After years of hype and anticipation, the 2018 Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Washington, D.C., is only 11 days away. The fan vote concluded Thursday and on Sunday, the American and National League will announce 31 of the 32 members of the 2018 All-Star Game rosters. It would be a travesty if Trea Turner is not selected.

Somewhat lost amid this peculiar season for the Nationals has been Turner’s development as perhaps the best shortstop in the NL and one of the best in the majors. The 25-year-old Turner is batting .280/.357/.427 with 11 home runs, 51 runs scored and 22 stolen bases over 86 games played in 2018. This season Turner has made a particular effort to show more patience at the plate, notching a 10 percent walk rate this season compared to his career 7.2 percent.

Additionally, after years of baseball people knocking him defensively, he has quietly developed into an above-average defender at shortstop. He possesses outstanding range due to his superior speed and athletic ability. I fully admit his jump-throws to first base make me nervous like a teenager on a first date, but he has become proficient at this and has committed only nine errors all season.

This ingredient has potential to cialis professional australia provide powerful impotence cures. Revatio comes in viagra 25mg prix a 20 mg tablet and is used for treating depression also. There have been significant achievements in finding the paralysis treatment appalachianmagazine.com viagra sale in India. His brand of clothes, Ed Hardy, from California, levitra pill price http://appalachianmagazine.com/2019/07/05/appalachian-lore-dont-swim-during-dog-days-of-summer/ is an awesome, full of colors and life exclusively carries his original artwork. Yet somehow his all-around excellence is largely being ignored by general baseball fans, as he was not among the top five in All-Star votes received for NL shortstops. San Francisco’s Brandon Crawford is having a strong season and likely was chosen by the fans to be the starting NL shortstop. This leaves Turner in a difficult predicament, as he is competing with all other NL shortstops for likely one backup position. It is a strong year at the position, as the Cubs’ Addison Russell, Dodgers’ Chris Taylor and Rockies’ Trevor Story are all having solid seasons in addition to Crawford and Turner. Turner’s numbers are arguably superior to his fellow competitors, but the competition is steep at shortstop.

Finally, with 15 NL teams and only 32 total spots, how many Nationals will be selected?  Bryce Harper will probably be chosen by the fans and Max Scherzer looks poised to start the game for the NL. Fellow Nationals Sean Doolittle and Anthony Rendon have solid arguments to make the club and rookie sensation Juan Soto has already received hype as a potential option for the Final Vote for the 32nd player on the roster. Even considering Washington is the host city, it is difficult to envision the Nationals having more than three representatives.

This leaves Turner squeezed in an obvious roster crunch. And while Turner is having one of the best seasons of any National League player (sixth-best according to FanGraphs WAR), odds are he will not be selected to his first All-Star Game. This is truly unfortunate, as Turner is one of the most dynamic young players in baseball and Nationals fans deserve the chance to passionately cheer him during pregame introductions. If Turner is snubbed like Isiah Thomas from the 1992 Dream Team, I hope Nationals fans acknowledge this slight against him with an outpouring of support the rest of this season.

*Originally Published at MASNSports.com 7/6/18*

Earlier this week, Jayson Werth publicly acknowledged his baseball career is over, failing to specifically use the word retirement, but effectively ending his playing days. After the Nationals decided not to offer him a contract, Werth signed a minor league pact with Seattle in March to attempt to earn his way back to the majors. Unfortunately, nagging injuries and mediocre statistical performance was baseball’s way of telling him his playing days were finished.

Werth had a fascinating career, beginning as a first-round pick of the Orioles in 1997. He battled injuries and was traded twice before establishing himself at 28 as a slugging corner outfielder for the Phillies. He was a key cog in Phillies lineup for four years and won a World Series ring in 2008. Surprisingly, Werth signed with Washington in December 2010 for a massive seven years and $126 million. He was very good his first four seasons before age and injuries caught up with him, and is a true fan favorite in franchise history.

Werth’s retirement leaves me emotionally feeling a bit sad and analytically rushing to judge his legacy as a National. The fact that baseball has deemed Werth, at 39, too old hits a bit too close to home for 37-year-old me. Of course, as I write this, I have a heating pad on one part of my body and an ice pack on another.

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On the other hand, Werth was generally a pretty poor defensive outfielder and injuries caused him to miss significant parts of three seasons. Also, his final three seasons were rather lackluster, hitting .226/.322/.393 last season, .244/.335/.417 in 2016 and .221/.302/.384 in 2015. In addition, our final memory of Werth will be his critical error in Game 5 of the NLDS last fall. Considering his contract and his final overall numbers, Werth feels a bit overrated as a player.

However, his contributions were perhaps more important off the field. Werth signing with Washington immediately changed how the organization was viewed. The Nationals failed to win 70 games in any of the three seasons before Werth arrived, and never won less than 80 in the seven after his arrival. He acted as a leader in the clubhouse with actions like holding Nyjer Morgan accountable for conditioning drills or acting as a big brother to Bryce Harper. Werth forced the organization to improve many things during his tenure, such as the food for the players and the quality of their practice baseballs. While the collective value of these intangibles is impossible to measure, I feel comfortable saying Werth’s off-the-field contributions are wildly underrated.

Overall, I compare Werth’s legacy to that of a young child receiving a savings bond from a grandparent – it’s nice at the time but you appreciate it much more 25 years later when you redeem it for the cash. In time, fans will forget Werth’s injuries and reminisce on his shaggy beard, interviews with MASN’s Dan Kolko and never swinging at a first pitch. Thank you, Jayson, for all you did for the Nationals and I hope the organization finds a role for you in its front office.