Get ready for your closeup, Mr. Longoria
By Scott Caruso | April 12th, 2008 | Posted in Transactions
The day, my friends, is finally here. (TBO.com)
Evan Longoria will be in the Rays’ starting lineup—probably batting sixth or seventh—Saturday night against the Orioles, Rays manager Joe Maddon said tonight.
“Obviously we’ve been decimated by injuries a bit, and it’s not necessarily the ideal way we wanted to call him up,” said Andrew Friedman. “But we’re confident in his ability to adjust at the plate and what he brings to us defensively was something we felt was very important with where we’re going.”
I actually have plans during the afternoon tomorrow, or I’d be in my car and on my way to the Trop. Alas, I’ll be here with you jokers in the chat room, as long as I’m home in time from my co-worker’s daughter’s first birthday party. :)
Of course, you didn’t come here to read about Charlotte Bower’s big day, you came here to read what I think about Evan Longoria being called to the big leagues.
From a logistical standpoint, I’m not sure the Rays had much of an option once Willy Aybar needed to be sent to the disabled list. Joel Guzman is still not hitting, so Longoria was absolutely the best available choice to add a much-needed extra bat to the middle of the lineup. No offense to Shawn Riggans (or Mike DiFelice), Nathan Haynes, or even Jason Bartlett - but none of them is the hitter that Longoria projects to be. With Cornelius on the disabled list now, the middle of the order was already looking a bit thin. Now, not so much.
This couldn’t work out any better from the Rays’ front-office standpoint. Longoria essentially gets a 2- to 4-week evaluation period where he will be starting at third base virtually every day against big league pitching and will TRULY get a chance to prove that he belongs in the Major Leagues. If he succeeds, the Rays can simply keep him on the roster when Aybar comes back and try to work Willy into some kind of utility role, playing a little second and short and maybe even grabbing an outfielder’s glove. If he doesn’t do well, the team can send him back to Durham once Aybar is ready to be activated, and no one’s growth is substantially stunted.
Everything I’ve heard about Longoria is that he is a level-headed, mature kid who would understand that if he’s not performing in this “audition” phase that it makes sense to send him back to Durham. Especially if the Rays are legitimately in the playoff hunt a month from now (which I think you can reasonably expect they will be), it makes sense for the team to keep its best 13 position players and Evan Longoria now has a chance to prove he is one of those players.
I suppose that if Longoria REALLY struggles - I’m talking like he hits .125 with a 50-percent strikeout rate - this could blow up in the Rays’ faces as some sort of irreparable damage to his career curve, but I highly doubt that. At the end of the day, the Rays and their fans get a month to see if this kid really is who we think he is. It SHOULD bring people out to the Trop, and it SHOULD help the team win some games.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am ready for this. I don’t think I’ve ever been more jazzed going into a mid-April game in my life. You see that banner up at the top of the page right there? The future truly is NOW.
Tags: Evan Longoria
April 12th, 2008 at 6:59 am
Nicely written article Scot. If I had to ability to wright an article about this I would have said the same thing. I will be at the game and I hope you get to watch some also. This is not only Longoria’s day, it’s the day for the fans that wanted him from the beginning.
April 12th, 2008 at 8:31 am
I will be at the game tonight as well. Hopefully, this will bring out the fans to the Trop and there are not empty blue seats all over the ballpark. My gut feeling is that Evan will be here for the rest of the season.
April 12th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Let the FUN begin… Best of Luck to you Evan!!
April 12th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
I’d like to let a huge “Booooooo! HISSSS!” to ESPN for not having a story about Longoria’s call-up anywhere on the main MLB page of their website, even though they were all over the “negative” story about him being sent to the minors before the season.
I guess when the story line is “Same old Rays” it’s a good story; when it’s “Rays being progressive” it’s better to bury it underneath 6 tons of Yankee-Red Sox coverage.
April 12th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
That’s alright. Maybe the first story will be about how awesome he was in his first big league game.