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Due to various circumstances, the NL MVP race looks a bit more open than it did a couple of weeks ago.

As Bryce Harper's Nationals have slowly collapsed, Buster Posey's San Francisco Giants have begun looking like, well, Buster Posey's San Francisco Giants. There's also Greinke, who deserves to be taken more seriously as an MVP candidate than he has been so far.

But even if things have become more interesting in recent weeks, the picture hasn't changed. Harper's still the man to beat for the award, and by a considerable margin.

Why? Oh, you know. Mainly because he's hitting .330 with an NL-best 1.119 OPS and 29 home runs. He owns an OPS+ over 200, putting him in line to be the first hitter to finish the season with an OPS+ beginning with the No. 2 since Barry Bonds in 2004. And as B/R's Danny Knobler notified Harper, he could be the first 22-year-old to finish with an OPS+ over 200 since Ted Williams in 1941.

"It's a blessing to be mentioned [in that company]," Harper responded. "I'm humbled. But I don't think about it."

He may not think about it, but the Nationals likely don't stop thinking about how fortunate they are to be getting that kind of production. Without it, a season that's already on thin ice probably would have been doomed a long time ago.

Of course, Harper will have to keep it up to make sure things don't get any worse for the Nats. But that wouldn't appear to be a problem. Though he has indeed slowed down in recent weeks, that's very much relative. Though he had a 1.208 OPS in his first 67 games, it's only fallen to .943 over his last 33 contests.

So long as Harper can keep doing his thing, what could be the first of many MVPs should be all his.

Note: Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.