No Lo Duca

It's looking like Paul Lo Duca is not bound for Washington, which is just fine by me. It'll probably take $5m+ to bring him in for a year, and the litany of reasons for not doing so is a pretty long one. I'm all for a trade that would bring in someone like Miguel Montero or Ronnie Paulino, but Lo Duca is clearly not in a position to contribute to the future of the franchise, and his contributions even to next year are questionable, probably no more than someone (like Damian Miller) who would come much cheaper.



This dapper gentleman is Katsuhiko Maekawa, the other guy mentioned in Svrluga's post. He's a 27 year old lefty who is a lifetime 19-36 with a 5.08 ERA in 9 seasons in Japan. He starts some, he relieves some, and he's posted a career WHIP of 1.60. But apparently Jimbo and company see something there, so we'll just have to see if the negotiations with him go anywhere but AA. One potential upside is that it might allow the Nationals to get their foot in the door in the Japanese market, but who knows what the payoff there would be?