Box-Toppers has cast votes for postseason honors for Shane Bieber, Luke Voit and for Trevor Bauer—twice.
Box-Toppers postseason honors ballot
Here is a look at the ballot selections Box-Toppers is making for the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) 2020 postseason awards. The ballot requires votes out to 10 places for Most Valuable Player in both leagues, five for Cy Young Awards in each league and three for each leagues' Rookie of the Year, Manager of the Year and Reliever of the Year.Players are shown with their team and their Box-Toppers point (BTP) total for 2020.
| AL Most Valuable Player | |||
| Player | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Luke Voit | Yankees | 6.0 |
| 2 | Shane Bieber | Indians | 11.4 |
| 3 | Eloy Jimenez | White Sox | 5.5 |
| 4 | Max Kepler | Twins | 5.0 |
| 5 | Kyle Tucker | Astros | 5.0 |
| 6 | Lance Lynn | Rangers | 9.1 |
| 7 | Mike Trout | Angels | 4.5 |
| 8 | Jose Abreu | White Sox | 4.5 |
| 9 | Tim Anderson | White Sox | 4.5 |
| 10 | Kenta Maeda | Twins | 8.4 |
| NL Most Valuable Player | |||
| Player | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Trevor Bauer | Reds | 10.0 |
| 2 | Yu Darvish | Cubs | 9.7 |
| 3 | Marcell Ozuna | Braves | 4.5 |
| 4 | Asdrubal Cabrera | Nationals | 4.5 |
| 5 | Trent Grisham | Padres | 4.5 |
| 6 | Dinelson Lamet | Padres | 9.0 |
| 7 | Jacob deGrom | Mets | 8.7 |
| 8 | Adam Duvall | Braves | 4.0 |
| 9 | Darin Ruf | Giants | 4.0 |
| 10 | Clayton Kershaw | Dodgers | 7.7 |
| AL Cy Young | |||
| Player | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Shane Bieber | Indians | 11.4 |
| 2 | Lance Lynn | Rangers | 9.1 |
| 3 | Kenta Maeda | Twins | 8.4 |
| 4 | Tyler Glasnow | Rays | 8.0 |
| 5 | Gerrit Cole | Yankees | 7.4 |
| NL Cy Young | |||
| Player | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Trevor Bauer | Reds | 10.0 |
| 2 | Yu Darvish | Cubs | 9.7 |
| 3 | Dinelson Lamet | Padres | 9.0 |
| 4 | Jacob deGrom | Mets | 8.7 |
| 5 | Clayton Kershaw | Dodgers | 7.7 |
| AL Rookie of the Year | |||
| Player | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Jose Marmolejos | Mariners | 2.7 |
| 2 | Jesus Luzardo | Athletics | 4.7 |
| 3 | Evan White | Mariners | 2.0 |
| NL Rookie of the Year | |||
| Player | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Josh Fuentes | Rockies | 2.0 |
| 2 | Alec Bohm | Phillies | 2.0 |
| 3 | Sixto Sanchez | Marlins | 3.0 |
| AL Manager of the Year | |||
| Player | Team | Team BTP | |
| 1 | Bob Melvin | Athletics | 45.2 |
| 2 | Terry Francona | Indians | 45.0 |
| 3 | Rocco Baldelli | Twins | 43.8 |
| NL Manager of the Year | |||
| Player | Team | Team BTP | |
| 1 | Dave Roberts | Dodgers | 52.8 |
| 2 | Jayce Tingler | Padres | 48.0 |
| 3 | David Ross | Cubs | 46.5 |
| AL Reliever of the Year | |||
| Player | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Liam Hendriks | Athletics | 4.0 |
| 2 | Matt Foster | White Sox | 4.0 |
| 3 | Greg Holland | Royals | 3.0 |
| NL Reliever of the Year | |||
| Player | Team | BTP | |
| 1 | Trevor Rosenthal | Padres | 4.0 |
| 2 | Daniel Bard | Rockies | 4.0 |
| 3 | Freddy Peralta | Brewers | 2.0 |
I have cast my ballot in Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA) voting for Reds pitcher Bauer to be both National League Cy Young Award winner and NL Most Valuable Player.
In addition to picking Bauer for both major NL postseason honors, Box-Toppers is selecting:
American League Cy Young Award—Shane Bieber of the Indians.
American League Most Valuable Player—Luke Voit of the Yankees.
American League Rookie of the Year—Jose Marmolejos of the Mariners.
National League Rookie of the Year—Josh Fuentes of the Rockies.
American League Manager of the Year—Bob Melvin of the Athletics.
National League Manager of the Year—Dave Roberts of the Dodgers.
American League Reliever of the Year—Liam Hendriks of the Athletics.
National League Reliever of the Year—Trevor Rosenthal of the Padres.
•
Bauer is my choice for NL Cy Young because he narrowly led NL pitchers in Box-Toppers points with 10.0, ahead of second-place Yu Darvish of the Cubs (9.7). However, any of the top four I picked for NL Cy Young could have passed Bauer with one more dominant performance–third-place Dinelson Lamet of the Padres (9.0) or Jacob deGrom of the Mets (8.7).
I pick Bauer for NL MVP because he had more than twice as many 2020 Box-Toppers points as the top NL batter Marcell Ozuna of the Braves (4.5). In fact, I place Ozuna third in NL MVP voting because he also had fewer than half as many points as Darvish (9.7).
The 2020 postseason award choices are hampered by the small sample size of information this pandemic-shortened season created. With only 60 games rather than the usual 162, there wasn’t enough data for any player to truly pull away from the pack and dominate in any voting category. Box-Toppers awards a single player in each game Player of the Game honors. Those top players can earn bonus points as top overall players or batters of a certain day. In most awards categories in 2020, there were a handful of players who could have overtaken the Box-Toppers points lead in their category by earning Player of the Game honors one more time.
Another factor hampering my awards choices is that batters, in recent years, have earned a far lower share of Box-Toppers points compared to pitchers. Prior to 2010, batters earned half or more of all points awarded, but since then, pitchers have dominated earning upwards of 60 percent of all points awarded. That continued even in the shortened 2020 season—pitchers won 58.0 percent of all 1,068.9 Box-Toppers points awarded, while batters won 42.0 percent.
This has resulted in top batters in the league often having fewer than half of the Box-Toppers points as the league’s top pitchers. This happened eight times in 12 chances from 2014-2019 after happening only twice in 38 chances from 1995-2013. With Ozuna having fewer than half the points of Bauer, it’s happening again in 2020.
Pitchers are eligible to win MVP awards and two have done so in the past 10 years—in 2011, Justin Verlander of the Tigers won AL MVP and in 2014, Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers won NL MVP.
Ozuna also led NL batters in 2019 Box-Toppers points with 12.0 when he was with the Cardinals. However, last year, we voted Ozuna NL MVP because he had more than half the Box-Toppers points of top NL pitcher Stephen Strasburg of the Nationals (20.7).
Here is a look at my other selections:
American League Most Valuable Player
Luke Voit, Yankees
Voit led all AL batters with 6.0 Box-Toppers points, 22nd among all players, just ahead of Eloy Jimenez of the White Sox (5.5). However, I place Jimenez in third place in AL MVP voting behind top AL pitcher Shane Bieber of the Indians, because Bieber had more than twice as many points as Jimenez. In fact, I place three pitchers among the top 10 in AL MVP voting.
American League Cy Young Award
Shane Bieber, Indians
Bieber is Box-Toppers 2020 Player of the Year, leading all players with 11.4 Box-Toppers points. He held a 2.3-point lead over second-place AL pitcher Lance Lynn (9.1).
Rookies of the Year
AL—Jose Marmolejos, Mariners
NL—Josh Fuentes, Rockies
Small sample size truly hampered this category as no leading candidate truly emerged. I pick first baseman and outfielder Marmolejos in the AL with just 2.7 Box-Toppers points. He had more than half as many points as the top AL rookie pitcher Jesus Luzardo of the Athletics (4.7). I pick first baseman Josh Fuentes of the Rockies in the AL with just 2.0 Box-Toppers points, edging out third baseman Alec Bohm of the Phillies, who also had 2.0 points, based on Fuentes having larger accumulated Box-Toppers game scores during his two Player of the Game honors. He also had more than half as many points as top NL rookie pitcher Sixto Sanchez of the Marlins (3.0).
Managers of the Year
AL—Bob Melvin, Athletics
NL—Dave Roberts, Dodgers
Our criteria for this award is straightforward. Which teams had the most Box-Toppers points. The Dodgers led all teams with 52.8 accumulated Box-Toppers points, so Roberts gets my NL vote. The Athletics led AL teams with 45.2 Box-Toppers points, fourth overall, and so Melvin gets my AL vote.
Relievers of the Year
AL—Liam Hendriks, Athletics
NL—Trevor Rosenthal, Padres
Again, with the short season, no single reliever dominated. We pick Hendriks in the AL with 4.0 Box-Toppers points, earning Player of the Game honors in four closing appearances. In the NL, we pick Rosenthal with 4.0 points, who also earned Player of the Game honors in four closing appearances. It should be noted that Rosenthal earned 2.0 points with the Royals in the AL prior to being traded to the Padres. In a normal year, I might count that against him and not vote him for the NL award since half his points were earned in the AL. But in this abnormal year of decreased points and increased interleague play blurring the distinctions between the leagues, I’m sticking with Rosenthal.
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.
Box-Toppers strives for accuracy. See a mistake in a post? A wrong name, wrong team, grammar error, spelling goof, etc.? Thanks for pointing it out! Contact Box-Toppers here. Let's fix it and make it right.