Box-Toppers’ top-ranked 2019 rookie—far and away the top-ranked rookie—did not even receive a single vote in baseball writers’ Rookie of the Year voting.
Box-Toppers Rookie of the Year ballot
Here are Box-Toppers' ballot selections for the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) 2019 Rookie of the Year awards. The ballot required voters to pick the top three rookies in each league.Players are shown with their team and their Box-Toppers point (BTP) total for 2019.
| AL Rookie of the Year | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Eloy Jimenez | White Sox | 7.5 |
| 2 | Cavan Biggio | Blue Jays | 6.2 |
| 3 | Vladimir Guerrero Jr. | Blue Jays | 6.2 |
| NL Rookie of the Year | |||
| Player | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Chris Paddack | Padres | 15.8 |
| 2 | Pete Alonso | Mets | 7.0 |
| 3 | Kevin Newman | Pirates | 6.2 |
Padres pitcher Chris Paddack had nearly twice as many 2019 Box-Toppers points as any other player who made their Box-Toppers debut during the season. His 15.8 Box-Toppers points, in fact, ranked 14th among all players and eighth among all National League pitchers, just ahead of NL Cy Young Award finalist Max Scherzer of the Nationals (15.4 points, ninth among NL pitchers).
But Paddack garnered nary a vote in 2019 Rookie of the Year voting, awarded Monday by the Baseball Writers Association of America. Instead, the NL award went to Pete Alonso of the Mets. The American League award went to Yordan Alvarez of the Astros.
Paddack made his Box-Toppers debut with his first career Player of the Game honor on March 31. He earned Player of the Game honors 11 times in 2019 as the Padres player who most helped his team win each of those games, according to Box-Toppers analysis of box scores, using a standard and simple formula used to determine a top player for each Major League Baseball game played.
Paddack earned overall Box-Toppers Player of the Day honors twice—on April 24 and July 17—which gave him a bonus Box-Toppers point each time. He earned NL Player of the Day honors four times—May 6, June 29, Aug. 29 and Sept. 11—which gave him a bonus 0.7 Box-Toppers point each time. He earned Player of the Game honors four times during the season while picking up a no-decision and not earning the win or save.
Paddack earned most of his points early in the season. On May 23, he ranked third among all players with 7.7 Box-Toppers points. He earned Player of the Game honors only twice after July 17, but both times earned NL Player of the Day honors.
The Padres limited Paddack’s use this season because of his previous Tommy John surgery. He was on strict pitch counts and was, in fact, sent to the minors during the season, either to limit his innings or to reduce his Major League service time for contractual reasons.
Either way, his 26 starts spanned the entire season (and to reiterate, he won Player of the Game honors in 11 of those 26 starts). Other rookies receiving votes for the honors awarded Monday played only parts of the season—AL winner Yordan Alvarez played in just over half of the Astros games.
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NL Rookie of the Year winner Pete Alonso of the Mets had 7.0 Box-Toppers points, which ranked fourth among NL players who made their Box-Toppers debut in 2019 (Alonso made his debut with his first Player of the Game honor on April 19). He received 29 of 30 first-place votes. Box-Toppers had Alonso as second-choice in NL rookie voting (see charts below for the Rookie of the Year voting breakdown).
Braves pitcher Mike Soroka, who finished second in NL Rookie of the Year voting, had the other first-place vote. Soroka earned 11.4 Box-Toppers points during the season. But though Soroka had rookie status in 2019, he made his Box-Toppers debut in 2018 (and earned 3.0 points), so was not listed among the 184 players who made their Box-Toppers debut in 2019. If he were, he would have finished second, behind Paddack.
AL Rookie of the Year winner Yordan Alvarez of the Astros earned just 2.5 Box-Toppers points in 2019, which was 395th among all players and 31st among AL players who made their Box-Toppers debut in 2019. In fairness to Alvarez and all other Astros batters, the team’s pitchers were so dominant in 2019 that they won nearly three-quarters of the team’s Box-Toppers points in 2019 (118.4 of 158.1). Since Player of the Game honors is only awarded to one player and for the Astros that one player was often top-ranked Gerrit Cole, second-ranked Justin Verlander or another pitcher, it could have blocked performances by batters that while good, didn’t rise to the level of Player of the Game.
Alvarez won unanimously for AL Rookie of the Year but was not even on Box-Toppers’ radar for the honor.
Box-Toppers chose Eloy Jimenez of the White Sox as AL Rookie of the Year. Jimenez earned 7.5 Box-Toppers points in 2019, 100th among all players, 16th among AL batters, fifth among AL outfielders and second among players making their Box-Toppers debut in 2019. Jimenez finished fourth in AL Rookie of the Year voting.
Jimenez finished behind another AL rookie, Blue Jays pitcher Trent Thornton, who had 8.7 Box-Toppers points in 2019. Since Rookie of the Year is normally a batter’s award, much like the Most Valuable Player, we give batters the benefit of a doubt and rank them ahead of a pitcher with more Box-Toppers points if they have at least half the points earned by the top pitcher. In this case, Jimenez did.
Two other AL rookie batters also had at least half as many points as Thornton and were our second- and third-choices for top AL rookie—Cavan Biggio and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., both of the Blue Jays and each with 6.2 Box-Toppers points on the season. Biggio finished fifth in voting, Guerrero finished seventh. (Thornton received no votes.)
Here are AL rookies who had the most Box-Toppers points who did not receive any votes for Rookie of the Year:
Blue Jays pitcher Trent Thornton, 8.7 Box-Toppers points
Gio Urshela of the Yankees, 7.5 points
Dwight Smith Jr. of the Orioles, 7.2 points
Here are NL rookies who had the most Box-Toppers points who did not receive any votes for Rookie of the Year:
Padres pitcher Chris Paddack, 15.8 Box-Toppers points
Braves pitcher Luke Jackson, 8.0 points
Diamondbacks pitcher Merrill Kelly, 8.0 points
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Box-Toppers votes in the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) Rookie of the Year voting, which also picked Alonso and Alvarez as top rookies. Jimenez, perhaps in part thanks to Box-Toppers’ first-place vote, finished higher in IBWAA voting for top AL rookie—second place. And Paddack did not finish among the top three in voting for top NL rookie, the only statistics made available (though we know he did receive at least one first-place vote).
Here are the results:
AL Rookie of the Year
1st—Yordan Alvarez, Astros – 541 points
2nd—Eloy Jimenez, White Sox – 130
3rd—Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Blue Jays – 128
NL Rookie of the Year
1st—Pete Alonso, Mets – 600 points
2nd—Mike Soroka, Atlanta Braves – 220
3rd—Fernando Tatis Jr. , San Diego Padres – 147
The IBWAA was established July 4, 2009 to organize and promote the growing online baseball media, and to serve as a digital alternative to the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA). Voting for full season awards takes place in September of each year, with selections being announced in November. The IBWAA also holds a Hall of Fame election in December of each year, with results being announced the following January.
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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American League Rookie of the Year voting
Yordan Alvarez of the Astros was voted AL Rookie of the Year. However, Box-Toppers’ choice for top AL rookie is Eloy Jimenez of the White Sox (7.5 Box-Toppers points), who finished fourth in voting. Here is the order of finish for the AL rookie award. Also shown are the votes each player received from baseball writers for first, second and third place, plus their overall voting point totals. Also shown are each player’s Box-Toppers point (BTP) total for 2019 and their overall rank among all players.| AL rookies | Team | Pos | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Points | BTP | Rank | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yordan Alvarez | Astros | dh | 30 | 150 | 2.5 | 395 | ||
| 2 | John Means | Orioles | pi sp | 16 | 5 | 53 | 7.0 | 120 | |
| 3 | Brandon Lowe | Rays | 2b | 6 | 9 | 27 | 1.0 | 733 | |
| 4 | Eloy Jimenez | White Sox | Lf | 4 | 8 | 20 | 7.5 | 100 | |
| 5 | Cavan Biggio | Blue Jays | 2b | 2 | 1 | 7 | 6.2 | 135 | |
| 6 | Luis Arraez | Twins | 2b | 1 | 2 | 5 | 1.0 | 694 | |
| 7 | Vladimir Guerrero Jr. | Blue Jays | 3b | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6.2 | 136 | |
| 8 | Oscar Mercado | Indians | cf | 3 | 3 | 3.5 | 307 |
National League Rookie of the Year voting
Pete Alonso of the Mets was voted NL Rookie of the Year. However, Box-Toppers’ choice for top NL rookie is Chris Paddack of the Padres, who led NL rookies with 15.8 Box-Toppers points, but received no NL Rookie of the Year votes. Here is the order of finish for the NL rookie award. Also shown are the votes each player received from baseball writers for first, second and third place, plus their overall voting point totals. Also shown are each player’s Box-Toppers point (BTP) total for 2019 and their overall rank among all players.| NL rookies | Team | Pos | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Points | BTP | Rank | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pete Alonso | Mets | 1b | 29 | 1 | 148 | 7.0 | 119 | |
| 2 | Mike Soroka | Braves | pi sp | 1 | 25 | 2 | 82 | 11.4 | 34 |
| 3 | Fernando Tatis Jr. | Padres | ss | 2 | 20 | 26 | 3.0 | 367 | |
| 4 | Bryan Reynolds | Pirates | lf rf | 1 | 6 | 9 | 3.0 | 361 | |
| 5 | Dakota Hudson | Cardinals | pi sp | 1 | 1 | 4 | 7.7 | 95 | |
| 6 | Victor Robles | Nationals | pi cp | 1 | 1 | 5.0 | 196 | ||
| * | Chris Paddack | Padres | pi sp | 0 | 15.8 | 14 |
* Chris Paddack of the Padres led NL rookies with 15.8 Box-Toppers points, but did not receive any NL Rookie of the Year votes.