ESPN.com reports that the Tampa Bay Rays’ 3B Evan Longoria agreed to a 6 year, $17.5 million dollar contract that could be worth as much as $44 million over 9 seasons. Pretty good for a kid who has only played 6 major league games. I’m not saying I disagree with locking him up for the future, but that’s setting quite a precedent for young talent. This could significantly affect contract negotiation for talented prospects in the future.

The Rays have become trend-setters with contract negotiation recently.  They have agents throughout the industry upset about their new policy of tacking a few one-year club options on the end the guaranteed term. This is essentially a win-win situation for the club; if the player develops as expected they buy out a few years of arbitration and free agency on the cheap, or if the player falters they simply let the options expire.  On the flip side, the young prospect gets the security these types of deals provide.

The Red Sox recalled top SS prospect Jed Lowrie from Triple-A on Thursday to fill the slot vacated by the injured Mike Lowell.  However, Sox skipper Terry Francona elected to play Sean Casey at first and shift Kevin Youkilis to third as an immediate solution, so Lowrie’s been forced to watch the games from the bench.

That may change after his performance in his big league debut today.  Lowrie went 1-4, but his first career hit was a 2-run single in the 7th inning.  Lowrie finished the game batting in 3 of the Red Sox 5 runs in a comeback victory over the Cleveland Indians.  Unfortunately, with Casey already in competition and Lowell set to return in the not so distant future, Lowrie is really limited to a utility role.  Unless the Sox are rocked by injury, don’t expect Lowrie to have too much fantasy value this season.  He’s their SS of the future though, so don’t forget this name.

In his daily column today, ESPN’s Tristan Cockcroft gives an update on the development of the Orioles top pick in last year’s draft, Matt Wieters.  Apparently yesterday’s game marked the first time since the first game this season that Wieters did not get a hit.  He was, however, on base three times via the base on balls.  Wieters is now hitting .478 with 3 HR and 10 BB on the young season.  Cockcroft notes that if Wieters continues to hit at this pace the Orioles will be forced to promote him to Double-A ball sooner than later.  If that happens and Wieters continues to hit, look out for him as a big time sleeper on the big league club in 2009.

Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com reports that Braves center field prospect Jordan Schafer has been suspended for 50 games for using human growth hormone. Schafer is ranked the 27th and 25th best minor league prospect by Keith Law and Baseball America, respectively. Crasnick writes that the 21-year-old was considered by some to be a possible replacement for Mark Kotsay by the second half of the season. Schafer hit .312 in High-A ball last year with 176 hits (1st in minor leagues) and 49 doubles (3rd).

Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com gave a nice status report on the 30 players drafted in the first round of the 2007 first-year player draft. He notes that because of a recent change in draft rules, players must sign with the teams that drafted them by August 15th or they have to re-enter the draft pool for the following year. Each first rounder did so, although some not early enough to play last summer.

Some highlights from Mayo’s article (draft position in parentheses):

• David Price (No. 1, LHP, Tampa Bay Rays): His elbow injury did not require surgery; he will make his pro debut in Class A, probably this May.
• Ross Detwiler (No. 6, LHP, Washington Nationals): Brought up late last September, Detwiler will start the year in the minors but looks to be moving up quickly.
• Tim Alderson (No. 22, RHP, San Francisco Giants): His unorthodox delivery made some clubs shy away from drafting him, but an impressive performance out of high school has the Giants starting him in Class A Advanced ball.
• Aaron Poreda (No. 25, LHP,Chicago White Sox): He can get his fastball into the high-90s, but the White Sox are having him spend time in the minors this year to develop his secondary pitches.

Kind of a funny piece today from Reds beat writer John Fay.  He shows his projected lineup and rotation from two months ago, on February 5th.  He had 1B Joey Votto batting lead off, and starting CF Jay Bruce batting in the 7 spot.  Of course we know now that Bruce has been optioned to Triple-A and Cincinnati’s new CF is Corey Patterson, who wasn’t even on the Reds on February 5th.  Fay is still projecting Votto in the starting lineup, but batting 8th in the lineup instead of lead off.

Fay didn’t fair quite as well with his projected starting rotation.  After the obvious first two in Harang and Arroyo, he had Matt Belisle, Jeremy Affeldt, and Homer Bailey.  Fay missed on all three.  Today the 3-5 spots in the rotation are expected to be occupied by Johnny Cueto, Josh Fogg, and Edinson Volquez.  All of the Reds top prospects are definite fantasy sleepers this year.

• Rookie pitcher Jair Jurrjens found out that he will start Wednesday, game 3 of the regular season.  He’s stoked.  So might fantasy owners be if this kid can turn a great spring into a solid rookie season.
• 18-year-old Jason Heyward dressed for the Braves’ final Grapefruit League game against the Mets, and replaced Jeff Francoeur in left field in the 4th. He struck out in a 6th inning at-bat. The 14th pick in the 2007 draft, the Braves have high hopes for this young talent. Keep an eye out for him in the next couple years.

Dodgers pitching phenom Clayton Kershaw has done everything possible to prove that he is a major league caliber pitcher this spring. On Tuesday he threw 3 scoreless innings against the Brewers’ starting lineup, striking out 6, including a guy by the name of Prince Fielder. However, the Dodgers are being cautious with the 20-year-old and will have him start the year in Double-A Jacksonville, and will likely bring him up to the big league club later in the season. Manager Joe Torre likes what he sees, but says he wants Kershaw to fine-tune his pitches while not taxing his arm so he can be fresh for the summer. Until then, it looks like Esteban Loaiza or Chan Ho Park will occupy the 5th starter spot.

White Sox Manager Ozzie says he will choose a starting second baseman today, writes Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun Times, and it looks like it’s a choice between Juan Uribe and Alexei Ramirez. General manager Kenny Williams tested the trade waters when he put Uribe on the waiver wire, but now that Danny Richar is on the DL and Pablo Ozuna has been designated as a part-timer (starting against left-handed pitchers), Uribe and Ramirez are the only choices left. Given his solid spring performance and Guillen’s comments in the article, it seems likely that Ramirez will get the nod and they will try to play Uribe elsewhere. Don’t sleep on this one.

Yesterday we brought you news that top overall pick in last year’s Rule 4 Draft, David Price, had left a game with stiffness in his elbow.  Well today comes news that Price will miss 6 weeks because of the injury.  Executive VP Andrew Friedman said that the injury was definitely not serious, but that the Rays’ medical staff determined that Price would need this amount of time to work his way back into playing shape.  It sounds like the stiffness Price experienced was simply a result of Price not having pitched a game since last May with Vanderbilt before starting a few spring games.  Cross your fingers Rays fans.