An overview of Box-Toppers category leaders over several time frames

Box-Toppers’ leaderboard overview

Here are Box-Toppers points leaders in several major categories over four different time frames. The categories include Overall Leader, AL Pitchers, AL Batters, NL Pitchers and NL Batters. The time frames include the 2015 season, the past two seasons (2014-15), the past six seasons (2010-15) and “all-time” (1995-2015)—since the start of Box-Toppers record keeping in 1995. The time frame category leaders are shown with their playing position (POS), team and Box-Toppers points (BTP) over the pertinent time frame.  

OVERALL POS TEAM BTP
2015 Jake Arrieta pi sp Cubs 29.1
2014-15 Clayton Kershaw pi sp Dodgers 57.2
2010-15 Clayton Kershaw pi sp Dodgers 141.9
1995-15 Randy Johnson pi sp Retired 278.8
AL PITCHERS POS TEAM BTP
2015 Dallas Keuchel pi sp Astros 21.4
2014-15 David Price pi sp Blue Jays 40.2
2010-15 Felix Hernandez pi sp Mariners 105.8
AL BATTERS POS TEAM BTP
2015 Adrian Beltre pi sp Rangers 12.5
2014-15 Mike Trout cf Angels 20.5
2010-15 Miguel Cabrera 1b Tigers 60.8
NL PITCHERS POS TEAM BTP
2015 Jake Arrieta pi sp Cubs 29.1
2014-15 Clayton Kershaw pi sp Dodgers 57.2
2010-15 Clayton Kershaw pi sp Dodgers 141.9
NL BATTERS POS TEAM BTP
2015 Carlos Gonzalez pi sp Rockies 11.5
2014-15 Yoenis Cespedes lf cf Mets 18.9
2010-15 Ryan Braun rf Brewers 51.0
PITCHERS POS TEAM BTP
1995-15 Randy Johnson pi sp Retired 278.8
BATTERS POS TEAM BTP
1995-15 Alex Rodriguez dh Yankees 187.0
NOTE: Players are listed with the teams or with the playing status they held at the close of the 2015 season. Only players active at the close of the 2015 season are included in Box-Toppers player rankings in the time frames of 2015, 2014-15 and 2010-15. All players, including retired players, are included in Box-Toppers player rankings for 1995-2015. Since all players are included in this “all-time” list and since the rankings include retired players with no current league affiliation (AL or NL), there are no separate AL and NL pitching and batting lists for 1995-2015—all players are grouped in either a single pitching leaders list or a single batting leaders list.

Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw leads two of Box-Toppers’ four main leaderboards:

  • He leads all players in Box-Toppers points over the past two seasons (2014-15) with 57.2.
  • He leads all players in Box-Toppers points over the past six seasons (2010-15) with 141.9.

While he is a dominant player in terms of Box-Toppers, he slipped a notch since last year when he led three of the four main leaderboards. Last year, he also led players in the 2014 overall leaderboard, but this year, finished second to Box-Toppers 2015 Player of the Year Jake Arrieta of the Cubs. Arrieta had 29.1 Box-Toppers points while Kershaw had 25.7.

Pitcher Randy Johnson tops Box-Toppers’ all-time leaderboard with 278.8 points, recorded from 1995, when Box-Toppers record keeping began until his retirement in 2009.

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.

Other highlights from the leaderboards:

  • Dallas Keuchel of the Astros led American League pitchers in 2015 with 21.4 Box-Toppers points. But two pitchers who have never led AL pitchers in a single season top AL pitchers over two other time frames: David Price, who ended 2015 with the Blue Jays, led AL pitchers over 2014-15 with 40.2 Box-Toppers points and Felix Hernandez of the Mariners led AL pitchers over 2010-15 with 105.8 Box-Toppers points.
  • Adrian Beltre of the Rangers led AL batters in 2015 with 12.5 Box-Toppers points. But Mike Trout of the Angels leads AL batters over 2014 and 2015 with 20.5 points. Trout finished second among AL batters in 2015 with 12.0 Box-Toppers points and seventh in 2014 with 8.5. Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers leads AL batters over the past six seasons (2010-15) with 60.8 Box-Toppers points. Cabrera led all AL batters in Box-Toppers points in 2013 with 16.9. He had only 4.7 points in 2015.
  • Carlos Gonzalez of the Rockies led National League batters in Box-Toppers points in 2015 with 11.5. Yoenis Cespedes of the Mets had the highest Box-Toppers point total over 2014-15 (18.9) of any batter who ended the 2015 season with an NL team—however, Cespedes only played in the NL the final two months of 2015 after spending all of 2014 and most of 2015 with AL teams (Athletics, Red Sox, Tigers). Ryan Braun of the Brewers leads NL batters over 2010-15 with 51.0 Box-Toppers points—he was top NL batter in 2012 with 12.5.
  • Alex Rodriguez has the most Box-Toppers points of any batter over the past 21 seasons—187.0. Rodriguez picked up 7.7 Box-Toppers points in 2015 to bolster his lead.

Box-Toppers maintains separate AL and NL categories for three of the main leaderboards—2015, 2014-15 and 2010-15. But the 1995-2015 “all-time” leaderboard includes players who are retired, released or not currently affiliated with a team, so all players are grouped into single pitching leader or batting leader lists.

Detailed leaderboards

Box-Toppers leaderboards, showing the top 10 players in each category (overall and AL and NL pitchers and batters):