From Lancaster's blog:
Perhaps I'm reading too much into this, but between the "50/50" comments on Evan Longoria's chances to begin 2008 with the big league club and Iwamura getting early exposure at second I'm getting the impression that Longoria is likely to be the 2008 starter at third base. It would be nice if we could say that through 2018 if not longer, especially considering our long, and I do mean long, list of starters at third base since 1998:
Bobby Smith, Wade Boggs, Aaron Ledesma, Scott McClain, Dave Silvestri, Herbert Perry, Tony Graffanino, Vinny Castilla, Aubrey Huff, Russ Johnson, Ozzie Guillen, Damian Rolls, Jared Sandberg, Jason Smith, Andy Sheets, Felix Escalona, Damion Easley, Chris Truby, Jeff Liefer, Antonio Perez, Terry Shumpert, Geoff Blum, B.J. Upton, Jorge Cantu, Jose Bautista, Eduardo Perez, Alex Gonzalez, Nick Green, Eric Munson, Fernando Cortez, Russ Branyan, Ty Wigginton, Tomas Perez, Akinori Iwamura, Josh Wilson, Joel Guzman, and Brendan Harris.
That's 38 starters over 1619 games (rounding this year to a complete 162 and remember that in 2000 a game was canceled due to Hurricane Gordon) an average of a new starter every 42.6 games.
I also wanted to pass this along, from Seth McClung after being suspended for hitting Albert Pujols:
"The ball just got away from me," said McClung, one of the hardest throwers on the team. "It's not the first guy I've hit. Why do you think Tampa traded me?"
I believe that would be because of all the bats you hit, or rather that hit you, but it's good to see Seth isn't bitter.