What's realistic to expect in the end from .409-hitting Murphy?

It got lost in the shuffle easily Wednesday night amid Max Scherzer's 20 strikeouts, Jordan Zimmermann's return to Washington and Bryce Harper's one-game suspension, but Daniel Murphy's torrid start to the season hit yet another high-water mark.

With a 3-for-4 night in the Nationals' 3-2 win over the Tigers, Murphy raised his batting average to .409. Yes, that's .409. A number that is no small accomplishment.

Of course there's way too much baseball left to start thinking about Murphy hitting .400 for the season. The Nationals won't even reach the quarter mark of the year until the middle of next week.

But Murphy's performance to date deserves praise because very few ballplayers have done this. In fact, only 13 other qualifying hitters have sported a .400 batting average on May 13 in the last 36 seasons.

Why arbitrarily look at only the last 36 seasons? Because that takes us back to 1980, the last time any major leaguer made a serious run at a .400 batting average.

That year, George Brett was hitting .400 as late as September 19, fading ever so slightly down the stretch to finish at .390. That's the highest full-season batting average by any player since Ted Williams last cracked the magic .400 barrier in 1941. (Tony Gwynn did hit .394 in 1994, but that season ended August 12 due to the players' strike.)

Interestingly enough, Brett was hitting a mere .269 on May 13, 1980 before turning white-hot that summer during his run at history. So he's on the list Murphy has now joined.

That list does include some pretty big names, though. Rod Carew was hitting .476 on May 13, 1983. Dave Winfield was hitting .419 in 1988. Barry Bonds was hitting .429 in 1993. Manny Ramirez was hitting .406 in 2001. David Wright and Josh Hamilton were each hitting .402 in 2012. And Dee Gordon sported a .412 batting average on this date last season.

How did things work out for those guys? Well, the best season-ending batting average for anyone on this list was .372 by Todd Helton (who was hitting .408 on May 13, 2000). Four of them went on to win their league's batting title. Seven finished with at least a .300 batting average. Only two finished below .300 (Hamilton wound up hitting .285 in 2012, the Cardinals' Ken Reitz hit .270 in 1980).

So, for the most part, history bodes well for Murphy. Not to hit .400 for the season. But at least to finish with a pretty hefty batting average.

If nothing else, Murphy has bought himself a nice cushion with his torrid six-week debut in D.C. He would still need to hit a ridiculous .397 the rest of the way to finish at .400 (assuming he stays on his current pace and ends up with 605 at-bats). But if he can hit .333 the rest of the way, he'd finish at .350, which would be the highest batting average by anyone since 2010.

And get this: Murphy is a career .293 hitter. If he simply does that the rest of this season, he'll finish at .317. To finish with a .300 batting average, he only needs to hit .272 the rest of the way.

The purpose of this exercise? There are two conclusions worth drawing: 1) Murphy deserves a whole lot of credit for what he's done to date, because not many have been able to do it over the years, and 2) Barring a complete collapse from a guy who has been a very good hitter his entire career, Murphy should end up with a batting average well north of .300 by season's end.