Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team.  That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists out and we always consistently look to update them when we can and based on necessity.  As such, we are very happy to present our pre-2022 revision of our top 50 Washington Nationals.

As for all of our top 50 players in hockey we look at the following: 

1.  Advanced Statistics.

2.  Traditional statistics and how they finished in the National League. 

3.  Playoff accomplishments.

4.  Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.

Please note, that this is our first revision, reflective of the last year.

The Nationals went into full rebuilding mode, trading many of their stars during the season.  There were no new entries, but were some rank elevations.

As always, we present the top five immediately, which has no changes.

1. Gary Carter

2. Tim Raines

3. Max Scherzer

4. Andre Dawson

5. Steve Rogers

You can find the entire list here.

Scherzer almost supplanted Raines at #2, and he completed the season with the Nationals, he likely would have.

Ryan Zimmerman moves up from #9 to #6.  This could be the end of the climb for Zimmerman, as it is speculated that he might soon retire.

Infielder, Trea Turner, was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers during the season.  Despite, not playing all of the year with Washington, he was fantastic this year, and moves up to #14 from #22.

Juan Soto, who was this year’s National League MVP runner-up, rockets up to #17 from #36.

We welcome your input and comments and as always, we thank you for your support.

The process continues.

We here are Notinhalloffame.com have plans to create our own set of post-season awards, which we will look back and retroactively present from 1901 on.  That will take a while, but it has never stopped us before!

Our awards are not be league specific.

Now it is time for our 2021 positional awards.

We will be awarding a positional player of the year, but not only that, offer up the runner-up and second runner-up, meaning that we will have First, Second and Third All-MLB players.

Let’s work our way around the diamond and award the best of the best in Baseball!

*Please note that to qualify, a player must appear in that position at least 50% of the time.

First Team All-MLB: Shortstop of the Year:  Trea Turner, Los Angeles Dodgers & Washington Nationals.  6.5 bWAR, 6.9 fWAR, 195 H, 28 HR, 107 R, 77 RBI, 32 SB, .328/.375/.536/911.

Turner was traded to the Dodgers from the rebuilding Nationals, and he qualifies here, as even though he moved to Second Base in L.A., he played more than 60% of the season at Short.  Turner led the National League in Hits (his second year in a row), Stolen Bases, Batting Average and Total Bases (319).  He was also an All-Star for the first time this year.

Second Team All-MLB: Shortstop:  Carlos Correa, Houston Astros.  7.2 bWAR, 5.8 fWAR, 155 H, 26 HR, 104 R, 92 RBI, 0 SB, .279/.366/.485/850.

Correa easily could have been our winner, and it was a last-minute decision to go with Turner.  The Astro is an All-Star for the second time and set a career-high in Home Runs.

Third Team All-MLB: Shortstop:  Fernando Tatis Jr., San Diego Padres.  6.6 bWAR, 6.1 fWAR, 135 H, 42 HR, 99 R, 97 RBI, 25 SB, .282/.364/.611/975.

Like Correa, Tatis was in serious consideration for the Shortstop of the Year, and this year he won his first of what could be many Home Run Titles.  Had he been better defensively, he might have won this.

Trea Turner's departure from the Washington Nationals is still a topic that sparks a lot of discussion and change in the team's history. If the team hadn't decided to make big changes at the 2021 trade deadline, he probably would have been a key player for many years. Coming from North Carolina State, Turner was an incredible athlete with lightning-fast speed that kept the opposing team on their toes and made Washington’s batting lineup a real challenge.

His journey to Washington involved an unusual wait. Drafted in the first round of 2014 by San Diego, he was soon traded to the Nationals in a large three-team deal. He had to wait until June 2015 due to a technicality involving a "Player to be Named Later.’ After a brief 40-at-bat introduction in August, Turner delivered a remarkable rookie season in 2016. Ignoring traditional development paths, he hit .342 with 13 homers and 33 stolen bases in just 73 games, playing both second base and center field—finishing as a close runner-up to Corey Seager for NL Rookie of the Year.

Once permanently installed at his natural shortstop position, Turner became the ultimate elite table-setter. He weaponized his elite speed to swipe 46 bases in 2017, then commanded the entire National League in 2018 by leading the league in plate appearances (740), at-bats (664), and stolen bases (43). His relentless baseline chaos became a fundamental gear during the legendary 2019 World Series run; Turner hit a robust .298 and stole 35 bases, providing an indispensable spark at the top of the order that carried the Nationals directly to their historic first-ever World Series banner.

While the strike-shortened 2020 schedule forced a compressed calendar, Turner completely paralyzed Senior Circuit pitching by leading all of baseball with 78 hits, pacing the league with four triples, and finishing an impressive seventh in the NL MVP voting.

In the 2021 season, he reached a historic peak with his offensive performance. Turner compiled an impressive .322 batting average and 21 steals over 96 games, earning his first career All-Star selection after years of waiting. However, with free agency approaching and the team undergoing a full rebuild, the front office traded the star shortstop and ace pitcher Max Scherzer to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a blockbuster deal in July. Turner carried his hot streak to Southern California, securing the 2021 National League batting title with a.328 average and leading the league with 195 hits.

As a National, Turner had 769 hits, 128 doubles, 32 triples, 93 home runs, and 293 RBIs. He posted a .300/.356/486 slash line (121 OPS+) and stole 192 bases.