Washington Nationals make case for Anthony Rendon as top Final Vote candidate...

Asked earlier this week to make the case for Anthony Rendon’s inclusion on the 2017 NL All-Star Roster, Rendon’s All-Star teammates with the Washington Nationals were quick to point out that the 27-year-old infielder is one of the best in the game on both sides of the ball.

“Do you go to Fangraphs at all?” Daniel Murphy asked reporters in the nation’s capital in a press conference on Monday.

“Murphy would love to tell you,” Ryan Zimmerman chimed in.

“Yeah, Murph’s got — here we go — start the car,” Max Scherzer said.

“He’s really, really good,” Murphy continued, “like an under-the-radar superstar.”

“Fangraphs. Check it out.”

Over on Fangraphs, and other sites, you can see Rendon has the third-highest average among qualified NL third basemen (.297), tied with Travis Shaw of the Brewers; behind only Eduardo Nunez of the Giants (.299), and the Cardinals’ Jedd Gyorko and Cubs’ Kris Bryant (tied, .301).

Rendon has the highest OBP (.398 to Bryant’s .391), the second-highest SLG, (.549 to Shaw’s .565), the highest wOBA (.397 to Shaw’s .387), and highest wRC+ (145) and fWAR (3.7).

Rendon is, of course, not competing against the National League’s other third basemen in the Final Vote for the NL All-Star roster.

He’s up against the Cubs’ Bryant, the LA Dodgers’ Justin Turner, Miami Marlins’ Justin Bour, and the Rockies’ Mark Reynolds.

Among those candidates, the Nationals’ 2011 1st Round pick has the second-highest AVG (behind Turner who missed time with a hamstring injury from mid-May to the second week of June), .297 to Turner’s .384, (though he’s played 17 more games than LA’s third baseman and has 67 more plate appearances so far), is second to Turner in OBP (.472 to .398), second in SLG (.549 to Turner’s .569), is second in wOBA (.397 to Turner’s .446), second in wRC+ (145 to Turner’s 182) and second in fWAR (3.7 to Turner’s 3.9).

[ed. note - “Hmmm... we might have just made the case that Turner deserves it, outside of the fact that he’s played more games this season, see below for fun Nats’ tweet on the subject.”]

Rendon’s third in home runs (16), behind Justin Bour (18) and Mark Reynolds (19), third in runs scored (43) to Reynolds’ 45 and Bryant’s 51 runs scored, has the second-most walks (45 to Bryant’s 51), and is the only Final Vote candidate with more walks than Ks (45/44).

Rendon was third in the voting when MLB provided an update on Wednesday:

“He does everything, he does defense, offense, steals bases,” Scherzer said.

“What Rendon’s done for us, and the runs he’s driven in, those have been huge, huge runs. It’s really hard for me to swallow that he’s not up here at the table right now.

“I just think that he’s had type of year.

“He’s one of the best third basemen in the game, if not the best right now, so it’s really hard for me to sit here and tell you that he doesn’t deserve to go.”

The Nationals, and some teammates and friends have been making the case for Rendon all morning, with hours to go before the Final Vote wraps up:

Vote while you can, for whichever player you think deserves it...