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Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper clubbed two home runs — including the laser embedded above — in his club’s loss to the Mariners on Sunday. Since local media actually forced manager Matt Williams to address the issue of Harper’s demotion, Harper is now hitting .306 with a .355 on-base percentage and seven homers in 23 games.

Harper is very good at baseball. Sometimes we all seem to lose sight of that, in part because of the massive hype that surrounded his high-school heroics, his first-overall selection in the draft, and his promotion at 19 years old in 2012. And Harper, unfortunately for him, has to exist in perpetual comparison to fellow young player Mike Trout even though no young player has ever been as good as Mike Trout.

But this is important: Harper is still only 21 years old. Though he’s in his third year in the Majors, he’s still the sixth youngest player to play in the big leagues in 2014. He is younger than the average player in Class A ball.

(USA TODAY Sports Images)

Harper’s pair of homers Sunday gave him 52 for his career. As Hardball Talk pointed out over the weekend, only 15 other players in Major League history have hit as many through their age-21 seasons — as defined by the player’s age on June 30.

Of the 14 that aren’t Harper, exactly half of them are in the Hall of Fame. One is Ken Griffey Jr., who’ll be a Hall of Famer soon enough. Three of them — Trout, Alex Rodriguez and Giancarlo Stanton — are still active, and A-Rod’s career numbers are obviously Hall of Fame caliber even if his reputation is not.

The remaining three serve as cautionary tales. Tony Conigliaro suffered one of the most calamitous on-field injuries in big-league history, taking a fastball to the face that broke his cheekbone, damaged his eye and derailed a promising career. Bob Horner, too, saw his big-league tenure shortened by injuries. And Andruw Jones — closer to the Hall of Fame than you’d might guess — became a part-time player at age 31 amid constant questions about his conditioning.

So yeah, there’s a lot that can go wrong for Harper. And his early-career injury woes present a reasonable cause for concern about his future. But just because he’s not Mike Trout doesn’t mean he’s not an incredibly special young player. Behind all the hype, there’s an excellent ballplayer that’s going to get even better.