Brian Lawrence

Kudos to Jim Bowden for moving Vinny Castilla, who was serving no good purpose in D.C. Ryan Zimmerman now has a clear path to start everyday at third, although we'd still like the team to sign a third baseman and move Zimmerman to short to replace the horrid Cristian Guzman.

Bowden traded for Brian Lawrence, which raises a couple of interesting questions. The first is whether Lawrence is any good. The answer is that he's OK. The second question is whether he'll have to replace Esteban Loaiza in the rotation. If so, it'll be a step backward.

Pitcher	H/9	BB/9	K/9	HR/9	ERA	VORP
Loaiza	9.41	2.28	7.18	.75	3.77	42.1
Lawrence	9.71	2.62	5.01	.83	4.83	15.8

Lawrence isn't great, and probably isn't pretty good, but he's a servicable starter, and that's a pretty good return on a trade of Vinny Castilla. Lawrence wouldn't be a terrible fifth starter, but whether he's a fifth starter or is forced to be something more will depend on what other moves the Nationals make this offseason.