What? No! Why?

God knows he's a lot more excited than I am.

This just in: The Toronto Blue Jays are smarter than we thought they were. Paul Lo Duca has signed with the Nationals for one year, and $5m. Okay, it's one year, and that's fine. But he sucks. You thought Brian Schneider was crap with a bat? Guess what, Paul Lo Duca isn't any better. His average is certainly higher, but let's look at their lines from last year, shall we?

Lo Duca: .272/.311/.689
Schneider: .235/.326/.662

So Schneider wins in OBP, while losing in BA by a lot, and OPS by just a little. They're about even, which is to say they both suck. They also drove in the same number of runs last year, 54. Lo Duca doesn't do anything but single, Schneider singles and walks. That's the gist of it. Schneider's defense is a little better, .992 vs Lo Duca's .989, but Schneider threw out 31% of his base runners while Lo Duca threw out only 23%. Not to mention that Schneider had an off year (in 2005, Schneider threw out 50%, in 2004, in 2003, almost 55%.) What we can garner here is that Lo Duca isn't an upgrade. At all. He's a place holder, and as long as we're clear on that, fine.

Also, Lo Duca is a scumbag, as I've mentioned before. He's not even a young scumbag who could change. Nor is he a young scumbag with a lot of upside who could change. So where's the uproar here? Oh no, I forgot, he's Italian, so it's expected. Zing!

Furthermore, he was one of the guys fingered with making Milledge look like some kind of villain. If there's any persisting drama between the two of them, Milledge must be a higher priority. There's no future in Paul Lo Duca.

But whatever, as long as he is very clearly just holding the door for Flores, I'm alright with it, I guess. And as long as nobody assumes that he should hit anywhere but eighth or ninth in the lineup, because hey, he's a career .288 hitter, then whatever. But there's no reason to be anything better than mildly bemused by this signing.

Editastic: I still really wouldn't be shocked to see the Nationals sign Damian Miller or Johnny Estrada as a backup or platoon with Lo Duca. Flores needs to see a lot of ABs to develop, which I have to assume means he'll be in AAA this year. It would seem grossly inappropriate to expect him to develop as a backup on the major league roster.