Yeah, about those deals...

The Nationals signed Vinny Castilla from the Rockies and Cristian Guzman from the Twins. Neither is doing particularly well this year. Oh, why be so courteous, they both stink!

Player	OBP	SLG	OPS	VORP
Castilla	.313	.381	.694	4.9
Guzman	.227	.266	.493	-20.6

Out of 27 third basemen in all of baseball with 300 or more at bats, Castilla ranks 23rd. Out of 28 shortstops in all of baseball with 300 or more at bats, Guzman ranks 28th. That's not a whole lot of production from the left side of the infield.

Nationals Farm Authority looked at the players the Rockies and Twins drafted with the picks the Nationals surrendered. Brian rightly raises caveats with this analysis, but the Twins' pick looks to be performing quite well in rookie ball. It will interesting--and perhaps painful--to track the progress of these picks through the minors.