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

Four different players lead Box-Toppers’ four main leaderboards.

Box-Toppers’ leaderboard overview

Here are Box-Toppers points category leaders over different time frames. Overall leaders and leaders for AL and NL pitchers and batters are shown for 2017, for 2016‑17 (past two seasons), for 2012‑17 (past six seasons) and for 1995-17 (“all-time,” since the start of Box-Toppers tracking). Each top-ranked player is shown with their category timeframe-leading Box-Toppers point (BTP) total.
 

 OVERALL POS TEAM BTP
2017 Chris Sale pi sp Red Sox 25.1
2016‑17 Max Scherzer pi sp Nationals 50.7
2012‑17 Clayton Kershaw pi sp Dodgers 147.2
1995-17 Randy Johnson pi sp Retired 278.8
AL PITCHERS POS TEAM BTP
2017 Chris Sale pi sp Red Sox 25.1
2016‑17 Corey Kluber pi sp Indians 43.2
2012‑17 Chris Sale pi sp Red Sox 106.5
AL BATTERS POS TEAM BTP
2017 Edwin Encarnacion dh 1b Indians 12.1
2016‑17 Elvis Andrus ss Rangers 20.2
2012‑17 Miguel Cabrera 1b Tigers 59.8
NL PITCHERS POS TEAM BTP
2017 Max Scherzer pi sp Nationals 25.0
2016‑17 Max Scherzer pi sp Nationals 50.7
2012‑17 Clayton Kershaw pi sp Dodgers 147.2
NL BATTERS POS TEAM BTP
2017 Anthony Rizzo 1b Cubs 15.5
2016‑17 Giancarlo Stanton rf Marlins 20.7
2012‑17 Andrew McCutchen cf Pirates 47.5
PITCHERS POS TEAM BTP
1995-17 Randy Johnson pi sp Retired 278.8
BATTERS POS TEAM BTP
1995-17 Albert Pujols dh Angels 187.8
BTP: Box-Toppers points
NOTE: Players are listed with their playing status at the close of 2017. Only active players are included in the 2017, 2016-17 and 2012-17 lists. All players, including retired and released players, are included in the “all-time” list, 1995-2017. Since retired and released players have no current team or league affiliation, there are no separate AL and NL lists for 1995-2017 leaders—all players are grouped into a single batting or pitching list.

Three of the four were the top three-ranked players in Box-Toppers points in 2017 and the fourth is Box-Toppers’ all-time leader, Randy Johnson.

In the short term, for the past season, Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale leads all players with 25.1 points in 2017.

Over the past two seasons, Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer has the most Box-Toppers points with 50.7 in 2016 and 2017.

Over the past six seasons, Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw leads with 147.2 Box-Toppers points over 2012-2017.

And in the long term, since Box-Toppers tracking began in 1995, retired pitcher Randy Johnson maintains his lead with 278.8 career Box-Toppers points.

Sale, Scherzer and Kershaw were also the top three-ranked players in Box-Toppers points this past season. Sale ranked first, Scherzer ranked second (first among National League pitchers) with 25.0 and Kershaw ranked third with 23.1.

Those three also rank among the top four players over the past two seasons. Scherzer ranks first with 50.7 Box-Toppers points over 2016-17, Kershaw ranks second with 47.5 and Sale ranks fourth with 38.5. (Indians pitcher Corey Kluber ranks third, first among American League pitchers, with 43.2).

The same three also rank among the top three players over the past six seasons (2012-17). Kershaw ranks first with 147.2, Scherzer ranks second with 128.9 and Sale ranks third (first among AL pitchers) with 106.5.

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:

  • Sale leads all players in 2017 with 25.1 Box-Toppers points, also leading AL pitchers. In addition, he leads AL players over 2012-17 with 106.5.
  • Scherzer leads all players in 2016-17 with 50.7 Box-Toppers points, also leading NL pitchers over that span. In addition, he leads NL players in 2017 with 25.0.
  • Edwin Encarnacion of the Indians leads AL batters in 2017 with 12.1 Box-Toppers points. But Elvis Andrus of the Rangers leads AL batters over 2016 and 2017 with 20.2 points. Andrus finished third in Box-Toppers points in 2017 (11.0) and 10th in 2016 (9.2). Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers leads AL batters over the past six seasons (2012-17) with 59.8 Box-Toppers points. While Cabrera led AL batters in 2013 with 16.9 Box-Toppers points, he only had 2.0 in 2017.
  • Anthony Rizzo of the Cubs leads NL batters in 2017 with 15.5 Box-Toppers points. But Giancarlo Stanton, who finished the 2017 season with the NL Marlins before being traded to the AL Yankees, leads NL batters over the past two seasons (2016-17) with 20.7 points. Stanton ranked 19th among NL batters in 2016 with 6.5 and second in 2017 with 14.2. Andrew McCutchen of the Pirates leads NL batters over 2012-17 with 47.5 Box-Toppers points. McCutchen has never led NL batters in Box-Toppers points in a season; he had 10.5 points in 2015, third among NL batters, his best season. In 2017, he had 9.0 points, seventh among NL batters.
  • Randy Johnson leads all players with 278.8 career Box-Toppers points. However, Johnson started his career before Box-Toppers tracking began. If his entire career from 1988 were tracked, rough projections put his career Box-Toppers point total at 380. To compare his actual and projected total, the current active leader in career Box-Toppers points, Kershaw, has 206.8 points, third-most since 1995.
  • Albert Pujols of the Angels has the most Box-Toppers points of any batter since tracking began in 1995, 187.8. This season, he passed the previous career batting leader, Alex Rodriguez, who has 187.0. Pujols had 5.5 Box-Toppers points in 2017.

Box-Toppers maintains separate AL and NL categories for three of the main leaderboards—2017, 2016-17 and 2012-17. But the 1995-2017 “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):