Box-Toppers’ top two ranked pitchers are finalists for 2020 Cy Young Awards.
However, Box-Toppers’ top batters are not among the finalists for 2020 Most Valuable Player Awards.
Award finalists
Here are finalists for the Cy Young, Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year awards to be given this week, as named by the Baseball Writers Association of America. Players are listed by their Box-Toppers point (BTP) total for 2020 and their Box-Toppers rank in their award category.| Cy Young finalists | |||
| AL finalists | Team | BTP | Rank* |
| Shane Bieber | Indians | 11.4 | 1 |
| Kenta Maeda | Twins | 8.4 | 3 |
| Hyun Jin Ryu | Blue Jays | 6.0 | 9 |
| NL finalists | Team | BTP | Rank* |
| Trevor Bauer | Reds | 10.0 | 1 |
| Yu Darvish | Cubs | 9.7 | 2 |
| Jacob deGrom | Mets | 8.7 | 4 |
| Most Valuable Player Awards finalists | |||
| AL finalists | Team | BTP | Rank* |
| Jose Abreu | White Sox | 4.5 | 6 |
| DJ LeMahieu | Yankees | 3.5 | 13 |
| Jose Ramirez | Indians | 3.5 | 14 |
| **Luke Voit | Yankees | 6.0 | 1 |
| NL finalists | Team | BTP | Rank* |
| Freddie Freeman | Braves | 3.5 | 8 |
| Manny Machado | Padres | 3.0 | 21 |
| Mookie Betts | Dodgers | 2.5 | 25 |
| **Marcell Ozuna | Braves | 4.5 | 1 |
| Rookie of the Year finalists | |||
| AL finalists | Team | BTP | Rank† |
| Cristian Javier | Astros | 2.0 | 18 |
| Kyle Lewis | Mariners | 1.0 | 40 |
| Luis Robert | White Sox | 1.0 | 45 |
| NL finalists | Team | BTP | Rank† |
| Alec Bohm | Phillies | 2.0 | 3 |
| Devin Williams | Brewers | 1.0 | 40 |
| Jake Cronenworth | Padres | 0.0 | -§ |
* Rank shows a player’s rank among potential players eligible for the award. For example, AL Cy Young finalists are ranked among AL pitchers, AL MVP finalists are ranked among AL batters.
** Player led the league category in Box-Toppers points but is not among the three finalists for the award.
† Rookie of the Year finalists are ranked among players in their league who made their Box-Toppers debut in 2020. There were 53 AL players who made their Box-Toppers debut in 2020 and 43 NL players.
§ Cronenworth has yet to make his Box-Toppers debut by earning his first career regular season Player of the Game honor and so has no ranking. He made his Major League debut July 26 and played in 54 games. He was Player of the Game in the 2020 postseason in the NL Wild Card Game 3 win over the Cardinals.
Shane Bieber of the Indians, who led American League pitchers with 11.4 Box-Toppers points in 2020, is one of three finalists for AL Cy Young Award. And Trevor Bauer of the Reds, who led National League pitchers with 10.0 Box-Toppers points (ranked second overall), is one of three finalists for NL Cy Young.
Both were Box-Toppers’ choices for AL and NL Cy Young Awards.
However, Box-Toppers’ leading batters in each league did not make the list of three finalists for MVP. Neither Luke Voit of the Yankees, who led AL batters with 6.0 Box-Toppers points, nor Marcell Ozuna of the Braves, who led NL batters with 4.5 points, were among their league’s three MVP finalists named this week.
The Baseball Writers’ Association of America, which votes on the award-winners, announced the finalists, the top three in voting for each award. In addition to Cy Young and MVP awards, the group also announced top three finalists for Rookie of the Year and Manager of the Year in each league. Rookie of the Year Awards will be given Monday, Manager of the Year on Tuesday, Cy Young Awards on Wednesday and MVP Awards on Thursday.
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.
AL Cy Young
Bieber led AL pitchers in Box-Toppers points with 11.4, the most of any player in 2020.
The other finalists:
Twins pitcher Kenta Maeda ranked third among AL pitchers with 8.4 Box-Toppers points, seventh overall.
Blue Jays pitcher Hyun Jin Ryu ranked ninth among AL pitchers with 6.0, 17th overall.
The top-ranked AL pitcher who was not among the finalists is Lance Lynn of the Rangers with 9.1 Box-Toppers points, second among AL pitchers and fourth overall.
NL Cy Young
Bauer led NL pitchers with 10.0 Box-Toppers points, second overall.
The other finalists:
Cubs pitcher Yu Darvish had 9.7 points, second among NL pitchers, third overall.
Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom had 8.7 points, fourth among NL pitchers, sixth overall.
The top-ranked NL pitcher who was not among the finalists is Dinelson Lamet of the Padres with 9.0 Box-Toppers points, third among NL pitchers and fifth overall.
AL MVP
Luke Voit of the Yankees led AL batters in Box-Toppers points with 6.0, 22nd among all players, but was not among the three finalists for AL Most Valuable Player. They are:
Jose Abreu of the White Sox, who ranked sixth among AL batters with 4.5 Box-Toppers points, 41st among all players.
DJ LeMahieu of the Yankees, who ranked 13th among AL batters with 3.5 points, 75th among all players.
Jose Ramirez of the Indians, who ranked 14th among Al batters with 3.5 points, 78th among all players. (Note: Though LeMahieu and Ramirez had the same 2020 Box-Toppers point total, LeMahieu ranked ahead because he had more 2019 Box-Toppers points—3.5 vs. 1.5.)
Five AL batters, including Voit, are ahead of the top-ranked AL MVP finalist Abreu in 2020 Box-Toppers season player rankings. But the actual difference between Abreu (4.5) and Voit (6.0) is just 1.5 Box-Toppers points, the margin of a single Box-Toppers Batter of the Day honor. With 2020’s pandemic-shortened season producing such a small sample size while no AL batter clearly stood out, the honor for top AL batter could have realistically gone to any one of 10 or 15 players.
NL MVP
Marcell Ozuna of the Braves led NL batters in Box-Toppers points with 4.5, 38th among all players, but was not among the three finalists for NL Most Valuable Player. They are:
Mookie Betts of the Dodgers, who ranked 25th among NL batters with 2.5 Box-Toppers points, 131st among all players.
Freddie Freeman of the Braves who ranked eighth among NL batters with 3.5 Box-Toppers points, 70th among all players.
Manny Machado of the Padres who ranked 21st among NL batters with 3.0 Box-Toppers points, 104th among all players.
While Ozuna led NL batters in Box-Toppers points in 2020, Box-Toppers actually picked Reds pitcher Trevor Bauer to win both the NL Cy Young Award and the NL Most Valuable Player Award. While Bauer is an NL Cy Young finalist, he is not an NL MVP finalist.
Rookies of the Year
Box-Toppers chose Jose Marmolejos of the Mariners as its AL Rookie of the Year and Josh Fuentes of the Rockies as NL Rookie of the Year.
Small sample size truly hampered this category as no leading candidate truly emerged and with so few games, no rookies accumulated significant Box-Toppers point totals. In fact, they earned so few, their rankings in player rankings is not included here.
Marmolejos had 2.7 Box-Toppers points and Fuentes had 2.0. Neither was named a finalist in the BBWAA voting.
The AL Rookie of the Year finalists:
Cristian Javier of the Astros, 2.0 Box-Toppers points.
Kyle Lewis of the Mariners, 1.0 Box-Toppers point.
Luis Robert of the White Sox, 1.0 Box-Toppers point.
The NL Rookie of the Year finalists:
Alec Bohm of the Phillies, 2.0 Box-Toppers points.
Jake Cronenworth of the Padres, 0.0 Box-Toppers points. He has yet to make his regular season Box-Toppers debut by earning his first career Player of the Game honor. But he was Player of the Game in the NL Wild Card Game win over the Cardinals on Oct. 2. (No Box-Toppers points are awarded in postseason games.)
Devin Williams of the Brewers, 1.0 Box-Toppers point.
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Box-Toppers’ picks for postseason awards include Shane Bieber, Trevor Bauer, Luke Voit