Kicking Rocks: Longing for Longoria
When he slid into second and immediately grabbed his knee, my heart dropped. The sickening taste of bile crept up my throat and into my mouth as I anxiously awaited for him to stand up, dust himself off and signal to the trainers that he was fine. When that didn’t happen and he gingerly limped off the field, immediate thoughts of a torn ACL raced through my head. In three different leagues I grabbed Evan Longoria at the tail end of the first round and until that moment, I wasn’t giving third base another thought. Now, with news of a partially torn hamstring and a six to eight week recovery period, I’m left here staring at my computer screen, feeling like Kramer when the Kenny Rogers Roasters sign was finally turned off.
Now I can certainly see the bright side of things here. Six to eight weeks is a lot better than “lost for the season.” At some point, and please let it be closer to the six than to the eight, I will get Longoria back and, with fingers crossed, will have made it through this ordeal without falling too far behind in the offensive categories. I can stay afloat, right? Perhaps there is someone left on the waiver wire that can help my cause and ease my expected burden?
Well, as my grandaddy always used to say, “You can sh*t in one hand and wish in the other and see which one fills up first.”
Sure, I could sit here and give you some rah-rah speech about staring into the face of adversity and fighting hard to overcome this obstacle. I could tell you that making savvy waiver pick-ups and just doing your due-diligence will make this all right again. But I’d be lying to you. You can’t replace a Longoria a month into the season; not with what’s left out there on the wire. The difference in expected production between a healthy Longoria and the best available third baseman out there is huge. And the deeper the league you play in the worse off you are.
I mean really, who’s left out there? Each of the leagues in which I own him are no less than 15 teams. The number one free agent listed is Wilson Betemit. Really? Wilson freakin’ Betemit?!?! Come on! Maybe that’s an extreme for some of you, but even if you’re sitting in a 12-team league, chances are that you also use a corner infielder which means that, if you’re lucky, you’ll be choosing between Pedro Alvarez and Chris Johnson. Sure, Alvarez seems to be on fire right now and Johnson just connected for his first two home runs of the season, but do you see either one of them matching the production of a healthy Longoria? If you do, then I’d like to borrow that pair of optimism goggles that you’re wearing.
So with little or nothing available on the waiver wire, the next course of action is trade, right? Well, first off, no one is trading you a top third baseman. The position is too thin and anyone who is sitting on one of the top options probably doesn’t have a back-up that they’re willing to roll with the rest of the way. Your next move is to shop for a mid-level player that sits somewhere between Longoria and the dregs of your waiver wire.
“Welcome to Price Gouge, may I take your order?”
Brutal, right? Suddenly, your request for Chris Davis or Chase Headley translated in their head as you asking for David Wright or Pablo Sandoval and the astronomical prices that you would have to pay would, in essence , cause you to slit your own throat at another position. I don’t care how well Edwin Encarnacion is playing right now, there is no way he is worth Justin Verlander. They know you’re weak. They can smell the blood in the water.
But that’s the way it goes in this game. That’s the way the cookie crumbles. Just ask the guy who drafted Jacoby Ellsbury in the first round how he’s doing in stolen bases right now. You’re going to have to change horses midstream and find another way through the next two months. Bulk up on the cheap steals, hoard some closers, whatever you have to do. The next two months ain’t gonna be pretty and every time you turn on the TV and see a Rays game, that sick feeling in your stomach is going to come back and haunt you.
Evan….
Evan…..
Evan…..
i only got him in one, missed tge draft, so autodrafted, ended up with longo, beltre and panda, dont ask me how. 12 team btw
Would you go with Matt Carpenter or Chris Johnson in an OBP league? Carpenter seems to have better patience but I don’t know if he will keep playing and/or performing.
Obviously, the big problem facing Carpenter now will be playing time. He’s done an admirable job filling in for Berkman, but with Allen Craig coming back, Carpenter is going to see a dramatic decrease in playing time. He may still get the occasional start when Matheny decides to play the matchups and bench Jay, move Beltran over to center and put Craig into right, but while Jay is playing at his current level, it seems like that will happen a little less frequently than a Carpenter owner would like. Then, of course, what happens when Berkman returns?
So while I think his overall OBP will look better than Johnson’s, I don’t know if he’ll play enough for it to make an impact or even be worthwhile given that he’ll barely contribute to other categories.
Excellent Seinfeld analogy. That’s exactly how I felt.
“Evan? Evan???”
My grandaddy said that same thing. Maybe he lived a double life…
I think/hope you could do a lot worse that Wilson.
someone just offered me longoria straight up for ryan zimmerman in a keeper league. should i take it?
I might do that one. Assuming the keeper values are similar, giving up 6 weeks of Zimmerman for the chance to keep Longo is very enticing.
Yeah, I would consider doing it as well. You’ve already had Zimmerman down and have some sort of a viable replacement in there, so hopefully it’s someone you can continue to use for a while longer and can stash Longoria. If it costs the same to keep them, then I’d rather have Longoria.
So I lost Longoria and I wish Alvarez or Davis were on my waiver wire. I’m staring at Betemit or Casey McGehee or Placido Polanco.
Will Middlebrooks better than those options? I picked him up early yesterday before it was confirmed he was coming up…
I had Longo in a shallow league and before Yahoo! even updated his status as being disabled, I had an offer of David Wright for Starlin Castro who was my backup SS. Better believe I pounced on that one.
And down goes Panda. Broken Hamate, same injury as last year. Third base has had a nasty habit of wrecking what little depth it has by May the last couple years.
Same injury, other wrist. What are the chances of that?????!!!!!!
Oh really? It’s the other side? That is bizarre. I was going to say, could it possibly have something to do with his swing mechanics? I guess it still could since he’s a switch hitter, but yeah, definitely strange it’s the other hand.
The treatment for a broken hamate is to remove the thing entirely, so it’s not possible to break the same one twice.
this is 2011 all over again – longoria, zimm, sandoval all on the D.L. All we need is wright to get on the D.L.
Thanks HB for expressing what all of us Longoria (and in my case Ellsbury too) first-round drafters feel. I’ve always liked the “Kickin’ Rocks” feature. Good use of it this time around, especially.
Maybe not worth Verlander, but this is what a healthy Edwin Encarnacion looks like.
This. And one who doesn’t have to wear a fielder’s glove. Nothing jumps out as bound to decline dramatically about his production, though even a .320ish BABIP is probably pretty high for him considering how many fly balls he hits, but the tradeoff there is it makes the strong power production look more sustainable. His HR/FB is also high and will likely come down a bit, but its not in, like, Matt Kemp territory.
In a redraft league, how early do I need to grab Arenado?
With talk of a June call-up, I’d be looking to pick him up and stash him by the middle of this month if you think your league is active enough and that other guys are high on him. But with no guarantee of an exact date, I would only do it if I had room on my bench and wasn’t dropping a legit player.
I drafted him in two leagues. In my H2H League, I ended up with David Wright as well (6th round steal). In my other, a roto league, I dealt Marcum for Moustakas right after the injury announcement to a pitching needy team.
Oh, give the speech instead.
We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in the Message Boards, we shall fight on the Free Agent Pool and Waiver Wire, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the trade market, we shall defend our categoriess, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the Twitter accounts, we shall fight on the Rotograph Comment Sections, we shall fight in the Message Boards and in the Goup Emails, we shall fight in the IMs; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this team or a large part of it were suspended for PEDs, then our Reserve Team beyond the active roster, armed and guarded by their Monday activation, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the Bryce Harpers and Mike Trouts and Trevor Bauers, with all their power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the Longoria and Ellsbury.
I feel better.
nice. very nice.
and now panda is gone, beltre D2D curse the fantasy gods.
I have two healthy 3Bs (ARod and Bonifacio), but no 3B hungry team will even make an offer for either of them. Just give me a half-decent pitcher!
What the hell is going on with Edwin Encarnacion by the way? Can anybody explain his numbers … please?
From what I see his slugging has never been over the .400′s but now it’s suddenly at .600? And his BABIP is roughly 40 pts higher than his average. This binge IS going to end right?!?!
I lost Panda last night, but thankfully I have Arod at the U. Forces Carlos Lee into my starting lineup in a 12 teamer, but overall I think I’ll make it.
Come back quickly, Panda!
Nice to have a Longoria support group going. Another owner in my league immediately sent me over the following offer:
Carlos Lee, A. Gonzalez and Jose Bautista for my Longoria and Starlin Castro. Should I take this? Gonzalez is trash.
In the meantime I picked up Alvarez off the wire which is great while he’s hot but C. Johnson and Ty Wigginton are on there as well. Thoughts everyone?
I wouldn’t do it. Basically a weak band-aid for this year and Joey Bats for two of who I think are fantastic keepers for this year and beyond. Better off sticking with Alvarez and maybe grab Chris Johnson if you have space, just in case.
I pulled the trigger on a separate deal (non-keeper league) where I flipped Longoria and Anibal Sanchez for Joey Bats…howd i do?
I replaced Longoria with the following trade:
Received Bautista and Marshall.
Gave up Hamilton, Hudson, and Pedro Alvarez.
I need the saves, so it works on a couple of levels for me. Pretty happy that Bautista has 3b eligibility though.