The Hangover: Nate Silver Projects Evan Longoria As One Of Most Valuable Players In Baseball

Mesa 7, Scottsdale 4.
Scottsdale remains the only winless team in the AFL at 0-8. Evan Longoria (1-5), John Jaso (0-2, 2 BB), Chris Nowak (0-3) and Reid Brignac (0-4, 3K) went a combined 1-14. Evan Meek and Nick DeBarr each pitched a perfect inning in the loss.

DEVIL RAYS WEBTOPIA…

• Back in May, Nate Silver of Baseball Prospectus and SI.com made a list of “Baseball’s 50 Most Valuable Players” which is based on projected value over the next six seasons. At the time we took Mr. Silver to task for only giving Carl Crawford a nod as honorable mention. Another honorable mention from the Rays was Evan Longoria (BJ Upton [#50], Delmon Young [#42] and Scott Kazmir [#33] also made the list). Silver has now taken a look back at his list and made some adjustments and predictions for his 2008 list. He now feels that Evan Longoria will make the top 20 at #18. A ranking this high indicates that not only will Longoria be a great player, but he will become the face of the franchise in the near future. [Baseball Prospectus]
• The “60 Greatest Moments in MLB in the last 60 years” and not a single Devil Rays moment? What about that time that Kevin Stocker…No. OK, What about that time Jared Sandberg came up with 2 outs in the 9th and…Noooo. OK. how about that time when the Rays were battling for…Yikes. Well, there was the game when Dewon Brazelton threw a….Shit! Nevermind. [The Book]
• If the Rays sign a Type-A Free Agent (the bestest), they would not lose their first round pick (#1 overall). Sweet! Now that we know the #1 pick is protected, what kind of starting pitcher can the Rays get for $500? [MLB Trade Rumors]
• DRays Bay interviews a Baseball Economist. Of the approximately 20 questions there are only 3-4 questions that actually cover the economics of baseball, so you have to skip around to find answers to questions that cover a player’s dollar value, the true value of Alex Rodriguez and whether or not Scott Boras could fix the national deficit. [DRays Bay]
• Tom Verducci discusses the importance of a team’s bullpen (a point permanantly engraved in the minds of Rays fans) and how constructing a strong one is both difficult and partly the product of luck. [SI]
• We are not surprised the a bio of Dewon Brazelton doesn’t make a lick of sense. [Baseball]
• Rays Digest takes a look at the 2008 infield, or more accurately, they take a look at Evan Longoria. Words on Longoria: 855. Words on the rest of the infield: 132. [Rays Digest]

Carl Crawford Is No Better Than 51st Most Valuable Player In Baseball

Nate Silver of Baseball Prospectus and SI.com recently released his list of “Baseball’s Top 50 MVPs.”

In concept, the UFD (Ultimate Fantasy Draft) is pretty simple: If you were starting a baseball team from scratch, which players would you want to build your team around?

Three members of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays cracked the top 50 and two others were named as honorable mention.

50. BJ Upton: There are parallels between Upton and Gary Sheffield, another player who had an awesome minor league pedigree but whose defense and attitude made for a difficult adjustment to the major leagues.

42. Delmon Young: Lost in the hubbub of the bat-throwing incident is that Young’s offensive development has been a little flat over the past year and a half.

33. Scott Kazmir: He just barely edged out Victor Zambrano for this slot (poor Mets fans, even Nate Silver is piling on…hehe). Kazmir has yet to have that one season that gets everyone buzzing — he had command problems in 2005, injury problems in 2006, and is off to a little bit of a slow start in 2007.

You might be asking “Where the #%% is Carl Crawford?” Inexplicably he comes in as an honorable mention.

Carl Crawford: Crawford seems like he’s been around forever, having become a big league regular at age 20, but he’s still just 25, and may have some further room for power development. He’s also one of the more likely major leaguers to take a run at 3,000 hits, as he’s even-money to have cleared the 1,000-hit barrier by the end of this season. Plus, he’s perhaps the best baserunner in the league, and one of the few left fielders that might be worthy of Gold Glove consideration. So there’s a ton to like here, but at the end of the day a .327 career OBP from a corner outfielder is too much to overlook.

We will forgive Nate Silver because he has obviously been in Botswana for the first month and a half of the baseball season and failed to notice that Crawford, who is still two years from his prime, has a .367 OBP this season. And while we will admit that C.C. does not play a critical position in the field, it is only because there are two more natural center fielders already on the team. Crawford could easily be a center fielder and would start in center for most teams.

The other honorable mention was last season’s first round pick, Evan Longoria.

Evan Longoria: Longoria’s minor league numbers this year — five homers and a .956 OPS so far (ed. note: actually 10 HR and 1.068 OPS as of today)– are significantly better than (Brandon) Wood’s, even though he has played in a much tougher hitting environment. Longoria plays outstanding defense and might even be a candidate for a move to shortstop; think Ryan Zimmerman, Part Deux.

We have no comment on Longoria because we are still flummoxed, flabbergasted, and F#@$$ed by Crawford’s non-ranking.

Baseball’s Top 50 MVPs [SI.com]