Evan Longoria Is the Man Who Can Lead the Tampa Bay Rays to the Playoffs

At the beginning of the 2011 baseball season, I made my many predictions of the season—division winners, World Series winner, Cy Young Award winners and of course, the MVPs. 

Up to this point, my prediction that Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Evan Longoria would win the AL MVP is looking pretty ignorant.  Longoria has been on the disabled list since the second day of the season, so needless to say, he hasn't been effective for the team.

First of all, let's recap what Longoria has done in an impressive three-year beginning:

He was named the 2008 American League Rookie of the Year, the first Ray to do so.  In that 2008 season, Longoria batted .272 with 27 home runs and 85 RBI en route to leading the Rays to their first World Series appearance. 

His growth as a pro would only continue, as his batting average rose to .281 in 2009 and .294 in 2010.  He's a former Silver Slugger Award winner, a three-time AL All-Star, two-time Gold Glove winner and four-time Player of the Week (seems small compared to the others, but those are impressive too).  

This has been the Rays go-to guy over the past couple seasons and both sides of their game have suffered from it.  Longoria is one of the best all-around players the game has to offer today—and he's only 25 years old. 

Up to this point, the Rays have been trying to keep their heads above water—they started 1-9, but have since gone 14-4, an impressive run for a team that lost most of their other main components including Jason Bartlett, Rafael Soriano and Carlos Pena. 

Most guys in the clubhouse would agree that the biggest loss in Longoria was his "pop" in the lineup.  He's said to be a stand-up guy and a natural-born leader; if he leads as well as he actually plays, I don't doubt that a bit.

I compare him to Scott Rolen in his prime.  If you watch film from back in Rolen's day as a member of the Phillies ball club, you'll notice he had incredible range and an impressively strong arm.  Longoria is no different, playing a step or two back from where the normal third baseman would stand, thus allowing him to cover more ground. 

Several times, he has pumped the ball into first base at an astounding 102 MPH, while snagging balls that come off the bat at around the same speed.  His career fielding percentage is .967, which for other positions may not be impressive, but for the hot corner, bringing in and executing almost 97 percent of plays is an abnormal feat.  

Once the Rays can get Longoria's quick reflexes and strong bat back into the lineup, you'll notice that there is no where for them to go but up.  Felipe Lopez and Sean Rodriguez have been sharing the third base position since Longoria's injury, but they're batting .222 and .214, respectively.  These numbers are clearly not that of Longoria.

Here is my prediction to sum up what I've been saying:

The Rays still have 27 games remaining in May (lost on May 1 to the Angels); my prediction is that Longoria will hit over .320 for the month and the Rays will win at least 18 of the games.