The Decade’s Best: No. 2 Evan Longoria

Evan Longoria
Chatham 2005
Infielder
Long Beach State

In the last four seasons, anybody who’s having a great offensive summer — especially if he’s a shortstop — is bound to draw an Evan Longoria comparison. Longoria’s 2005 season is the first one that pops into my head when I think of great offensive seasons; his name is the first that pops into my head when I think of offensive stars.

It’s not surprising that so many get compared to him. That’s what happens to great players.

The things is, no one really compares.

Sure, some guys ended up with better numbers. Grant Green — a West Coast shortstop like Longoria — comes to mind. Gordon Beckham’s 2007 season was also on par.

But for every criteria that matters when it comes to defining a Cape League star — from buzz to national attention to perception to statistics — Longoria remains a step above.

In the 2000’s, he was Cape Cod’s brightest offensive star.

Longoria came to Chatham from Long Beach State. He had started his college career at Rio Hondo Community College. After a year there, he made his way to Long Beach, where he moved to third base and played alongside star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki. I’m not sure anyone could have guessed then that, by the next spring, Longoria would be a bigger star than Tulowitzki.

Longoria’s summer on the Cape paved the way for that to happen. He had hit .320 for the Dirtbags with five home runs. On the Cape, he rocketed into another orbit.

After getting off to a 1-for-11 start, Longoria hit his stride in Chatham’s fourth game, going 2-for-4 with a homer and three RBI. The next day, he went 4-for-4, and from that point on, his name was a fixture on pretty much every leaderboard. In one six-game stretch starting on June 20, Longoria hit .440 with two home runs, five RBI and a slugging percentage of .800.

By July, it was clear that Longoria’s emergence was going to be one of the year’s biggest stories. He played three different positions for the A’s, but wherever he was, he kept hitting. For much of the summer, he was a legitimate Triple Crown candidate.

In the end, his average dipped slightly, but the numbers were still more than enough to earn him MVP honors. He hit .299 with a league-best eight home runs and 35 RBI. He also led the league in slugging percentage, finished third in hits and second in extra-base hits.

The most remarkable thing might be that Longoria was doing this in a league dominated by power pitchers. When I look back on it, I don’t think of 2005 as a year like ’07 or ’09, when a dearth of power arms helped set the stage for gaudy offensive numbers. Longoria was the only player in his class having a big all-around offensive summer. In a pitching-heavy all-star game, he had two of the game’s 10 hits.

Scouts took notice, of course. He was rated by Baseball America as the league’s third-best prospect, and his scouting report included this gem from Falmouth manager Jeff Trundy: “He’s a scary hitter.”

And these days, judging from how often his name still gets mentioned, I think everyone remembers just how scary he was.

After the Cape

Longoria was drafted third overall by Tampa Bay the next June. When he hit 26 homers in his first full pro season, he became one of the game’s top prospects. He was in Tampa by 2008, and he hit 27 home runs en route to A.L. Rookie of the Year honors. In 2009, he cemented his status as one of baseball’s brightest young stars, hitting .281 with 33 home runs and 113 RBI.

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