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deserved afternoon off.  During the ninth inning, he summoned his first round star to the plate trailing 1-0 to Bakersfield with the potential tie runner on-base.  Bakersfield closer Clint Ingram got ahead of the count 0 and 2 and fanned Longoria as he swung and missed on a slider low and away.  A bad day, but hardly a blip on the Longoria express.

The mid-summer speculation broken in the Bradenton Herald about Longoria possibly moving to shortstop after blue chip prospect B.J. Upton agreed to change positions from shortstop to third base turned into fact in his call-up to AA Montgomery.

He was promoted to the Biscuits, where his record baked a bit more than it sizzled.  His average dropped to .267 with 6 home runs and 19 RBIs, proving that he is still mortal.

His career, all one year of it, is .315 with 18 home runs and 58 RBIs.  That’s pretty impressive for a draft player’s first taste of pro baseball. Consider that 2004 no. 1 pick Justin Upton spent the majority of his season with the Diamondbacks Single-A South Bend. Longoria has something special.

He will probably pick up where he left off in the AA next season, but, if Spring smiles, and the turmoil in player development at the Triple-A level of the Tampa organization continues, who knows? Evan might find himself in a Durham Bulls uniform.  The bigger problem for him will be what happens after that.

Tampa has been slow to move its top prospects to the major league club.  We may see more of Longoria’s professionalism when he has to sit down in Durham for a spell and wait for a spot.

Still, the baseball gods have smiled upon Longoria before.  His maturity and work ethic may make it easier for them to smile again.

Longoria was named the No. 3 pick in the MLN Ones2Watch Baseball™ 2006 list of developing players

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