Longoria
Tampa Bay Devil Rays prospect Evan Longoria blew through the minors to AA Montgomery this season. Is he that good? Damn straight.

Chris HADORN
MinorLeagueNews.com

It was a scorching 105 degree day at Bakersfield’s Sam Lynn Ballpark and Evan Longoria was upbeat.  He has three million reasons to be optimistic: In June, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays selected the twenty-year-old third baseman with the third overall pick in the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft. The 6-2, 185 pound infielder was the first position player taken.

Longoria’s signing bonus is a reported $3 million, not as high as some, but still significant enough to vault the Long Beach State Dirtbags star to a whole new level in the game.

The right-handed-hitting Longoria has shown little trouble adjusting to life in professional baseball; he batted a confident .424 in eight games with four home runs for the Hudson Valley Renegades with an .879 slugging percentage.

That was good enough to move on to the High-A Visalia Oaks in the California League, where he parlayed a .327 average in 110 at-bats into 8 home runs, 28 RBI, a .402 on-base percentage and a .618 slugging percentage. 

“He has a good approach to the ball.  He has a good idea at the plate of what’s going on,” said the deliberate Manny Castillo, his Visalia Oaks hitting coach.  “He has a good idea of the strike zone and he rarely chases a bad pitch.”  

Yet, despite all the recent success, Longoria’s road to stardom began as an uphill climb.  Coming out of St. John Bosco High in Bellflower, California, he went undrafted by Major League organizations and was ignored by Division I programs.

“I didn’t really think about that stuff at the time,” said Longoria, who resumed his career relatively unfazed or discouraged at Rio Hondo Junior College in Whittier, California.

“I kept going along with what I did everyday.  [It] was probably the best decision because I wasn’t mentally and physically prepared to go to a big Division I school.  I think the choices I made have been best for myself, not necessarily for anyone else.  But, it’s been the best road for me.”  

Longoria batted .430 as a freshman at Rio Hondo to earn...

 

<<Back | 1 | 2 | 3 | Next>>