ST. PETERSBURG — Corey Dickerson walked into Tropicana Field on Wednesday for the first time, joined some of his new teammates for batting practice and quickly began sending baseballs over the outfield walls.
OK, so they were batting practice meatballs tossed by head athletic trainer Ron Porterfield, but Rays hitting coach Derek Shelton came away impressed.
“He’s got the natural left-handed kind of upper-cut type swing, but he’s got some bat speed. I think the biggest thing, taking away the bat speed, taking away the swing path, is how aggressive he is,” Shelton said. “You watch him in the (batting) cage, you watch him on the field, he’s not getting cheated.