Longoria or Zimmerman? - WHIR

[dave knight]

Who is supreme for this season? I'm leaning towards Zimm, but I would like to hear your opinions.

[wedgedbacks]

Zimmerman is a beast! I think he's the way to go. I like Longoria a lot, but I think that with Zimm's service time and his already established resume, I think he's the way to go.

What do you think of this? viewtopic.php?t=342710

[dave knight]

Any other opinions?

[The_Show]

I would take Zimmerman as well since he's more established than Longoria. Longoria will be a great player someday, but he still needs to adjust to life in the majors.

[The River]

Have to go with Zimmerman. Longoria still remains unproven.

[etraum]

I am very happy you posed this question. I own both Zimmerman and Longoria as well. I am very frustrated on Zimmy's production thus far in the early season. In my opinion, Longoria has more upside. Yes Zimmy has more experience - but that does not seem to be paying off. I live in the DC region so unfortunately I get to see Zimm more than I would like. He is taking terrible swings and not showing the experience at the plate he should have. I have decided to go against conservative reasoning on this topic and am starting Longoria over zimmy.
THe rays have a great hitting lineup. I don't foresee Longoria equaling Braun like numbers - but 20-25 hrs 280 avg are well in site.
I think Longoria will out-perform Zimmy.

[Hustler8800]

I know you might be feeling frustrated with Zimmerman so far this year, because I am also frustrated with his production. I really like Longoria, but I dont think that making the Braun comparison is a fair one, that was an extremely rare rookie season. The division the Rays are in is tougher than the NL west, but not as much of a difference as there has been in years past. Overall I think that you have to go with Zimmerman who has had much more time to get ready for major league pitching. If this was a keeper I would find myself leaning towards Longoria.

Help me:
viewtopic.php?f=26&t=342916

[etraum]

NL west??? You mean NL east. Zimmy's equivalent based on experience is David Wright (three years in the leauge). Wright does not go into these deep struggles as zimm. The fact that zimm has had three years to see these pitchers he faces and can only manage a .215 average is puzzling. Longoria is a better hitter and will continue to improve as the season progresses. Unfortunately, I think we have seen Zimm's max production in his rookie season and his "ceiling" is low while Longoria's is higher.

[dave knight]

Unfortunately, I think we have seen Zimm's max production in his rookie season

Really? That's the first time I've ever heard that.

[Doughhead]

This is a really tough one. Both guys are good young hitters. Zimmerman is obviously more established and more experienced, but he followed up a very, very good rookie season with a rather lacklustre sophomore campaign. He frustrated a lot of people last year and seems to be doing the same again in 2008. Still, it's hard to pull the plug on a guy that is the heart and soul of his team's offense, put up 110 RBI as a rook, and is still just 24 (I believe).

Longoria is a guy that we have to be careful with. Ryan Braun's 2007 is fresh in our minds, so we're aware of what highly touted rookies are capable of doing. And Longoria has a lot of similarities to Braun: both third basemen, both sluggers immediately put in the middle of their team's lineups, both very polished for their ages...When it comes to Longoria, I think it's very easy to start dreaming of unrealistic possibilities (i.e. Braun V.2.0). He has no track record--and while we instinctively know that that's a knock against him, it's also irresistible to thrust all kinds of exciting fantasies as to what he's capable of doing (we don't do this with Zimmerman because we've seen the highs and we've seen the lows--and as one poster in this thread has even indicated, it's easy to believe that that means we've seen his best). But because we haven't seen Longoria's best (or his worst), we tend to imagine what it could be (and we usually tend to get a little carried away when we imagine--especially with Braun's atypical rookie season in our minds).

With all that said, I'm as much of a dreamer as the next guy. I know that for every Longoria, there are probably five Alex Gordons (guys with huge potential and expectations who don't deliver right away). Nevertheless, I can't help but wonder what Longoria could do this year and think that perhaps he could approach something akin to Braun's brilliance, even though I know how unlikely that is.

In short, I guess my gut says Longoria, my head says Zimmerman.

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