San Francisco Giants Third Basemen Evan Longoria is Heating Up

Evan Longoria probably was not going to bat under .200 for the entire season. The early season takes on Longoria have been mostly negative. However, the San Francisco Giants third basemen is heating up.

When the San Francisco Giants traded for Longoria, there were no questions about his glove. That part of his game has been as advertised. His glove-work is either silky smooth or as smooth as butter. Either way, I am now hungry.

The biggest question about Longoria is his bat. His last few seasons have not been great, or slightly above-average. There were concerns that he was over-the-hill at the ripe age of thirty-three years old. And, his start to this season has done nothing to alleviate any concerns regarding his bat.

Longoria is not a player who strikes out a lot, but in a Giants uniform, that is seemingly all he was doing. Prior to today’s game, he was striking in thirty-six percent of his at-bats. That is a lot. We probably should not expect this over the long-term as he has under a twenty percent strikeout rate throughout his career.

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Obviously, there are going to be comparisons between Longoria and Andrew McCutchen. The advantage McCucthen has is that he has been in the National League for his entire career. Longoria is still new to this thing. He has scouting reports on all of the pitchers he is facing. Despite these reports, he still needs to see these pitchers before getting comfortable and understanding what each pitcher has.

There is no doubt that his second week in a Giants uniform was better than his first. Today’s game capped a strong finish to the week by Longoria. He looked like the middle-of-the-order threat the Giants thought they were getting this winter.

Longoria had two doubles against Clayton Kershaw today. Kershaw is a pitching robot, so that seems nearly impossible. Longoria almost had a third extra-base hit, but the Dodgers defense had different ideas. He is looking my comfortable right now, and the at-bats today should help his confidence. Hopefully, this is something he builds on.

Unfortunately, the Dodgers won the game today. We were getting greedy, and wanted the Giants to sweep the Dodgers. But, if there is something positive to take from this game, it is the at-bats from Longoria.

Next: Giants drop Final Game to Dodgers

If the Giants are going to be competitive this season, then they are going to need to get production from Longoria’s glove and bat. The glove has looked good, and the bat is warming up.

On an unrelated note, the Giants have played eight games, and only given up two home runs. That is a weird stat. I would not mind if this trend continued for the rest of the season. That would be cool.

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