If you are familiar with me at all, you know that Evan Longoria is my favorite athlete and that the Tampa Bay Rays are my favorite team. Call it bias or whatever you want, but I am sick and tired of Longoria not getting the proper credit he deserves for his all around game. Earlier today I was watching the top 10 third basemen countdown on the MLB network and I was surprised with how certain hosts ranked baseball’s best third basemen. Bill James, the creator of the SABR movement, was the only analyst or host to rank Longoria number one among his peers.
Brian Kenny, who is one of my favorite and go to guys when it comes to anything sabrmetrics, rated Longoria 3rd and former big league player Mike Lowell, had Evan ranked 4th. Lowell sighted Longoria’s 2013 average as the main reason he couldn’t rank him higher and even went as far as to say that Adrian Beltre was better than Longoria at every aspect of the game. Seriously?!?, this kind of talk makes me wonder if people even watch baseball or just look at stats that were created in the 1800’s. Batting average as the end all be all? Laughable… and somewhat embarrassing for somebody who played the game at a high level.
Longoria’s value goes so far beyond his numbers and I would say he is in a class of only two special players that if you took them off their teams those teams would completely fall apart. In my opinion Longoria is in the same class as Andrew McCutchen in terms of being the heart and soul of their respective teams. Irreplaceable, period. Think about, take Miguel Cabrera off the Tigers, they still compete, take Adrian Beltre off the Rangers and they are still a very very good team, take Hanley Ramirez or Matt Kemp off the Dodgers and they are still a playoff team. However if you take Longoria or McCutchen off their teams what are you left with? Certainly not playoff teams and a totally different look both offensively and defensively.
When I evaluate players, I have no problem looking at batting average and RBIs, I do value OPS and runs way more than average and RBIs but I always include them when looking at a player. I’m always fair when it comes to that, I just simply think that people that only look at average and RBIs are doing themselves a huge disservice. With that being said, lets compare Evan Longoria’s 2013 season to some of his peers at 3rd base using both basic 1800’s stats and advanced metrics.
Evan Longoria.
(basic stats) .269 average / 32 home runs / 91 runs scored / 88 RBI
(advanced metrics) .343 OBP / .498 SLUG / .841 OPS / 133 wRC+ / 6.8 WAR
Adrian Beltre.
(basic stats) .315 average / 30 home runs / 88 runs scored / 92 RBI
(advanced metrics) .371 OBP / .509 SLUG / .880 OPS / 135 wRC + / 5.2 WAR
Manny Machado.
(basic stats) .283 average / 14 home runs / 88 runs scored / 71 RBI
(advanced metrics) .314 OBP / .432 SLUG / .746 OPS / 101 wRC+ / 6.2 WAR
Not a huge difference offensively between Beltre and Longoria. Adrian provides a little more power but put them in the same ball park and Evan is right on course if not better. Longoria plays at Tropicana Field and Beltre plays in a sand box in Arlington, huge difference. Longoria and Beltre both accounted for over 130 weighted runs created which is fantastic. Machado had a sneaky good year but really fell off in the later part of the 2013 season. His on base, slugging and OPS are all far behind both Longoria and Beltre. The biggest difference is the almost a game and a half better Longoria is than Beltre based on WAR and that is a huge factor in why I give him the nod over any other 3rd basemen in the game.
Quickly lets look at some basic defensive metrics for Longoria, Machado and Beltre.
Evan Longoria.
12 Defensive runs saved (DRS) / .742 Revised zone rating / 14.6 Ultimate zone rating (UZR).
Adrian Beltre.
-5 Defensive runs saved (DRS) / .704 Revised zone rating (RZR) / -1.2 Ultimate zone rating (UZR).
Manny Machado.
35 Defensive runs saved (DRS) / .797 Revised zone rating (RZR) / 31.2 Ultimate zone rating (UZR).
Clearly Machado is the best defender going in terms of saving runs and his range factor, which may come as a surprise since all anybody seems to ever wanna talk about is how much range Beltre has. Longoria holds his own in the range and defensive runs saved department.
So please , the next time somebody tries to talk about how Beltre is the best defensive third basemen in the American League, feel free to laugh at them. This is not 1975 anymore, fielding percentage should be one of the the last defensive stats used to measure a defender.
Evan Longoria is a legit MVP contender each year, the numbers prove that. His WAR was fourth highest in the American League last year, which is funny to me because most people simply look at his batting average and make a wrong assumption about his performance. The impact he has on every facet of the game is a clear reflection in his WAR rating and is one of the main reasons that I choose WAR over any other metric, stat or measurable.
One point that the numbers can’t prove however is how much of a natural leader he is for the Rays. I watch Tampa Bay every night and am always taken back by the command Longoria has on every aspect of the game. When there is a pitching change, Longoria is the first man behind Joe Maddon to discuss strategy with the new pitcher, If somebody makes an error he is the first one to pick that teammate up and tell them to get it it next time and most importantly when somebody takes a play off, Evan is the first to get in that players ear, for proof of that look no farther than this incident with B.J. Upton.
Evan Longoria may not be your first choice when making a list of the top third basemen and overall players in the game, but he absolutely should be.
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