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.

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.

A few notes of interest from ESPN legend Peter Gammons latest chat:

• From the sound of things, Gammons thinks Clayton Kershaw is certain to be a factor for the Dodgers this year.  Their main concern is limiting his inning early so he finishes in the 150-160 IP range.
• Tigers manager Jim Leyland thinks Detroit’s first pick in the 2007 Draft, Rick Porcello, will be with the big league club some time this season.
• Gammons also notes that players like Porcello, the Yankees Austin Jackson, Andrew Brackman, and Ian Kennedy, the Red Sox Lars Anderson, Ryan Kalish, Anthony Rizzo, David Mailman, and Will Middlebrooks, will have a serious impact on this year’s draft.  Of course these players are all now top prospects who were drafted way above slot in later rounds.
• Picking player comparables is always tricky business, but Gammons thinks the best comparable he’s heard for Yankees SP Ian Kennedy is the Blue Jays SP Shaun Marcum.

We’ve been anticipating it for a while now, but still holding out hope that the Rays wouldn’t do it.  The Rays informed Evan Longoria that they were reassigning him to minor league camp after the Rays game on Monday.  Longoria said that he was “a little bit let down” by the decision, and that the Rays did not give him any kind of timetable for his return to the show.

The Rays pointed to the fact that Longoria has only had 104 ABs above the Double-A level.  They say they want to avoid a situation similar to how the Alex Gordon call-up played out last year.  Really, though, it all comes down to the economics.  If Longoria stays in the minors for even a few weeks, the Rays can delay his free agency until after 2014.  If they wait a few months to call him up, similar to Ryan Braun’s situation last year, then they can avoid Longoria qualifying for Super-Two early arbitration eligibility.  While there’s no question about whether Longoria can succeed in the majors, it becomes a question of whether or not the Rays can succeed this season even with Longoria for a full season.  In the stacked AL East, not many people think the vastly improved Rays can compete in 2008-2009, with or without Longoria.  If the Rays are targeting next year or the year after as the year they start to compete, why not delay the arbitration clock on Longoria as much as possible.  In short, while any true baseball fan would love to see what this kid could do this with a fulls eason, this move made all the sense in the world for the Rays.

• The Red Sox love Jacoby Ellsbury, writes Michael Silverman. Manager Terry Francona likes that he is driving the ball a little more, imparting more backspin on the ball to help it carry. Ellsbury got the start in center field on Saturday, playing all 9 innings (although he was moved to left field in the 7th when Coco Crisp came in to pinch run for Mike Lowell). Ellsbury is expected to start opening day and bat somewhere at the bottom of a stacked Boston lineup.
• Clay Buchholz has yet to secure the 5th rotation spot, and getting lit up for 4 runs in the first 2 innings of his start against the Hanshin Tigers didn’t help his cause. His command wasn’t there, and he left a lot of pitches up in the zone, although he did recover to retire the side in the third.

News of top prospects being cut is flying in.  The latest top prospect to be cut is Reds CF Jay Bruce.  We’ve been expecting this for a while now, especially after the surprise signing of Corey Patterson.  This is still big news, though, as Bruce was projected by many to be the early favorite for Rookie of the Year honors in the NL.

Bruce didn’t have a very good spring, and probably could use some more time to develop at Triple-A.  He went .262/.279/.286 in 42 AB.  But it really is only a matter of time before this young stud is hammering the ball in Cincinnati.

Jay Bruce, B.A.’s #1 Prospect, is off to a solid start this spring. He’s Batting .400 in 15 at-bats with 3 RBIs. It’s impressive and neccessary considering he is competing with Corey Patterson, Norris Hopper and Ryan Freel for the center-field job. Obviously there is a lot of potential in this 20-year old.  Not only does he have the skills, but a great mentor in Ken Griffey Jr., as Bruce describes:

“I learn from him, on and off the field, the way he carries himself and handles himself. He’s been doing it for close to 20 years and is still as professional as can be. He’s never late. He gets here on time and gets his work in. He’s been great to me so far. Anything I need to know, I can ask him. He’s great about telling me.”

Griffey is more than obliged to help out the youngster and give him words of encouragement.

“I think he has to just play, no matter where it is,” Griffey said. “If it’s here, he’s going to play. You’re not going to have a 20-year-old sit on the bench. If it’s at Triple-A, he’s going to play. He just can’t worry about trying to impress the guys up here. He has to play and get as much experience up here while he’s here. If he succeeds, he stays. If he doesn’t, he can’t get down and think it’s a demotion. It isn’t.”

As always, some good prospect news from an article by ESPN’s legend Peter Gammons:

• Evan Longoria has lived up to the hype this spring, impressing everyone with not only his bat but his stellar glove work as well. Gammons notes that scouts believe Longoria could go for 30 HR in his rookie season if he’s allowed to play all of it. But as Gammons notes, there is still speculation that the Rays might delay his call-up to avoid super-two status. For fantasy sake, we all hope they just let him play.
• A few people in Dodgers camp think that phenom Clayton Kershaw should be with the major league team now. Russell Martin was quoted saying that Kershaw is going to help the Dodgers this year, in line with a similar quote by Joe Torre a couple weeks ago. That the Dodgers are even discussing bringing Kershaw up so early (remember he’s only 19) is testament to his uncanny skill.  There was word today that the Dodgers have decided to keep Kershaw at the big league camp through the rest of spring training, but Joe Torre said there is almost zero chance he makes the big league rotation.
• Gammons also notes that Dodgers coach Larry Bowa is very impressed with SS prospect Chin-Lung Hu.  His quote was “He can really play defense.”  Don’t look for Hu at SS in Los Angeles as long as Furcal is healthy.  But Furcal’s contract expires after this season, so the Dodgers would love for Hu to be ready to take over at short next year.
• Check out this gem of a quote Gammons pulled up from one of the Scouts in Arizona this spring:  “The best young pitcher I’ve seen in two years out here is Oakland’s Henry Rodriguez. He throws 98 with a devastating breaking ball.”  Gammons notes that Rodriguez will not start the season with Oakland, but given these comments and the abundance of opportunity for young players in Oakland this year, it could only be a matter of time before we see this 21-year-old with the big club.  That’s pretty interesting stuff, considering Rodriguez isn’t on many people’s radar as a top prospect.  He is the #8 prospect in the A’s system according to BaseballAmerica.

St. Louis CF Colby Rasmus went 2-3 and hit his first big fly of the season off Baltimore lefty, Hayden Penn, in the Cardinals 10-2 beat down of the Orioles on Tuesday. Additionally, Rasmus had an RBI single with two outs in the second inning to spur the Cardinals to victory. This is just another step toward a big league starting job for Rasmus, who should unquestionably be owned in deeper fantasy leagues, if not every league.

Some bad news tonight on the top-rated prospect in the 2008 rookie class, Jay Bruce.  Dusty Baker was quoted saying that the Reds are concerned about the quad strain that forced Bruce out of the game on Sunday.  Apparently Bruce has had problems with straining his quads before.  Baker expressed concern that Bruce is having these problems at such a young age, and said it was something the organization would definitely have to figure out.  And worst of all, Baker suggested that putting Bruce in CF would probably not be the best thing for his trouble-prone quads, because “that’s a lot of running”.

This amid news from the Cincinnati Enquirer’s John Fay that the Reds have signed both Cory Patterson and Jerry Hairston Jr. to minor league deals.  In announcing the deal, GM Wayne Krivsky explained that Patterson was being brought in to compete for the CF position.  I think it’s safe to say that Patterson quickly becomes the leading candidate for both the CF job and as leadoff hitter.  This would seem to point to Jay Bruce starting the season at Triple-A, allowing the Reds to delay the future slugger’s free agency by another year.

This is clearly not the news fantasy managers were hoping for.  If Bruce does end up starting the season at Triple-A, his fantasy value takes a huge hit.  Depending on the size of your league, he might not even be draftable at that point.