Interesting read-between-the-lines fodder from Evan Longoria yesterday.

Speaking after the Rays’ first full-team (but very brief) workout, Longo said winning must start in spring training, where records are usually an afterthought.

It smells to Joe like Kevin Cash and the club will focus a little more on the final score of March games, or at least take them more seriously.

“We have to be able to erase 2016 and move on to 2017. We have to win more baseball games. We have to do that starting here in spring training and working really hard on the fundamentals because I thought that there were a lot of mistakes we made last year that were easily avoidable,” Longo said, as transcribed by WDAE-AM 620.

Rays fans all remember the corner-turning Joe Maddon’s team had in 2008, when a spring training brawl with the Red Sox appeared to change the mentality and curse of the Rays.