting finish, shown with their first- through fifth-place votes and their voting points total. Also shown are each player’s Box-Toppers points (BTP) for 2014 and their overall rank in points among all players. Interestingly, first place votes counted for seven points, while second place votes counted for four. Had first place votes counted for five points, Kluber would have won by a narrower point margin over Hernandez, 135-133.
| Finish | AL pitcher | Team | Pos | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | Points | BTP | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Corey Kluber | Indians | pi sp | 17 | 11 | 2 | 169 | 25.8 | 2 | ||
| 2 | Felix Hernandez | Mariners | pi sp | 13 | 17 | 159 | 20.8 | 6 | |||
| 3 | Chris Sale | White Sox | pi sp | 2 | 19 | 5 | 3 | 78 | 17.4 | 9 | |
| 4 | Jon Lester | Red Sox/A’s | pi sp | 3 | 15 | 7 | 46 | 16.4 | 12 | ||
| 5 | Max Scherzer | Tigers | pi sp | 4 | 6 | 8 | 32 | 22.1 | 5 | ||
| 6 | David Price | Rays/Tigers | pi sp | 2 | 3 | 4 | 16 | 19.1 | 7 | ||
| 7 | Phil Hughes | Twins | pi sp | 1 | 4 | 6 | 14.1 | 20 | |||
| 8 | Wade Davis | Royals | pi mr | 3 | 3 | 7.0 | 117 | ||||
| 9 | Greg Holland | Royals | pi cp | 1 | 1 | 7.0 | 106 | ||||
| * | Garrett Richards | Angels | pi sp | 0 | 15.7 | 13 |
* Pitcher with highest Box-Toppers point total in the league who did not receive any Cy Young votes.
Box-Toppers complete postseason awards coverage
Here are links to more details on each of baseball’s 2014 postseason awards, including Box-Toppers points leaders in each category and the full voting results and analysis:
Silver Slugger Awards
Box-Toppers points leaders win only four of the 18 awards in each position, voted on by baseball coaches and managers.
Rookie of the Year Awards
Box-Toppers points leaders win both the AL award (Jose Abreu of the White Sox) and NL award (Jacob deGrom of the Mets) as voted by baseball writers.
Cy Young Awards
Box-Toppers points leaders win both the AL award (Corey Kluber of the Indians) and NL award (Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers) as voted by baseball writers.
Most Valuable Player Awards
Box-Toppers overall points leader Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers, a pitcher, wins the NL MVP, as voted by baseball writers. However, the leader in Box-Toppers points among AL batters, Jose Abreu of the White Sox, finishes behind the AL MVP as voted by baseball writers, Mike Trout of the Angels.