It's hard to find a middle infielder who has hit worse than Jack Wilson and Jose Castillo since 2005, but the Pirates have managed.

Welcome to Pittsburgh, Cesar Izturis.

Knowing how fond manager Jim Tracy was of Cesar the Outmaker when both were Dodgers, his arrival seemed imminent early last week. So I went to baseball-reference.com to find the batting ranking of middle infielders who had been to the plate at least 850 times since 2005.

Of the 60 players, Izturis was second from the bottom, Wilson eighth from the bottom and Castillo 10th. The Pirates now have three of the 10 lightest-hitting middle infielders in baseball. (All are available for trade; operators are standing by.)

That ranking is based on OPS+, which is a batter's on-base average plus slugging average, adjusted for his ballparks. Izturis's OPS+ is 63, which puts him at the bottom with Clint Barmes and Neifi Perez. That number essentially means these men bat 63 percent as well as the average hitter at all positions.

Wilson's OPS+ is 74 and Castillo's is 77.

Had I gone back to 2004, when Wilson and Izturis had career years, Wilson would be well ahead of Castillo but Izturis would remain behind both. Izturis has, in fact, the second worst OPS+ of any middle infielder with at least 2,000 plate appearances since 2001. Only Perez is worse, and he has been suspended 25 games for using amphetamines so the Pirates can't get him, at least not yet.

Let's just hope that Tracy is over using Izturis atop the batting order. While managing the Dodgers, Tracy made Izturis the early leader for worst leadoff hitter of the 21st century by batting him first in 95 games in 2005. Izturis hit .262/.309/.329 with just 46 runs scored and more times caught stealing (7) and grounding into double plays (10) than stolen bases (6). That's one reason the Dodgers scored only five more runs than the Pirates that year despite outspending them $83 million to $38 million.

The batting lines since 2005:
	AVG	OBA	SLG	OPS
Izturis	.252	.299	.317	.616
Wilson	.262	.307	.362	.669
Castillo	.256	.299	.388	.687

The best horse in that slow race, Castillo, 26, is coming up on the one-year anniversary of his most recent home run. Since his previous dinger Aug. 14, he has had 252 homer-free AB while hitting .214/.244/.282. Is anyone still loving Castillo's "potential"? The Pirates have yet to entice the Mets to take him despite the regular New York second baseman breaking his leg.

Izturis, two years younger than Wilson at 27, was all but given away by the Cubs. As he is taking Don Kelly's place, this is a simple bench upgrade at the most basic level. Izturis narrowly edged Wilson for the Gold Glove at shortstop in 2004 and also can play second base. He's a good defender, though not as good as Wilson. Baseball Prospectus rates Wilson as 74 fielding runs above the average shortstop in his career, and Izturis two runs above.

So what are the Pirates thinking? Well, this team absolutely must find hitting. Shortstop Brian Bixler, 24, is hitting .294/.384/.431 with 21 steals at Class AAA Indianapolis. If the Pirates found a decent deal for Wilson now, they could make it and still let Bixler finish out the year in Class AAA without losing much at shortstop or the bottom of the batting order by inserting Izturis.

But that would be a deal more likely made in the offseason. Unlike past summers, general manager Dave Littlefield is under no financial pressure and Wilson is not a departing free agent. Littlefield can, and should, wait.

What would you say if you were dealing Wilson? You'd concentrate on his glove.

He has the most assists per game (3.23) of any shortstop with at least 500 games these past seven seasons. He also has the most double plays (672). Wilson has maintained a fielding percentage of .977 compared to the league .972, making 4.67 plays per game while other NL shortstops averaged 3.99. (Thanks to Sean Forman of baseball-reference.com for the research.)

I've heard fans scoff at Wilson's prolific DP output, saying he should get plenty with all the runners that Pirates pitchers put on base, as if Enrique Wilson, Brian Wilson or Woodrow Wilson could do just as well.

That's hooey. Baseball Prospectus tracks double plays per opportunity (man on first, less than two out). The average NL team gets a DP 12.6 percent of the time. The Pirates make them 14.4 percent of the time, fourth best in baseball after the Rockies, Yankees and Padres. That's not all because of Wilson, but this is the fourth time the Pirates have been in the top five in DP conversion in his seven seasons, with Wilson the one constant in the infield.

Trade Wilson for good value and his career could go one of two ways. He could become a "Have Glove, Will Travel" guy like Royce Clayton and bounce from team to team, or be a Mark Belanger and stick with a good-hitting team that appreciates his defense, bats him eighth or ninth, and figures he'll save more with the leather than he'll lose with the stick.

The Pirates look to be making the opposite bet.