Steve Mears: Some stats aren't fair to Trea Turner

The standard statistics we have will never be fair to a player like Trea Turner. Trust me, he is not complaining, but you look at a player who puts extreme pressure on the defense to rush their throws on infield grounders and those throwing errors never get credited to the batter when they are forced. Those E-5s and E-6s count the same as outs against Turner's batting average. The other statistic that does not give the appropriate credit to a speedster is stolen bases. They say when Turner is on first base that it's as good as a double. Then why don't we give credit for those in the total bases to factor into an adjusted speed OPS? Caught stealing comes out of the on-base-percentage.

The other stat we could adjust is WAR (wins above replacement), where we should be able to evaluate players who become midseason call-ups as if they have been with the team all season. Turner, according to FanGraphs.com, has a 1.4 for his 118 plate appearances, and that is about 25 percent of the plate appearances that Nationals leader Anthony Rendon has at 470. If we adjust Turner's WAR to 470 plate appearances, it would be an MVP type of 5.58. That would be tops on the team for the position players.

Turner's value also helps his teammates get more RBI opportunities, larger holes in the infield many times and see more fastballs when he is on base.

Add to that Turner's new positional flexibility, where he is playing multiple positions for Dusty Baker. Turner is now playing center field as well as second base, and of course he can play shortstop, his natural position. Turner's defensive range is well above average.

This all adds up to a complete player who has fit in well into Baker's reconfigured lineup. The addition of Turner to this lineup might be better than any trade acquisition Mike Rizzo could have made.

Turner is becoming must-see TV when he is at-bat and on the bases.

Steve Mears blogs about the Nationals for Talk Nats. Follow the blog on Twitter: @TalkNats2. His thoughts on the Nationals will appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our site. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.