Zach Wilt: Best season of Nick Markakis' career?

I can't get enough of the season that Nick Markakis is putting together in 2014. Atop the Orioles lineup, he's turned into one of baseball's most consistent leadoff hitters. Coming into Wednesday's game against the Red Sox, Markakis had hit .318 in 145 games as the O's leadoff hitter and was batting .410 in the first inning this season. But you already know how dominant he has looked to since moving to the top of Buck Showalter's lineup. What I've been more fascinated with is how this season compares to some of the others he's had over his career.

A simple glance at the slash line will show that Markakis is on pace to post the highest batting average of his career, highest on-base percentage since 2008 and highest slugging percentage since 2012. While he's on pace for just 15 home runs (he hasn't hit 20 or more since 2008,) he projects to record 205 hits, breaking the 200 barrier for the first time in nine years in the majors.

Last night, Markakis played in his (and the Orioles') 64th game of the season, which means we're nearly 40 percent of the way through the 162-game season. It's worth noting that, prior to 2014, Markakis had never previously posted a batting average above .300 in his first 63 games of any season. For comparison's sake, here are his slash lines through his first 63 games of his nine seasons:

2013: .293/.342/.425
2012: .277/.349/.451
2011: .249/.307/.330
2010: .292/.385/.417
2009: .284/.351/.452
2008: .297/.398/.485
2007: .267/.328/.453
2006: .228/.307/.310

What's fascinates me most about Markakis' start is that he hasn't changed his approach at the plate this season from his career totals. He swings at pitches out of the strike zone roughly a quarter of the time, connecting with 83 percent of them. His zone swinging percentage is 59.8 percent (57.8 percent career) and he makes contact with 94 percent of those pitches (91.8 percent career). Overall, he swings at 43.2 percent of the total pitches he sees (41.7 percent career) and has made contact with 90.5 percent of them this season (88.3 percent career).

Additionally, Markakis' line drive, ground ball and fly ball rates this season closely reflect his career averages, as do his walk and strikeout percentages. Despite posting a .323 batting average on balls in play, Markakis' advanced metrics also support the career year arguments. He's posted a .347 weighted on-base average and a 118 wRC+ (highest totals since 2012).

I've always viewed Markakis as an elite defender in right field, though the advanced fielding metrics seem to disagree with me. After watching him throw out Dustin Pedroia on Wednesday night and rob A.J. Pierzynski of a home run on Tuesday, I'm wondering what the Gold Glove outfielder will have to do to be viewed as above-average according to these statistics. According to Baseball Reference's range factor per game and range factor per nine stats, Markakis measures slightly below the league average at his position this season. He's recorded three outfield assists and helped turn a double play. Markakis' 3.9 UZR ranks 12th in the big leagues among outfielders. He's posted a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage this season.

Is it the best year of his career? It's still a bit early to tell, but if Markakis keeps doing what he's done in the first two and a half months of the season, there's no way that 2014 won't be a season to remember for him.

Zach Wilt blogs about the Orioles at Baltimore Sports Report. Follow him on Twitter: @zamwi. His views appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. 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.