Evan Longoria wins Gold Glove Award

November 10, 4:11 PMTampa Bay Rays ExaminerRob Quinn

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Longo is your '09 Gold Glover AP/Steven Senne

The American League Gold Glove Awards were handed out today and the Rays cashed in for the second straight year. Third baseman Evan Longoria won his first career Gold Glove, beating out last year’s winner Adrian Beltre of the Seattle Mariners.

Carlos Pena won the Gold Glove Award in 2008, but was beaten out at first base by New York’s Mark Teixeira this year.

Longoria works as hard on his defense as any third baseman in the league. If you arrived early at Rays’ games this season, you saw Tom Foley smashing ball after ball at Longoria as the rest of the Rays were taking batting practice. The results showed up in Evan’s game play as he not only made the routine plays, but excelled at making the spectacular plays as well.

Evan is the best young third baseman in the American League on both sides of the ball. This award could usher in an era in which Longoria has a stranglehold on the award as Brooks Robinson did from 1960 to 1975. At just 24 years old, it’s probably a stretch to say Longoria will match Robinson’s 16 consecutive Gold Gloves, but he really could make a run at 10 in a row or more. Longoria has the complete package – range, hands, arm, talent, and work ethic. It goes without saying he needs to avoid injury, but look for Longoria to add quite a few more Gold Gloves to his cabinet by the time he hangs up his cleats.

See all the AL Gold Glove winners here.

Do you feel Carl Crawford or any of the other Rays were snubbed for a Gold Glove? Let me know in a comment.

Have a great Rays' story idea for me? How many Gold Gloves will Longoria win in his career? I’m setting the over/under at 75. E-mail me at raysexaminer@live.com