There’s a throwback attitude when it comes to Evan Longoria this spring, and hitting coach Derek Shelton explained why.

Speaking on WDAE-AM 620 on Wednesday, Shelton said Longoria will benefit immensely from moving from cleanup to No. 3 in the lineup. And then Shelton took a few big swings of the bat.

“Most importantly, there’s going to be people that are surrounding him, in front of him, behind him, that people are going to have to attack him now. And we want people to attack Longo because Longo’s good,” Shelton said. “We’ve talked about before, it’s always centered around him. And I think one of Longo’s greatest assets is he’s probably harder on himself than anybody can be, and at times it’s caused him to put too much pressure on himself. But I think now with our lineup and where he’s at, and the fact he’s going to hit in the first inning every night, it’s a good thing for us.”

Shelton added that he liked how Longo came to camp, stronger and a little bigger.

Joe can’t wait to see how this plays out. Longo surely is out of excuses. If he can’t flash back to being a 30-homer, 100-RBI threat, then it’s probably never going to happen again.