Box-Toppers’ two top-ranked pitchers won each league’s Cy Young Award Wednesday.
Overall Box-Toppers points leader Jake Arrieta of the Cubs won the National League Cy Young Award and AL points leader Dallas Keuchel of the Astros won the American League Cy Young Award. (See the charts below for voting finishes and Box-Toppers rankings.) The awards are voted on by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
Arrieta led all players with 29.1 Box-Toppers points, the eighth-highest single-season point total since 1995, when Box-Toppers record keeping began.
Keuchel led all AL players in Box-Toppers points with 21.4, ranking fourth overall.
Zack Greinke of the Dodgers finished second in NL voting. He had 20.7 Box-Toppers points, fifth-most among NL pitchers. Last year’s NL Cy Young Award winner (and last year’s NL Most Valuable Player) Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers finished third in voting. Kershaw ranked second in Box-Toppers points among all players with 25.7, which is tied for the 20th-highest single-season point total since 1995. Kershaw led NL pitchers in Box-Toppers points from 2011 to 2014 and led all players in Box-Toppers points in 2011, 2013 and 2014.
There were few anomalies in NL Cy Young voting among the top seven vote-getters—all also ranked among the top seven NL pitchers in Box-Toppers points.
Closing pitcher Mark Melancon of the Pirates finished eighth in voting. He had 7.0 Box-Toppers points in 2015, ranked 35th among NL pitchers and third among NL closing pitchers behind Aroldis Chapman of the Reds (8.0 Box-Toppers points) and Jeurys Familia of the Mets (8.0 points).
John Lackey of the Cardinals had the fewest Box-Toppers points among starting pitchers who received NL Cy Young votes. Lackey finished ninth in voting and had 9.7 Box-Toppers points, ranked 21st among NL pitchers.
Matt Harvey of the Mets had the most Box-Toppers points among players who did not receive any NL Cy Young votes. He had 15.4 Box-Toppers points, ranked eighth among NL pitchers.
In the American League, David Price of the Blue Jays finished second in Cy Young voting and was a very close second in Box-Toppers points behind Keuchel, with 21.1. Price also pitched for the Tigers until he was traded in July to the Blue Jays.
Box-Toppers’ third-best AL pitcher, Felix Hernandez of the Mariners, received only a few AL Cy Young votes and finished seventh. Hernandez had 19.4 Box-Toppers points on the season.
Closing pitcher Wade Davis of the Royals finished sixth in AL Cy Young voting. He had 4.0 Box-Toppers points in 2015, ranked 74th among AL pitchers, ninth among AL closing pitchers. Zach Britton of the Orioles led AL closing pitchers in Box-Toppers points with 8.7. Davis’ Royals teammate Greg Holland was second with 8.0.
Last year’s AL Cy Young winner Corey Kluber of the Indians finished ninth in voting. He had 13.4 Box-Toppers points, ranking 10th among among AL pitchers.
Cole Hamels of the Rangers had the most Box-Toppers points among AL pitchers who did not receive Cy Young votes. However, Hamels pitched for the NL Phillies until the July trade deadline. He earned 5.4 of his Box-Toppers points since he started pitching for the Rangers. Taijuan Walker of the Mariners had the most Box-Toppers points among those who pitched in the AL all season and did not earn Cy Young votes. Walker had 13.7 Box-Toppers points, ranking ninth among AL pitchers.
About Box-Toppers—Box-Toppers points are a measure of how much a player provides key contributions to his team’s wins. Specifically, 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
Jake Arrieta of the Cubs was voted NL Cy Young Award winner for the league’s top pitcher. Below are the NL 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 point (BTP) total for 2015 and their rank in points among AL pitchers.| NL pitcher | Team | Pos | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | Points | BTP | Rank* | |
| 1 | Jake Arrieta | Cubs | pi sp | 17 | 11 | 2 | 169 | 29.1 | 1 | ||
| 2 | Zack Greinke | Dodgers | pi sp | 10 | 17 | 3 | 147 | 20.7 | 5 | ||
| 3 | Clayton Kershaw | Dodgers | pi sp | 3 | 2 | 23 | 1 | 1 | 101 | 25.7 | 2 |
| 4 | Gerrit Cole | Pirates | pi sp | 2 | 13 | 8 | 40 | 19.0 | 6 | ||
| 5 | Max Scherzer | Nationals | pi sp | 13 | 6 | 32 | 21.0 | 4 | |||
| 6 | Madison Bumgarner | Giants | pi sp | 1 | 6 | 8 | 17.0 | 7 | |||
| 7 | Jacob deGrom | Mets | pi sp | 2 | 3 | 7 | 22.4 | 3 | |||
| 8 | Mark Melancon | Pirates | pi cp | 5 | 5 | 7.0 | 35 | ||||
| 9 | John Lackey | Cardinals | pi sp | 1 | 1 | 9.7 | 21 | ||||
| ** | Matt Harvey | Mets | pi sp | 0 | 15.4 | 8 |
* Rank in Box-Toppers points among NL pitchers.
** Pitcher with the highest Box-Toppers point total who did not receive any Cy Young votes.
American League Cy Young Award voting
Dallas Keuchel of the Astros 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 point (BTP) total for 2015 and their rank in points among AL pitchers.| AL pitcher | Team | Pos | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | Points | BTP | Rank* | |
| 1 | Dallas Keuchel | Astros | pi sp | 22 | 8 | 186 | 21.4 | 1 | |||
| 2 | David Price | Blue Jays | pi sp | 8 | 21 | 1 | 143 | 21.1 | 2 | ||
| 3 | Sonny Gray | Athletics | pi sp | 1 | 24 | 3 | 82 | 17.8 | 6 | ||
| 4 | Chris Sale | White Sox | pi sp | 3 | 7 | 7 | 30 | 18.8 | 4 | ||
| 5 | Chris Archer | Rays | pi sp | 10 | 9 | 29 | 16.0 | 7 | |||
| 6 | Wade Davis | Royals | pi cp | 1 | 1 | 5 | 10 | 4.0 | 74 | ||
| 7 | Felix Hernandez | Mariners | pi sp | 1 | 3 | 9 | 19.4 | 3 | |||
| 8 | Collin McHugh | Astros | pi sp | 1 | 3 | 5 | 9.7 | 19 | |||
| 9 | Corey Kluber | Indians | pi sp | 1 | 2 | 4 | 13.4 | 10 | |||
| 10 | Marco Estrada | Blue Jays | pi sp | 1 | 1 | 3 | 8.0 | 34 | |||
| 11 | Andrew Miller | Yankees | pi cp | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4.0 | 79 | |||
| 12 | Shawn Tolleson | Rangers | pi cp | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6.0 | 52 | |||
| 13 | Carlos Carrasco | Indians | pi sp | 1 | 2 | 18.0 | 5 | ||||
| 14 | Dellin Betances | Yankees | pi cp | 1 | 1 | 4.0 | 77 | ||||
| ** | Cole Hamels | Rangers | pi sp | 0 | 15.4 | 8 | |||||
| ** | Taijuan Walker | Mariners | pi sp | 0 | 13.7 | 9 |
* Rank in Box-Toppers points among AL pitchers.
** Pitchers with the highest Box-Toppers point totals who did not receive any Cy Young votes. Cole Hamels pitched for the NL Phillies until his trade in late July and earned 5.4 of his points with the Rangers.