Lawrence crosses the Potomac!

Well the first move of the Hot Stove season for Major League Baseball has occurred and it's a doozy! It involves the favorite teams of two of the writers of this website, J.H. Naners and JT, so I'll let them chime in with their own takes, but here's an unbiased opinion. The Padres traded RHP Brian Lawrence to the Nationals for extremely veteran 3B Vinny Castilla. On the surface and after research, this trade favors the Nats and almost makes no sense for the Padres. While Lawrence is a decent pitcher with some upside, he's progressively gotten worse in his career even though he pitched in one of the best pitcher's parks in the majors, Petco Park. He gives the Nationals another arm in their rotation, but he's not the reason they made this trade. Getting rid of Castilla paves the way for phenom Ryan Zimmerman, the Nats' first round draft pick in June. So in essence, this trade is addition by subtraction for the Nationals.
The Padres on the other hand just seem to be replacing one old guy with another. I don't quite understand the reasoning unless they felt they could not get any other third baseman AND have absolutely nothing in the minors. My other thinking is that Kevin Towers, the Padres' GM in name only pretty much, is trying to get fired, so he can get severance pay and free himself up for the newly opened Red Sox job.
Time will tell if Vinny has anything left and actually does help the Padres, but it's pretty certain that the Nationals will be better after this deal. Kudos to Jim Bowden and Co. on freeing up the hot corner for the future.
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