Evan Almighty and Getting the Devil Out

Evan Longoria went from promising prospect to one of the top third basemen in the game. Coming out of Durham, Evan was a funny kid, more humble than confident. The Rays took advantage and intelligently signed Evan to a long term contract before he started hitting bombs. It isn't hard to see where the Rays sudden 180 from zero to hero came about. Longoria, Upton, Shields, Kazmir, Garza, Pena, Crawford all took it upon themselves to get this team going. Luckily, outside of Pena, all of the players are fresh faces and will look to be playing for years to come.

Whose next? The Royals? The Nationals? Maybe the Athletics? It'd be hard to match the Rays' accomplishments, and who knows, without those rain delays in that god-forsaken land of Philadelphia they may have won it all. The Athletics look the closest, but the Royals look the deepest. Alex Gordon could be the next Evan Longoria. Mike Aviles is certainly a tick up from Jason Bartlett, but maybe not Reid Brignac (we'll see). Greinke, Bannister, Meche look nearly as solid as Kazmir, Garza and Shields. The Royals may be .500 this year, but the Rays will look to eclipse 100 wins for the first time in the young team's history. In a division donning C.C. Sabathia, Alex Rodriguez, Mart Teixeira, Big Poppie, the reining AL MVP, Dustin Pedroia, A.J. Burnett and Daisule Matsuzaka this feat would be near impossible for most teams. But the Rays have the heart, and the enthusiasm that only young players can bring to the game. The Bobby Abreu's, the Derek Jeters, the A-Rods have long forgotten that enthusiasm, and this is why their records look so mediocre by season's end.

The Nationals look like the baby Rays of the NL. Ross Detwiler,l Jordan Zimmerman, Ryan Zimmerman, Elijah Dukes, Lastings Milledge, Josh Willingham and Scott Olson all look like they can bring this team from basement of the NL East to the apex. Maybe some of the youngins like Chris Marrero and Peter Bourjos can help--and if they do The Mets won't need to choke to miss the playoffs. With the Marlins finally on their last legs of mediocrity, the Nationals will look to defeat the sputtering Braves and the pathetic Mets to finally take over supremecy in the NL West.