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Rays Plan For Longoria

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 27, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - As the Devil Rays went through batting practice Wednesday afternoon, Evan Longoria watched from the side, wearing a suit and tie.

The Rays' top prospect was on hand for a pregame awards ceremony recognizing the organization's top minor-league players, but there's a good chance he'll be one of the players going about his usual BP routine when the time comes to hand out the 2008 honors.

In fact, Rays manager Joe Maddon on Wednesday said there's a '50-50' chance Longoria will break camp next spring as Tampa Bay's third baseman. Maddon also said the decision won't necessarily be based on how well Longoria handles his first real look in big-league camp (his appearance this year was strictly a cameo), but whether the Rays feel the player's body of work warrants an Opening Day shot.

Maddon drew the comparison between two high-profile rookies who were handled in different ways this year. Kansas City handed its third base job to Alex Gordon right away and saw the rookie struggle terribly before picking it up later on. The Brewers, on the other hand, left Ryan Braun in the minors for nearly two months before finally bringing him up and watching him rampage to 33 homers in 108 games with Milwaukee.

'Sometimes it's more difficult for a young man to come out of spring training and have all this pressure attached to him to be this person,' said Maddon. 'Whereas if he goes to the minor leagues, gets off a great start, gets in the flow of things, comes up and, boom, he just continues it along.'

Longoria, polished and confident even though he doesn't turn 22 until next month, is just looking for a chance to show what he can do.

'I hope I get more opportunities this spring training than I did last spring training, because with opportunity comes the chance to show what you can do,' he said. 'With more at-bats, hopefully I'll have a chance to prove something.'

Longoria added that this season exceeded his expectations and he's anticipating the next step.

'Having Triple-A experience this year and playing with a lot of guys that have been in the big leagues gives you that feeling that you can play there,' he said.

Rays player of the year honors went to Columbus OF Ryan Royster, who hit .329 with 30 homers and 98 RBIs. Wade Davis was tabbed as the top pitcher after going 10-3 with a 2.50 ERA and 169 strikeouts between Vero Beach and Montgomery.

ONE MORE TIME: As LHP Scott Kazmir makes his 34th and final start of the season tonight, a couple of milestones are within reach. A victory would be Kazmir's 14th of the season, tying Rolando Arrojo's club record from the Rays' inaugural season.

Kazmir also has a chance to take the American League strikeout crown. He got a big assist Wednesday when his competitor for the title, Johan Santana, was limited to three innings in his last scheduled start after the Twins and Tigers waited out a 78-minute rain delay. Santana struck out four to give him 235 for the season. Kazmir is sitting on 229.

BIG MOMENT: Jorge Velandia estimated he had 15 or 20 messages on his phone after hitting a game-changing grand slam for his first major-league home run Tuesday night, but he did his best to put his star turn behind him Wednesday.

'We won, it's over with, it's a different day,' he said. 'But I enjoyed it, and I'm sure when everything is said and done and I go home, I'll be like, 'That was cool.''

Marc Lancaster

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