How worried were you when Evan Longoria was hit on the hand last night? I know I was petrified that he might have a broken bone or something. Thankfully, everything turned out okay.
It made me wonder, though: who is the one player that the Rays absolutely, positively could not live without if he were injured for the rest of the season? Is it Evan? I tend to think it is, but I’m curious what other people think.
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.
“This young man is special and he’s going to be special here for many years to come. So for us it’s a difficult moment, but we had to do what we perceived to be the right thing to do right now and not what anybody outside this organization thinks is the right thing to do.” - Joe Maddon
Well, I’ve had some time - and some sleep - to think it over. I still don’t REALLY know if I feel like this is for the best. but I can at least try to put it into words.
I was never shy about my desire to see Evan Longoria begin the year as the Rays third baseman. I feel like he’s the best option in the system - “ready” or not - and in the effort to put the best possible team on the field, he should be playing at third base on Opening Day.
I can’t help but feel we were lied to by the Rays. Though they said prior to Spring Training that he would get a chance to compete for the job, I don’t really feel like that’s what he was allowed to do. By all accounts - as in, every single one I’ve read - he is the superior player to Willy Aybar. Not only did he play better than Aybar this spring, but his skill-set is clearly superior. All people around the team have indicated that he has the skills needed to succeed at the big league level, and all of his teammates interviewed indicated that the Rays would be a better team with him than without him.
And yet that wasn’t enough.
We’ve heard everyone rave about him - for the local media to the national. Most assumed that he would be the American League Rookie of the Year. Despite that, he worked just as hard as anyone else in camp.
And yet that wasn’t enough.
I suppose what I’m REALLY trying to figure out is what he would’ve needed to do in order to win the job. Maybe it’s nothing. And I go back to my original point. It’s hard not to feel like we were lied to by the Rays; as if they never had any intention of allowing him to begin the year in the big leagues. It’s as if they went out of their way to tease those of us who actually follow the team, only to dangle that carrot and yank it away in one deft motion. Don’t get me wrong - I LOVE most of what FriedCo. has done since taking over. The team is definitely in better shape - and better prepared for the future - than it was 3 years ago. But why’d they have to go and be dishonest? I would’ve much preferred to hear prior to Spring Training, “Look, we’d like to keep Evan in the minors for a couple of months just to be sure. Not only will that keep his salary clock from ticking, it will also give us a few more months just to make sure that he’s really, truly ready.” But they never did. We were told he would be given a fair chance to compete for the third base job - which it’s hard to believe he really got at this point.
With all of that said - I absolutely understand the decision. Whether or not its best for the long-term success of the franchise is debatable, since I believe that he’ll sign a contract long before he gets to that last arbitration year. But why take the chance? He’s probably ready to take on big league pitching, but he might not be so why take the chance? It all makes perfect sense to me.
FriedCo. had better hope that the Rays win some ballgames to start this season, though. You can bet that if the team starts in a funk, people are going to be calling for Longoria sooner rather than later. Fans are DESPERATE for a winning team, and putting anything less than the best team possible on the field at this point is unacceptable. If Willy Aybar stumbles and the team doesn’t do well, you can bet there will be plenty of backlash - and plenty of calls to bring up Longoria earlier than the end of May, which would end up making this entire thing fruitless and even more damaging.
But it goes back to being able to put the best team possible on the field. That’s what we’ve heard - essentially - from the front office all off-season. Who among us really believes that Willy Aybar rather than Evan Longoria is the third baseman on the best possible team? And that, again, goes back to the feeling that we were lied to - at least a little bit. 2008 ISN’T the year in which “one day” becomes “now.” 2008 is just another building year to some season in the future. And FriedCo. is going to have to deal with the backlash that comes from that.
So, I was in my car going to grab some lunch a little earlier and I flipped to the Yankees-Blue Jays game on XM. They were in a rain delay and talking to Buster Olney about all of the other teams in the American League. When he got to the Rays, I thought what he had to say was very interesting. I’m paraphrasing, but this is the gist…
Over the past few days, I’ve begun to hear some things that the Rays are feeling some pressure to keep Longoria on the big league roster rather than sending him down. As it relates to his contract and arbitration status, he’s signed with an agent who is considered to be a “do what the player wants” kind of agent, so the Rays are beginning to think that they can sign him long-term without ever having to go to arbitration.
Could this be the little bit of an opening that Evan needs to crack the opening day roster?
During the Rays broadcast today, before it got rained out, Dave Wills and Andy Freed were RAVING about an at bat that Longoria had last night against the Yankees in which he saw something like 13 pitches. They were both saying that this at bat alone should make the Rays stop and reconsider sending him to Durham if that’s the plan they have for him.
Just some food for thought…
I keep reading this irritating roster projection that has my ire:
Let’s play a game called “what here is not like the others?” In this quite popular roster projection here late on March 21, 2008, two names burn this page:
These are the spring numbers for these two underachievers. After a weak ‘07 for both of these pitchers, spring numbers like these should mean trips to the minors, correct?
This however will not be the case, as these two have no more options or trips to the minors left-meaning no matter how awful they are, we are still projecting them to make the team.
Now I can make a case for Jackson, though people in these parts know I feel he is not worthy of a spot, Edwin has shown moderate improvement in the 2nd half of last season, and really has only had one horrid inning this spring. Also his 1.20 WHIP is a huge improvement over his career mark. I believe WHIP is the most important metric in judging a pitcher…
Hammel has done nothing to earn a rotation spot- yet he will keep Jeff Niemann in AAA, because of this option issue.
My only hope is that Hammel is the one sent away when Scott Kazmir becomes healthy, but I have a sneaky suspicion that the winner of the Dohmann /Balfour battle royal will be the real loser. How you ask? I believe that those two are the last to make the bullpen, and I believe if Hammel is even mediocre, he will keep his spot in the rotation and Andy Sonnanstine will be given the other spot in the bullpen…
Hickey has been hinting about Sonny in a relief role and Sonny has come out of the pen more than a few times this spring.
The real loser here is Jeff Niemann, who has been strong so far, but also has options. I am not saying that more time for Niemann in AAA is a bad thing, my only hope that the Rays can survive with “not the best team they can put on the field, as it seems Longo is earmarked for AAA also”
The expectations of many may be too high, but for many purposes (including the new stadium) it might behoove Friedco to play the best hand they have got.
One of the biggest debates this spring training has been whether Evan Longoria will make the opening day roster. Most people believe that the Rays want him to start the season in Durham and work his way onto the major league roster. The team does not want to put him in the majors to start the season and have to send him down if he is not performing. They would rather put him in the minors and call him up and he would never go back down to Durham. However, Longoria is making a case for starting the season with the Rays in Baltimore.
How will Rays fans react if the team elects to send him to Durham to start the season? If they do send him to the minors, do you think this is the team being cheap? If he does start the season in the majors, his service time will start and he becomes closer to arbitration.
Just listening to fans call into radio shows and reading comments on various websites that they would be very upset if the team sent him to the minors. If they do send him to the minors, I will be interested to see what their reason is for sending him there. Does anyone believe that Willie Aybar is performing better than Longoria? If you do think that, I would love to hear your reason why. I think that Aybar can help this team out as a backup and utility player, but the time has come for Longoria to play third base. Why move Iwamura to second if they felt that he was not ready to play at the major league level. Unlike David Price, Longoria has spent two seasons in the minors and has played his way through the organization.
Going into spring training, Joe Maddon said that Longoria would be given the opportunity to be the Rays opening day third baseman. He has said that Longoria is making his decision tougher on where he will start the season at. I did find this quote in the St. Pete Times very interesting that Maddon had to say.
“He’s going to be a major-leaguer, absolutely, for many years. He has a chance to be an All-Star player for many years, too.”
One thing about a quote from the newspaper is that we do not get a chance to hear the question. If this quote came from a radio or TV interview, we could hear how the question was asked. My observation of the quote is that the team plans to start him in Durham to start the season. I would not agree with that move, but Maddon and Andrew Friedman are the decision makers and I am not.
When I read the quote from Longoria in the same article in the St. Pete Times, it sounds like he believes that he has done enough to make the team.
“I feel like I’m doing my part,” he said. “I’m going about my work the right way. Like I said all along, things have to fall into place, and hopefully they do. But I feel like as long as I do what I’ve been doing, I’ll be all right.”
His numbers support him making the roster, but the team may feel that he needs some more time in the minors to work on his game. The one thing we do know is that at some point in this season, Evan Longoria will be the Rays starting third baseman.
The fifth spot in the rotation that was Edwin Jackson’s to lose is being lost. E-Loss allowed 4 walks and 4 runs in 5 innings yesterday, though the Rays rallied from behind to beat the Jays. (Recap/Box)
It’s going to get very difficult for the Rays to justify keeping Jackson around if he keeps throwing up performances like this. He’s getting out-pitched by Andy Sonnanstine, Jeff Niemann, and J.P. Howell. The team cannot afford to keep carrying his dead weight around for much longer; if he can’t get it done in Spring Training, what’s he ever done to lead you to believe that he WILL do it in the regular season? If you’re betting, I’d drop his odds to under 50 percent of being one of the 5 starters as camp breaks.
On the bright side, Evan Longoria homered - again - and the Rays managed to win - again. Other than the Jackson blip, things are really looking good this Spring. The Rays are now 10-3 in Grapefruit League action.
If you’ve gotten the feeling that the Rays are doing everything they can to ensure that Evan Longoria will start the year in Durham, join the club. It sure seems that way, doesn’t it? Really, though, can you blame them for being careful? Look at what happened to Alex Gordon last year; compare that to Ryan Braun (which I’m sure the Rays are also doing). There is plenty of precident to keep Longoria down in Durham for the start of the year.
Well, ladies and gents, I think I’m officially on the “keep Longoria at Durham” bandwagon. You can call me a flip-flopper if you want (I’ve been called worse), but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense to make sure that the future of the franchise is ready to go once he gets that call to the big show. Look, it’s possible that he could come out Opening Day and absolutely mash from day one - but why take that chance? Why not let him stew and cook a little longer at Durham and make sure that he’s really ready for the show? Not only that, but if the Rays play their cards right, they could keep his arbitration clock from ticking and keep him in town for a little bit longer before he starts demanding millions and millions of dollars.
Remember, the Rays made it through the first few months last year without Longoria and the offense did just fine. It was the pitching staff that let the Rays down. That area has been much-improved now, and the Rays should be able to get enough offense out of Jolly Guzbar to remain competitive. We’ve waited this long to see Longoria, why not wait just a little bit longer?
Last evening, Andrew Friedman got his left-handed (switch-hitting) utility player when the Rays traded Jeff Ridgway to the Braves for Willy Aybar and Chase Fontaine. (MLB.com)
Aybar, 24, missed all of last season due to an injured right wrist and a stint at a rehabilitation facility for substance abuse. He sustained the wrist injury in Spring Training and underwent surgery in August.
“We really like Willy’s offensive profile,” said Andrew Friedman, Rays executive vice president of baseball operations. “We feel like he can really hit. We like his defensive versatility. And we plan on expanding that some in Spring Training.”
I cannot complain about this move, because the Rays didn’t have to give up anything of real value to get Aybar. Ridgway was older (as far as guys who made their big league debuts just a few months ago) and didn’t really seem to have much of a future in the new-look Rays, while Aybar addresses a true organizational need in infield depth. The team plans on using him all over the infield and a little bit in the outfield, too.
Obviously, the big question is whether or not Aybar will ever show the promise that caused the Dodgers to sign him as a 17-year-old in 2000. Though he has shown flashes of greatness, he has very rarely put it all together over the course of a season. If he can, he’s got a little bit of pop and has an ability to get on base at a decent rate, and could actually be a very good offensive player. At the very least, he’s an offensive upgrade over Ben Zobrist. I couldn’t find a good scouting report on his defense, but by all accounts he doesn’t embarass anyone with his glove.
Meanwhile, the “player to be named now” is infielder Chase Fontaine. He’s the kind of guy that you expect to be the “player to be named later” in a deal because you’ll probably never hear of him again. He’s a lefty-hitting shortstop who gets on base pretty well. On the bright side, the official Braves site had this to say about him when he was drafted 18 months ago:
Chase Fontaine, SS, second round Not the picture-perfect shortstop. But the Braves will keep him there and have said that he reminds them of a young Chase Utley. Clark said Fontaine was the best offensive player at the junior-college level this year.
Fontaine - who I will hereafter refer to as Atlas (anyone who has played BioShock knows what I’m talking about) - shores up organizational depth, if nothing else. I’m not going to pretend to know anything else, since this is the first time I have ever heard about him.
The effect of this move is pretty clear: the Rays pretty much have a four-horse race for two spots on the 25-man roster. You’ve got Aybar, Ben Zobrist, Andy Cannizaro and Joel Guzman competing (since we’re going to assume that the third member of the Gomes-Floyd-Baldelli platoon and Shawn Riggans/Mike DiFilece are going to take the other 2 bench spots) to be utility players. You can pretty much pencil Cannizaro in at Durham now, leaving Aybar, Zobrist, and Guzman. I don’t think it would be a stretch to say that Aybar has the best bat of that group, which could give him an advantage in trying to pick up that roster spot. I think that guarantees that Ben Zobrist would be the other player, since he’s probably a better defensive player than Joel Guzman and is the most natural back-up shortstop of the bunch. Now, if the Rays elect to leave Evan Longoria in Durham to cook for a little while longer, all three could be on the opening day roster.
So, to summarize, if I had to adjust my prediction about the 13 position players that will be on the Opening Day roster:
C - Dioner Navarro
1B - Carlos Pena
2B - Akinori Iwamura
3B - Evan Longoria
SS - Jason Bartlett
LF - Carl Crawford
CF - B.J. Upton
RF - Rocco Baldelli
DH - Cliff Floyd
C - Shawn Riggans
IF - Ben Zobrist
IF - Willy Aybar
OF - Jonny Gomes
That’s really not a bad offensive team in the least bit. If we can get just a little bit of pitching this year… look out!
On a related note, I have a question about Atlas that I can’t seem to find the answer to: on MLB.com, he’s listed as the 40-man roster, but I can’t imagine that the Rays would waste a spot on a guy who is that far down in the minor leagues still. Is that just an MLB.com mistake or am I missing something about him? Anyone with some insight, I would greatly appreciate it.
Here’s what you may have missed over the weekend while writing cuss words on your checks to pay for parking tickets:
Marc Topkin checked in with a bunch of notes in the Sunday St. Pete Times:
The preferred profile for the wanted “super-utility” player is a left-handed hitter who can play first and third and fill in at the corner outfield spots, and likely would be acquired via trade.
Though I’m not sure why they’d want a LEFTY to play first since that’s what Carlos Pena is and the addition of this player would likely mean the end of Joel Guzman’s chances of making the roster, that player they are talking about sounds an awful lot like Frank Catalanotto. Problem is, he makes $3.5 million and plays for another team (Texas), so the Rays would have to swing some kind of trade. I don’t see that happening.
“From the original thoughts that all of us had, we’re a good bit above that number and it’s just the way things worked out,” Friedman said. “It’s the opportunistic approach that we had this offseason.”
I don’t think it’s ever been a question of getting to $40 million and stopping there. I think the team was truly taking the approach that it would spend whatever it needed to spend so long as it remained within the plan - the plan of course being to continue to develop the majority of its talent from within. The money spent on Troy Percival, for instance, was the right move to make and the organization should be commended for being willing to shell out a little more cash than it said it was going to.
t would seem an unusual way to do things, but Friedman said the Rays might decide before 3B prospect Evan Longoria gets to spring training whether or not he’s on the team.
The thinking is that the Rays already know enough about him, that talent evaluations during the spring are often skewed by circumstance and level of competition, and that deciding beforehand would reduce scrutiny (and pressure) on his day-to-day play.
But doing so would seem to make sense only if they decide Longoria, 22, isn’t going to make the team. That way, it eliminates the question from being a daily issue, as well as a potential controversy if Longoria were to put up huge spring numbers.
I have to disagree with Topkin on the point that it only makes sense if he isn’t going to make the team. “It eliminates the question from being a daily issue”? Uhhh, this isn’t the New York media, pal. I suspect that you, Marc Lancaster, and Bill Chastain aren’t going to exactly crush the guy’s spirits with your reporting over the course of Spring Training. You might just be overstating your job a little, don’t you think?
Baldelli said he has been working out and running three days a week with no problems from his previously troubling hamstrings and plans to “turn it up a notch” after returning to Florida at the end of the month. “If I can hit and kind of take it easy running, I think everything will fall right into place after that,” he said.
That’s right. Rocco’s getting ready to “turn it up a notch.” Look out, AL East.
In all seriousness, the return of a healthy Baldelli would be a boon to this team because it simply adds an All-Star-caliber player to an already strong team. Considering how little he was around last season, it’s almost like another big free agent signing.
And for those who keep asking, the Trop can’t be “converted” to an outdoor stadium by removing the roof and some walls because it was built with no drainage or weatherproofing (and would be very costly to do).
WHO ASKED THIS QUESTION?! No, seriously. I want to know. Was it one of you guys?
The Rays say the successful redevelopment of Tropicana Field and its parking lots could generate $5-million a year in new property tax revenues for state and Pinellas schools. If the redevelopment includes retail, millions more dollars could flow into the city and county coffers each year through sales tax payments.
That money, which would not help build a new stadium for the Rays, could be used to build new schools or new parks or pay teachers or police officers more, the Rays say.
Watching this whole thing play out is like watching a politician who is 5 to 10 points down in the polls try to make up ground heading into a primary.
The blend of talent and experience has the manager talking about a .500 season as “a reasonable goal,” but it won’t deter him from taking a back-to-basics approach to spring training. In fact, the potential to crack the 70-win barrier for the first time in Rays history might only serve to reinforce Maddon’s determination to avoid giving away so many winnable games by committing fundamental mistakes.
“I’m going to apply a lot of pressure to the coaches and myself this spring training to make sure we get these fundamentals down appropriately,” Maddon said. “We’ve talked about them for two years; I believe this group is ready to put them into play. I believe this group is ready to take what we’re talking about and execute them. I believe this group will accept constructive criticism well and be accountable for their actions.
As soon as you shoot for mediocrity, you set yourself up for failure. Way to go, Joe. This team - like every team’s goal - should be to win as many games as possible and ultimately reach the playoffs. But, nah, let’s shoot for a third-place finish and the chance to watch Joe Buck annoy the fans of two other teams instead of ours in the playoffs.
