Longoria's Deal Upsetting to Agents

"Some of the recent contracts signed are completely pro-management. They completely favor the team. Look at Evan Longoria's deal, and between all the options he's tied up through age 31. I have no idea why you'd do something like that when you have a player who has the potential to win the Rookie of the Year award." --Anonymous Agent

"I understand security and peace of mind for the player, but before he's even played a game in the majors?" --Anonymous Agent, on Longoria's minuscule extension.

"Might have cost himself $40 million over the length of the contract. I can't understand it. If he's the player everyone thinks he's going to be, there will be many regrets." --Anonymous Agent (Nick Cafardo, Boston Globe)

I read these quotes from a recent Baseball Prospectus article and fell in love with Evan Longoria, the rookie third baseman with the Tampa Bay Rays. Any player that makes a deal that ticks off that many anonymous agents is okay in my book.

If you read my last post, you may have noticed that I quoted Tony Gwynn's book, The Art of Hitting. I haven't read this cover to cover, but everything I have read has made Gwynn an even greater baseball hero in my eyes. For example, talking about his history with the Players Association (basically the most powerful union in the nation), Gwynn says, "They know I could have been a free agent in 1997 and gone out in the open market and commanded some heavy money, but I know the Padres couldn't afford to match it." In a time when his peers were jet-setting from team to team, signing bigger and bigger deals at each stop, Tony Gwynn stayed loyal to his team and his town, despite pressure from the Association. "Team jumping is about ego as much as money. You want to be the highest-paid guy in baseball, or you at least want to rank in the top 10... I've just won my eighth batting title, and I doubt if I'm in the top 50. Does that bother me? Not at all, because I'm happy. I have enough, on the one hand. On the other hand, I'm greedy like anybody else. I'd like more. But the Padres offered me enough to stay and I took it."

How refreshing is that?