Checking out Eva(n) Longoria

Sorry, not her:



Him:

I decided to spend a hot Sunday afternoon taking in a Mobile Bay Bear/Montgomery Biscuits game. Yes, Montgomery Biscuits. AL fanatics have heard the name Evan Longoria; he's Tampa Bay's hotshot third base prospect. He's also been tearing up Double A so far this year, hitting .285 with 14 HR and 46 RBI coming into the game.

The game took place at Hank Aaron stadium in Mobile, Alabama. Game time temperature was a balmy 98 degrees.

The picture above of #6 would be our boy Longoria. This photo is taken just before he went down swinging to end the first inning. The strikeout started a trend for him. Evan ended the day 0 for 5, with 3 strikeouts. He had the distinction of recording the first and last outs for Montgomery in the 6th inning.

Other players of note were Reid Brignac and John Jaso of Montgomery, and Justin Upton of Mobile. Reid Brignac manned shortstop beside Evan and had himself a nice 2 for 5 day, including a 2 run triple off the right field wall. He hammered this pitch, and it just barely missed being a home run. Justin Upton had a 2 for 4 day as well. He did, however misplay at least one ball in the outfield (he was in center). He started back on the ball, then saw it fall in in front of him. Here's Brignac and Upton at the dish:



Brignac and Upton (as well as Longoria) are well known prospects of course. The player I was most impressed with however, was Montgomery Biscuits catcher John Jaso. On the day, he was 2 for 3, with 2 walks. He also made two diving catches of foul popups.

Baseball Prospectus 2006 essentially says that his defense is sub par, and that he'll need to stay behind the plate because he won't hit enough to play 1st or DH. Two nice dives notwithstanding, I can't honestly say how good/bad he is defensively. He certainly seemed to know what he was doing at the dish though. So far this season he has 1 more walk than strikeout (26/25) an an OPS of 944, and that's not bad from a catcher. He's not old, but not especially young (born 9/19/83) for a double A prospect (by comparison, did you realize Dioner Navarro was born 2/9/84?!?, seems like he's been kicking around forever) but I'll be keeping my eye on him...