Ugh!

From Jayson Stark's mid-season awards column (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=2104935):

"NL Least Valuable Player of the Half-Year
Cristian Guzman, Nationals. It's tough to throw a banana peel on this team's parade. But in the first season of a four-year, $16.8-million contract, Guzman has been the biggest mess to hit Washington since Monica-gate. He's hitting .201, with a .239 on-base percentage, .291 slugging percentage and more times caught stealing (four) than called safe stealing (three). So how ugly are those numbers? Even if we ignore his base-stealing adventures, only one player since 1918 has beaten that .201-.239-.291 trifecta over a full season -- the legendary Mario Mendoza. Yikes."

We've lamented Guzman's pathetic performance, and pointed out that Jamey Carroll and a host of other National League shortstops could give the Nats a lot better performance for a fraction of the cost. The sad truth is that at this point Guzman is no longer a major league hitter.

Thanks to loyal reader A.K. for flagging the story for us.