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Path to Greatness

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By MARC LANCASTER, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 3, 2008

Updated: 02/03/2008 12:12 am

ST. PETERSBURG - The two news items came across the wire during a three-day span last spring, their significance amounting to perhaps a sentence each among all but the most ardent baseball fans.

On March 19, the Milwaukee Brewers sent third baseman Ryan Braun back to minor-league camp, assuring he would open the season in Triple-A.

On March 21, the Kansas City Royals' brain trust sat down with rookie Alex Gordon and told him he would be the team's Opening Day third baseman.

Gordon, the popular preseason choice to be the American League's top rookie, slumped terribly at the plate for the first two months of the season and didn't come anywhere near the production most observers expected. Braun went to Nashville and embarked on an offensive rampage that continued even after he was called up with minimal fanfare in late May, eventually culminating in a monster season that earned him the National League Rookie of the Year award.

The way those two players' 2007 seasons unfolded has become something of a case study for the Rays as they ponder how to handle their top prospect, third baseman Evan Longoria, entering the 2008 campaign.

As early as the final week of last season, Rays manager Joe Maddon pointedly noted the different paths taken by Braun and Gordon while seeming to suggest a bit more seasoning in the minors to open 2008 might do Longoria some good.

Rays officials are still mulling over their options with Longoria, and recent history surely will be on their minds no matter which choice they make.

Early Struggles For Gordon

Alex Gordon was a sure thing.

The second overall pick in the 2005 draft, he was tabbed as the top player in the minor leagues by Baseball America following his first professional season, a dominant showing at Double-A Wichita that helped convince the Royals he was ready to jump to the majors.

Spring training opened last year a few days after Gordon turned 23. His bat was as dangerous as everyone anticipated (he hit .317 and posted a .419 on-base percentage in Cactus League play), and his defense justified Kansas City's decision to move incumbent Mark Teahen across the diamond to first base. The Royals officially anointed Gordon their starter at third, for better or worse, and got a lot more of the latter than they bargained for.

From the beginning, Gordon was a mess at the plate. He managed only three hits in his first 33 at-bats and didn't draw his first walk until April 18. For the month of April, Gordon hit .173 while collecting six extra-base hits. He didn't get any better in May, finishing the month with a .185 batting average that put him last among players with enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title, and he had only eight RBIs for the season.

There were calls for the Royals to show some mercy and send Gordon to the minors to get his game back together, but that was never a serious consideration.

"I know that our staff was unanimous in that they were not ready to give up on Alex Gordon and send him back to Triple-A," said Dean Taylor, the Royals' assistant general manager. "We were confident that he was going to work his way out of it, and our feeling was that it was the adjustments that young players need to make at the big-league level. It's not a great surprise that a player comes up for the first time with no Triple-A experience and struggles at the major-league level."

Gordon's average dipped to .172 on June 4 after he went hitless in 12 at-bats in a four-game series at Tropicana Field, but something finally clicked a few days later. Gordon went 4-for-4 with a double and a triple at Cleveland on June 7 and hit .285 the rest of the season despite some struggles in September. In the field, he committed eight errors in his first 35 games but only seven more for the balance of the season.

Royals manager Buddy Bell kept writing Gordon's name on the lineup card, and by the end of the season everyone felt better about the third baseman's future.

"At some point in the season, I just decided to forget about it and just quit listening to everybody saying I should get sent down," Gordon told MLB.com in September. "Just go out there and have fun and enjoy the game that you play. Because, at the beginning of the season, I wasn't enjoying it."

'A Heck Of A Year' For Braun

Ryan Braun entered spring training last season with potential, not pressure. He had played at four levels of the Brewers' minor-league system since signing shortly after the 2005 draft, but he had logged only 59 games above Single-A heading into 2007.

The 23-year-old became a Cactus League revelation, collecting 12 hits (including five home runs) and 15 RBIs in 11 games while striking out only five times. But he didn't consider that grounds for an immediate promotion to the big leagues.

"Honestly, my expectation was to start the year in Triple-A," Braun said last week. "I wanted to go to big-league camp and prove to them I could handle that level on the field, and off the field from a maturity perspective."

The field turned out to be the primary drawback to any case Braun might have made to bypass Triple-A. The Brewers wanted him to get more seasoning defensively, General Manager Doug Melvin said, even though his bat proved its worth during the spring.

"We thought he might be ready by July," Melvin said.

That timetable fell by the wayside in late May when the Brewers decided they weren't getting enough production out of their veteran third-base tandem of Tony Graffanino and Craig Counsell. The pair had combined for one home run and 14 RBIs when the Brewers called up Braun on May 24, hoping to solidify their hold on first place in the NL Central.

"We were slumping a little bit, we needed some offense, and we thought maybe he might be a guy to come in and spark the club with his offense," Melvin said. "He ended up having a heck of a year."

To say the least. Braun needed just more than four months to post one of the most productive seasons ever for a first-year player. His .634 slugging percentage was the best for a rookie, topping Mark McGwire's .618 in 1987.

Braun said his experience opening the season in Triple-A was a significant help, as he measured himself against players with big-league experience for the first time and saw his success at that level boost his confidence.

"I definitely felt like I was ready," he said. "I never really set a timetable to get there - I was just excited about the opportunity, more than anything, and ready to prove myself at the highest level."

Reporter Marc Lancaster can be reached at (813) 259-7227 or mlancaster@tampatrib.com.

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