February 03, 2008
Over Rays Index Dead Body
Rays Index examines the idea of Evan Longoria starting the season in AAA because of the experiences of Alex Gordon and Ryan Braun. Evan wants a chance to win the job.
I know the Rays are building a team here, but the job of the organization is to win. If Evan looks like he can handle the job coming out of the spring, they're a better team with him.
Posted by David Pinto at
02:21 PM
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This has absolutely nothing to do with Ryan Braun/Alex Gordon. He's going to start the year in AAA, but not because he's not ready. It's all about his arbitration clock. It was the same with Braun. He was ready to start the year in the show. He obliterated AAA. He would have hit out of the gate in the show.
Gordon was a special case, where despite all of his obvious talent, he had the pressure of being not only the face of the franchise, but he was suppose to be George Brett his rookie year. No one could live up to that, and I think it affected his performance.
If the Rays keep Longoria in AAA for the first six weeks they'll delay him hitting free agent by another year.
Might as well keep him under club control as long as possible, especially because it's not like Tampa losing another 3 or 4 games in the beginning of the year is really gonna make a difference in the grand scheme of things.