Angels’ Moniak tops players for Saturday, June 24; Scherzer rises to 3rd in career points

Mickey Moniak of the Angels is Saturday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.

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▪️ Box-Toppers Player of the Game winners.
▪️ Box-Toppers points of the day’s top players.
▪️ Top 10 players in 2023 Box-Toppers points.
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Mickey Moniak of the Angels is Saturday’s Box-Toppers Player of the Day.

Also Saturday, Mets pitcher Max Scherzer rises to third place on Box-Toppers’ “all-time” career points list, passing Pedro Martinez, after earning Player of the Game honors. Scherzer also rises to ninth place on Box-Toppers season player rankings list.

Player of the Day

Moniak homered, hit three doubles and went 5-for-5, scoring five times and driving in four runs, in the 25-1 win over the Rockies.

Moniak earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 3.0 for the season, 169th among all players and 32nd among American League batters.

Moniak had a +9.0 Box-Toppers game score Saturday, ranked fourth-best among all batters winning Player of the Game honors in 2023, behind these three:

National League Player of the Day is Cubs pitcher Justin Steele.

National League Player of the Day

Cubs pitcher Justin Steele struck out eight over six innings, allowing one run, five hits and one walk, in the 9-1 win over the Cardinals.

Steele earns 1.7 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day, giving him 5.7 for the season, 17th among NL pitchers.

National League Batter of the Day is Joc Pederson of the Giants.

National League Batter of the Day

Joc Pederson of the Giants tripled and went 2-for-4, scoring twice and driving in two runs, in the 7-6 win over the Diamondbacks.

American League Batter of the Day

There is no separate AL Batter of the Day for Saturday because the overall Player of the Day is AL batter Mickey Moniak.

Mets pitcher Max Scherzer is Box-Toppers Player of the Game in Saturday’s win over the Phillies.

All-time leaders

Here are Box-Toppers top 10 players since record keeping began in 1995:
 

Player Pos Team BTP
1 Randy Johnson pi sp retired 282.5
2 Clayton Kershaw pi sp lad nl 268.4
3 Max Scherzer pi sp nym nl 245.0
4 Pedro Martinez pi sp retired 244.8
5 Justin Verlander pi sp nym nl 235.6
6 Zack Greinke pi sp kc al 223.5
7 Albert Pujols 1b dh retired 207.8
8 CC Sabathia pi sp retired 203.4
9 Curt Schilling pi sp retired 194.1
10 Alex Rodriguez dh retired 187.0
BTP: Box-Toppers points
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Rankings

Mets pitcher Max Scherzer passes Pedro Martinez on Box-Toppers’ “all-time” career points list, moving into third place, after earning Player of the Game honors Saturday.

Scherzer also rises to ninth place in overall Box-Toppers season player rankings.

Scherzer (6IP 7H 2R BB 8K W in the 4-2 win over the Phillies) earns 1.0 Box-Toppers point, giving him 245.0 career points, moving ahead of Martinez’s 244.8 points. (It should be noted that Martinez’s career total is only from 1995, when Box-Toppers tracking began. If his entire career from 1992 were tracked, Martinez is projected to have 270 points. Martinez retired after 2009.)

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 in Box-Toppers season player rankings for 2023. Players are ranked by Box-Toppers points (BTP) earned this season through Saturday, June 24.

Player Pos Team BTP
1 Ohtani, Shohei 3933 dh pi sp ana al 12.9
2 Gausman, Kevin 3191 pi sp tor al 12.0
3 Gallen, Zac 4171 pi sp ari nl 9.7
4 McClanahan, Shane 4399 pi sp tb al 9.7
5 Garrett, Braxton 4341 pi sp fla nl 9.7
6 Bassitt, Chris 3413 pi sp tor al 9.4
7 Miller, Bryce 4797 pi sp sea al 9.4
8 Kershaw, Clayton 2494 pi sp lad nl 9.1
9 Scherzer, Max 2588 pi sp nym nl 8.7
10 Wheeler, Zack 3204 pi sp phi nl 8.0
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Scherzer now trails only two players on Box-Toppers career points list—Randy Johnson (282.5) and Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers (268.4). Scherzer ranks second among active players (and among active NL pitchers) in career points behind Kershaw.

Scherzer also now has 8.7 Box-Toppers points in 2023, ninth among all players and fourth among NL pitchers.

Debut

Three players made their Box-Toppers debut Saturday, each with their first career Player of the Game honor:

  • Tigers pitcher Reese Olson (5.1IP 4H R BB 9K W in the 3-2 win over the Twins) made his Major League debut June 2 and was playing in his fifth career game.

  • Freddy Fermin of the Royals (HR 3-3 2R 3BI in the 9-4 win over the Rays) made his Major League debut July 15, 2022, and was playing in his 30th career game.

  • Zach Remillard of the White Sox, who as a pinch runner, scored the ninth-inning, walk-off, game-winning run in the 5-4 win over the Red Sox (0-0 R 0BI) made his Major League debut June 17 and was playing in his sixth career game.

Scoring

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  • Moniak earns 2.0 Box-Toppers points for being Player of the Day.

  • Steele earns 1.7 points for being NL Player of the Day.

  • Pederson earns 1.5 points for being NL Batter of the Day.

  • All of Saturday’s other Player of the Game winners (listed in the chart) earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point.

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.

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Box‑Toppers Player of the Game winners

Here is the top player from each of the day’s games listed from highest to lowest Box‑Toppers game score (BTG).

6/24 BTG Game Player AB R H BI IP H R ER BB K
MLB +9.0 LAA 25, COL 1 Mickey Moniak, RF 5 5 5 4
+7.1 DET 3, MIN 2 Reese Olson, (W 1‑2) 5.1 4 1 1 1 9
NL +6.0 CHC 9, STL 1 Justin Steele, (W 8‑2) 6.0 5 1 1 1 8
+6.0 LAD 8, HOU 7 Phil Bickford, (W 2‑2) 2.0 0 0 0 0 4
+5.0 KC 9, TB 4 Freddy Fermin, C 3 2 3 3
+4.0 MIA 4, PIT 3 (F/11) Andrew Nardi, (W 5‑1) 1.0 0 0 0 0 3
+3.1 WSH 2, SD 0 Josiah Gray, (W 5‑6) 5.1 4 0 0 4 6
+3.0 BAL 6, SEA 4 (F/10) Anthony Santander, RF 4 1 4 2
+3.0 TOR 7, OAK 3 Vladimir Guerrero Jr., 1B 3 1 2 3
+3.0 CLE 4, MIL 2 Tanner Bibee, (W 4‑2) 6.0 3 2 1 4 7
+3.0 NYY 1, TEX 0 Luis Severino, (W 1‑2) 6.0 5 0 0 2 4
+2.1 ATL 7, CIN 6 Michael Tonkin, (W 4‑2) 2.1 0 0 0 2 2
BAT +2.0 SF 7, ARI 6 Joc Pederson, DH 4 2 2 2
+2.0 NYM 4, PHI 2 Max Scherzer, (W 7‑2) 6.0 7 2 2 1 8
+1.0 CHW 5, BOS 4 Zach Remillard, PR 0 1 0 0
MLB—Overall Box‑Toppers Player of the Day, worth 2.0 total Box‑Toppers points.
AL—Overall American League Player of the Day, worth 1.7 total Box‑Toppers points.
NL—Overall National League Player of the Day, worth 1.7 total Box‑Toppers points.
BAT—Top AL or NL Batter of the Day, worth 1.5 total Box‑Toppers points.
All other players listed here earn Player of the Game honors, worth 1.0 Box‑Toppers point.
` Pitcher had a no‑decision in the game and did not pick up a win or a save.
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Box-Toppers point totals of the day’s Player of the Game winners

Here are Box-Toppers point totals of each of the Player of the Game winners. Players are ranked by their Box-Toppers point total in 2023 (’23). Also shown is their point total for this season and last (’22-23), the period 2018-2023 (’18-23) and each players’ career point total. Also shown is how their 2023 Box-Toppers point total compares with their 2022 total (+/-).
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Player of the Game Pos Team ’23 ’22‑23 ’18‑23 Career +/‑
Scherzer, Max 2588 pi sp nym nl 8.7 18.7 88.3 245.0 -1.3
Steele, Justin 4415 pi sp chi nl 5.7 10.7 13.7 13.7 +0.7
Tonkin, Michael 3615 pi mr cp atl nl 4.0 4.0 4.0 6.0 +4.0
Gray, Josiah 4503 pi sp dc nl 3.7 8.4 9.4 9.4 -1.0
Bibee, Tanner 4792 pi sp cle al 3.7 3.7 3.7 3.7 +3.7
Severino, Luis 3567 pi sp nyy al 3.0 9.7 30.4 56.5 -3.7
Pederson, Joc 3621 dh rf sf nl 3.0 8.2 26.4 31.4 -2.2
Santander, Anthony 3935 rf bal al 3.0 8.0 16.5 16.5 -2.0
Moniak, Mickey 4849 rf ana al 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 +3.0
Guerrero, Vladimir Jr. 4142 dh 1b tor al 2.5 4.2 15.1 15.1 +0.8
Nardi, Andrew 4855 pi cp fla nl 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 +2.0
Bickford, Phil 4436 pi mr cp lad nl 1.0 2.0 3.0 3.0 0.0
Fermin, Freddy 4862 ca kc al 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 +1.0
Olson, Reese 4861 pi sp det al 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 +1.0
Remillard, Zach 4863 pr chi al 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 +1.0
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A Box-Toppers look at Sunday’s pitching matchups

A Box-Toppers look at the upcoming day’s probable pitching matchups. Teams are paired below with visiting teams on top and home teams on the bottom. Each team’s starting pitcher is shown with their Box-Toppers point total from 2023 (’23), over a two-year period (’22-23), over a six-year period (’18-23) and their career point total.
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Game Starter ’23 ’22‑23 ’18‑23 Career
CHC Stroman, Marcus 3327 7.7 13.4 34.4 62.2
STL Liberatore, Matthew 4662 1.0 3.0 3.0 3.0
NYM Carrasco, Carlos 2885 0.0 9.7 41.5 109.8
PHI Wheeler, Zack 3204 8.0 22.4 64.2 76.9
SEA Kirby, George 4595 6.0 17.4 17.4 17.4
BAL Bradish, Kyle 4597 3.0 9.0 9.0 9.0
TEX Eovaldi, Nathan 2928 7.7 13.7 41.5 67.3
NYY Cole, Gerrit 3232 7.0 22.4 102.4 145.3
OAK Medina. Luis* 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
TOR Kikuchi, Yusei 4136 6.0 11.7 23.4 23.4
ATL Morton, Charlie 2503 2.0 12.4 60.7 96.1
CIN Undecided 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
KC Lynch, Daniel 4488 1.0 5.7 9.4 9.4
TB Glasnow, Tyler 3948 1.0 1.0 37.4 37.4
MIL Burnes, Corbin 4029 6.7 22.1 50.9 50.9
CLE Civale, Aaron 4173 1.0 6.0 23.4 23.4
MIN Ober, Bailey 4441 4.7 7.7 14.4 14.4
DET Lorenzen, Michael 3479 2.0 6.0 10.5 16.5
PIT Oviedo, Johan 4442 3.7 6.7 7.7 7.7
MIA Perez, Eury 4814 4.0 4.0 4.0 4.0
BOS Crawford, Kutter 4660 1.0 5.0 5.0 5.0
CHW Undecided 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
LAA Anderson, Tyler 3656 1.0 13.7 31.4 36.4
COL Gomber, Austin 3985 1.0 4.0 18.7 18.7
ARI Nelson, Ryne* 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
SF DeSclafani, Anthony 3441 3.7 3.7 30.1 41.8
WSH Gore, MacKenzie 4582 3.0 7.7 7.7 7.7
SD Lugo, Seth 3729 1.7 3.7 14.7 19.7
HOU Brown, Hunter 4729 7.4 8.4 8.4 8.4
LAD Gonsolin, Tony 4211 3.7 15.1 27.5 27.5
Starters subject to change.
* Player has yet to earn Box-Toppers points.
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