Baseball is a sport of streaks that often seem to begin or end with an all-powerful flip of the calendar. And while such convenient markers may actually be more perception than truth, what can be said with confidence is that when the month of May came calling, Bryce Harper became the best player in all of baseball.  Harper has hit 13 home runs during his monster month, one that included a ridiculous six home runs in three days - a deadly stretch that brought pitchers to their knees and chocolate sauce into his mouth. Harper played immaculate defense, struck out less and posted totals that have him swimming in black ink. In runs scored, home runs, RBIs, walks, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS and WAR categories, Bryce Harper is your Major League Baseball leader.  Since Harper flipped the switch, the 22-year-old has twice won National League player of the week honors – he’s so locked in that he initially thought that the home run he hit on Tuesday in Chicago was a pop out (even if it was wind-aided).  Meanwhile, while his Washington Nationals have won 18 of 24 games in May, riding Harper’s bat while moving up 7.5 games in the Eastern Division standings, past the New York Mets and into first place.  At this very moment, there’s no one you’d rather have on your big league roster, but a season ago, the case could be made that the Harper hype machine was outpacing the on-field product. In April, then-rookie manager Matt Williams benched Harper mid-game for failing to run out a ground ball. Days later he was burned for hustling too much, or at least too foolishly, wildly sliding head first into second base and ripping up a few thumb ligaments in the process. When he finally returned in July, Harper put on his manager hat and criticized Williams’ lineups, prompting resentment from teammate Denard Span, who reacted to such divisiveness by saying, “In all my years of playing baseball, I’ve never been talked about by another teammate.”  Harper’s maturity levels matched his production during his third season, when he posted a .768 OPS, striking out 104 times in 100 games – a significant drop from his rookie and sophomore years, and one that saw players call him out as the leagues most overrated player for the second consecutive year in ESPN The Magazine’s annual player survey.  Slightly unfair perhaps when you consider that in 2014 he was just 21, and that baseball is a game that can take time to figure out, even if you’re viewed as a can’t miss super-prospect. Mostly however, Bryce Harper was being penalized for not being Mike Trout, with whom he’ll forever be linked with thanks to their twin ascents into the sport in 2012. The Los Angeles Angels outfielder is the gold standard, blessed with more than just talent, but a maturity level at a young age even rarer than his superior on-field tools.  Harper on the other-hand is also a generational talent, but one who faced a adversity for probably the first time in his young life. And if you think adversity is too strong a term, consider this: Bryce Harper’s batting practices were generating YouTube traffic while in high school. At 16 he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated being compared to LeBron James. Scouts touted him as the future of baseball after being picked no1 overall in the 2010 draft. After just 164 minor league games he rocketed on the scene and won the Rookie of the Year award. Then, suddenly he was out of the lineup during an injury-riddled campaign, and when he was on the field Harper looked human for the first time in his entire career.  You won’t hear Bryce Harper come out and say that dealing with such issues and obstacles made him mentally stronger and more patient with himself while waiting for his success to come. Perhaps a young, ultra-talented 22-year-old doesn’t even realize what the magnitude of certain events in one’s life can have on their makeup. He told the Washington Post:  This is the type of player I need to be and the type of player I want to be. Everybody talks about how I’m doing this different or I’m doing that different. There’s nothing different. It’s staying healthy and staying in the lineup. Truly.  But Bryce Harper is different. Very different. His approach to the game has changed, with patience allowing him to work favorable counts, and an overall plate awareness that’s seeing him hit breaking balls harder and farther than he ever has prior in his young career.  Harper is also balanced away from the plate, recently recognizing that Trout, the 2014 AL Most Valuable Player, is the best player in baseball, telling ESPN that “Mike Trout is the best player in baseball, and I don’t think anybody can argue with that.”  That’s coming from a player who is projected to post 62 home runs this season, needless to say, a significantly higher haul then the pre-season projections thought possible - they topped out at 22, and he has 18 already. Even if Harper cools off, which is highly probable, it’s looking like 2015 will be remembered he as the year the slugger was able to live up, and perhaps surpass the already lofty expectations.  Nationals starting pitcher Gio Gonzalez said it best on Saturday after Harper led the team to another win with another electric performance.  “He’s just becoming the all-around ballplayer. He’s doing it. You can see it. He’s a superstar, and he’s been a superstar since he was in high school. It’s basically what we’ve been waiting to see, and he’s bringing it.”
David Lengel: The touted Washington Nationals’ slugger battled injuries and maturity issues in 2014, but he’s putting it all together in the nation’s capital this season