Clayton Kershaw leads players in Box-Toppers points for past, past 2 & past 6 seasons

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

Box-Toppers’ leaderboard overview

Here are Box-Toppers points leaders in several major categories over different time frames. The categories include:
• Overall Leader
• AL Pitchers
• AL Batters
• NL Pitchers
• NL Batters
The time frames include:
• 2014 season
• 2013-2014 (past two seasons)
• 2009-2014 (past six seasons)
• 1995-2014—covering the span since the start of the 1995 season when Box-Toppers record keeping began.
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
2014 Clayton Kershaw pi sp lad nl 31.5
2013-14 Clayton Kershaw pi sp lad nl 53.2
2009-14 Clayton Kershaw pi sp lad nl 129.6
1995-14 Randy Johnson pi sp retired 278.8
AL PITCHERS POS TEAM BTP
2014 Corey Kluber pi sp cle al 25.8
2013-14 Max Scherzer pi sp det al 40.2
2009-14 Felix Hernandez pi sp sea al 105.5
AL BATTERS POS TEAM BTP
2014 Jose Abreu 1b chi al 15.5
2013-14 Miguel Cabrera 1b det al 29.4
2009-14 Miguel Cabrera 1b det al 72.6
NL PITCHERS POS TEAM BTP
2014 Clayton Kershaw pi sp lad nl 31.5
2013-14 Clayton Kershaw pi sp lad nl 53.2
2009-14 Clayton Kershaw pi sp lad nl 129.6
NL BATTERS POS TEAM BTP
2014 Troy Tulowitzki ss col nl 11.6
2013-14 Freddie Freeman 1b atl nl 19.2
2009-14 Ryan Braun rf mil nl 56.5
PITCHERS POS TEAM BTP
1995-14 Randy Johnson pi sp retired 278.8
BATTERS POS TEAM BTP
1995-14 Alex Rodriguez 3b dh susp 179.3
NOTE: Players are listed with the teams or with the playing status they held at the close of the 2014 season. Only players active at the close of the 2014 season are included in Box-Toppers player rankings in the time frames of 2014, 2013-14 and 2009-14. All players, including retired and suspended players, are included in Box-Toppers player rankings for 1995-2014. 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 1995-2014—all players are grouped in either a single pitching leaders list or a single batting leaders list.

  • He led all players in Box-Toppers points in 2014 with 31.5.
  • He led all players in Box-Toppers points over the past two seasons (2013-14) with 53.2.
  • He led all players in Box-Toppers points over the past six seasons (2009-14) with 129.6.

In fact, the only leaderboard Kershaw doesn’t top is the “all-time” leaderboard (covering all games from 1995, when Box-Toppers record keeping began). Hall-of-Fame pitcher Randy Johnson tops that leaderboard with 278.8 Box-Toppers points. (Kershaw has 133.6 Box-Toppers points over seven seasons, ranking 21st among all players since 1995.)

Kershaw also led the same three main leaderboards at the close of the 2013 season.

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:

  • Indians pitcher Corey Kluber led American League pitchers in 2014 with 25.8 Box-Toppers points. But 2013’s overall AL pitching leader, Max Scherzer of the Tigers, has the most Box-Toppers points in the category over the past two seasons—40.2. And Mariners pitcher Felix Hernandez, who has never led AL pitchers in Box-Toppers points, has the most points over the past six seasons—105.5.
  • Rookie Jose Abreu of the White Sox led AL batters in 2014 with 15.5 Box-Toppers points. But 2013’s AL batting leader Miguel Cabrera has the most points over the past two seasons—29.4—and also has more points than any other AL batter in the past six seasons—72.6.
  • Troy Tulowitzki of the Rockies led NL batters with 11.6 Box-Toppers points in 2014—that was the lowest point total to lead any league category in 20 years of Box-Toppers record keeping. More remarkable, Tulowitzki was injured nearly half the season. Freddie Freeman of the Braves leads NL batters over the past two seasons with 19.2 Box-Toppers points. And Ryan Braun of the Brewers leads the category over the past six seasons with 56.5 Box-Toppers points.
  • Alex Rodriguez has the most Box-Toppers points of any batter over the past 20 years—179.3. Rodriguez was suspended under baseball’s performing enhancing drug policy in 2014 but is expected to return to the Yankees in 2015.

Box-Toppers maintains separate AL and NL categories for three of the main leaderboards—2014, 2013-14 and 2009-14. But the 1995-2014 “all-time” leaderboard includes players who are retired, suspended or not affiliated with a team, so all players are grouped into a single pitching leader or batting leader list.

Detailed leaderboards

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