Clayton Kershaw leads players in Box-Toppers points over past 2 seasons for 4th straight year

Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw has more Box-Toppers points over the past two seasons than any other player.

Kershaw has earned 50.1 Box-Toppers points over 2015 and 2016. He ranked second in Box-Toppers points both years, finishing with 25.7 in 2015 (behind overall leader Cubs pitcher Jake Arrieta’s 29.1) and with 24.4 in 2016 (behind overall leader Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer’s 25.7).

Box-Toppers points leaders for 2015-16


OVERALL LEADERS POS TEAM BTP
1 Kershaw, Clayton 2494 pi sp lad nl 50.1
2 Scherzer, Max 2588 pi sp dc nl 46.7
3 Arrieta, Jake 2738 pi sp chi nl 44.8
4 Kluber, Corey 3200 pi sp cle al 34.6
5 Lester, Jon 2173 pi sp chi nl 34.1
6 Price, David 2593 pi sp bos al 33.5
7 Hamels, Cole 2135 pi sp tex al 33.2
8 Sale, Chris 2806 pi sp chi al 32.2
9 deGrom, Jacob 3343 pi sp nym nl 32.1
10 Carrasco, Carlos 2885 pi sp cle al 30.4
AL PITCHERS POS TEAM BTP
1 Kluber, Corey 3200 pi sp cle al 34.6
2 Price, David 2593 pi sp bos al 33.5
3 Hamels, Cole 2135 pi sp tex al 33.2
4 Sale, Chris 2806 pi sp chi al 32.2
5 Carrasco, Carlos 2885 pi sp cle al 30.4
6 Keuchel, Dallas 3050 pi sp hou al 28.4
7 Happ, J.A. 2536 pi sp tor al 27.8
8 Salazar, Danny 3223 pi sp cle al 25.9
9 Hernandez, Felix 2064 pi sp sea al 25.4
10 Archer, Chris 3194 pi sp tb al 25.0
AL BATTERS POS TEAM BTP
1 Trout, Mike 2949 cf ana al 24.5
2 Beltre, Adrian 1141 3b tex al 22.0
3 Machado, Manny 3087 3b ss bal al 20.2
4 Donaldson, Josh 3144 3b tor al 19.6
5 Altuve, Jose 3007 2b hou al 19.5
6 Davis, Chris 2478 1b bal al 18.5
7 Encarnacion, Edwin 2098 dh 1b tor al 18.4
8 Hosmer, Eric 2886 1b kc al 17.5
9 Cabrera, Miguel 1776 1b det al 16.7
10 Upton, Justin 2411 lf det al 15.7
NL PITCHERS POS TEAM BTP
1 Kershaw, Clayton 2494 pi sp lad nl 50.1
2 Scherzer, Max 2588 pi sp dc nl 46.7
3 Arrieta, Jake 2738 pi sp chi nl 44.8
4 Lester, Jon 2173 pi sp chi nl 34.1
5 deGrom, Jacob 3343 pi sp nym nl 32.1
6 Greinke, Zack 1871 pi sp ari nl 30.4
7 Bumgarner, Madison 2753 pi sp sf nl 30.0
8 Cueto, Johnny 2400 pi sp sf nl 29.2
9 Strasburg, Stephen 2736 pi sp dc nl 29.1
10 Syndergaard, Noah 3472 pi sp nym nl 27.1
NL BATTERS POS TEAM BTP
1 Arenado, Nolan 3306 3b col nl 19.2
2 Bryant, Kris 3465 lf 3b rf chi nl 19.0
3 Cespedes, Yoenis 3008 cf lf nym nl 18.9
4 McCutchen, Andrew 2637 cf pit nl 17.5
5 Gonzalez, Carlos 2460 rf col nl 17.0
6 Braun, Ryan J. 2300 lf mil nl 15.5
7 Votto, Joey 2366 1b cin nl 15.5
8 Carpenter, Matt 2987 3b 1b 2b stl nl 15.0
9 LeMahieu, DJ 3091 2b col nl 15.0
10 Goldschmidt, Paul 2935 1b ari nl 14.7
BTP: Box-Toppers points
What are those numbers after players' names?

Scherzer, 2016’s leader, ranks second among all players over the past two seasons with 46.7. Arrieta, 2015’s leader, ranks third on the list with 44.8.

Kershaw has now led all players in Box-Toppers points over the past two seasons for the past four seasons:

Kershaw’s current lead of 3.4 points over the past two seasons is his narrowest since he took the lead in this category in 2013. At the end of 2015, Kershaw held a commanding 13.4-point lead.

Indians pitcher Corey Kluber ranks first among American League pitchers in Box-Toppers points over 2015 and 2016 with 34.6. Kluber led AL pitchers in points in 2016 with 21.2. In 2015, he had 13.4 Box-Toppers points, 10th among AL pitchers.

Mike Trout of the Angels leads AL batters in Box-Toppers points over the past two seasons with 24.5. Trout ranked second among AL batters in 2016 with 12.5 and second in 2015 with 12.0. This is the second straight year Trout has led AL batters over two seasons—Trout had 20.5 points over 2014 and 2015.

Nolan Arenado of the Rockies leads National League batters in Box-Toppers points over the past two seasons with 19.2. Arenado led NL batters in 2016 with 10.7. In 2015, he had 8.5 points, 10th among NL batters.

Notable players and their finish in the list:

  • Scherzer, winner of the NL Cy Young Award in 2016, finishes second among all players and among NL pitchers with 46.7 Box-Toppers points.
  • Red Sox pitcher Rick Porcello, the 2016 AL Cy Young Award winner, has 12.0 Box-Toppers points over the past two seasons, 49th among AL pitchers. (Why Porcello ranks so low.)
  • Trout, winner of the 2016 AL Most Valuable Player Award, finishes first among AL batters with 24.5.
  • Kris Bryant of the Cubs, the 2016 NL Most Valuable Player Award winner, finishes second among all NL batters with 19.0 Box-Toppers points. Bryant ranked second among NL batters in 2016 with 10.5. He ranked 12th among NL batters in 2015 with 8.5.

One other note: Jose Fernandez, the Marlins pitcher who was killed in a boating accident Sept. 25, would have ranked 10th among NL pitchers over 2015-16. Fernandez had 27.1 Box-Toppers points over the past two seasons, the same total as Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard, who is ranked 10th in the chart. However, Fernandez would rank ahead because he had more Box-Toppers points in 2016 than Syndergaard—22.4 vs. 16.7.

But when Fernandez died, Box-Toppers treated it like any player who was released or retired. Fernandez no longer had a team affiliation and so also no longer had affiliation to a league, removing him from all NL rankings. (Still, Fernandez kept his rankings that gave no regard to league, such as finishing third among all players in 2016 Box-Toppers points and first among Box-Toppers’ most improved players for 2016.) So when Fernandez died, Syndergaard took the 10th place spot among NL pitchers in Box-Toppers points over 2015-16.

Interestingly, Fernandez only rose into this list of top 10 NL pitchers over the past two seasons only days before his death. On Sept. 20, Fernandez earned Box-Toppers Player of the Day honors, earning 2.0 points, giving him 27.1 points over 2015-16, displacing Syndergaard from the top 10 list. It was the first time this season Fernandez rose onto this top 10 list.

Fernandez had 22.4 points in 2016, third among all players and 4.7 points in 2015, as he battled back from injury. His 27.1 points over 2015-16 ranks 17th among all players.

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.

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Related: Top 100 players for 2015-16