Tag Archives: Corey Dickerson

29 Jan

no place like home?

For a major league hitter, there’s no place like Coors Field. Corey Dickerson certainly seemed to enjoy playing there, batting .355 with 24 home runs in 122 games at Coors for the Colorado Rockies. Traded by the Rockies to the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday, the former Brookhaven Academy and Meridian Community College star is now entering a brave new world. His new home, Tropicana Field, is a much more pitcher-friendly park. The left-handed hitting left fielder is a .249 hitter with 15 homers (in 143 games) away from Coors Field. But the Rays, who gave up reliever Jake McGee to get Dickerson, don’t seem overly concerned. As Matt Silverman, Rays president of baseball operations, told mlb.com: “We believe in the skill set that Corey has and that it will translate to our ballpark and will really play to any ballpark in the league.” The trade also gives Tampa Bay a glut of outfielders, including three others that have played primarily in left: ex-Itawamba CC star Desmond Jennings, Brandon Guyer and Steve Pearce. There has been chatter for weeks that Jennings, coming off two injury-plagued seasons, might be moved. He is a career .249 hitter with 48 homers and 93 steals. P.S. Taylorsville High product Billy Hamilton, who had surgery on a torn labrum last fall, recently told mlb.com: “I’m not 100 percent yet, but close to it. We had a schedule to be ready right around spring training. As of right now, we’re on track to make that happen.” Hamilton, perhaps the fastest player in the game, stole 57 bases for Cincinnati but hit just .226 and lost his leadoff role last year. Injuries limited him to 114 games. … There have been reports that Miami is interested in 37-year-old left-hander Cliff Lee, the former Meridian CC standout who missed all of last season with an arm problem.

11 Sep

meaningful games

His team is buried in last place and has been out of playoff contention for months, but the remaining games on the Colorado schedule are certainly meaningful for Corey Dickerson. The former Meridian Community College and Brookhaven Academy star has missed 95 of the Rockies’ 140 games because of injury. On Thursday night, in his third game back from his third stint on the disabled list, Dickerson hit his first home run since April 23. In 150 at-bats, he is batting .305 with 19 RBIs. He told the Denver Post his goals for the rest of the way are “finishing the season healthy and looking to get better.” When he plays, the left-handed hitting outfielder has been pretty good. He hit .312 last year with 24 homers and 76 RBIs and is at .298 with 35 and 112 for his three-year big league career. The Rockies appear to be due for a rebuild, so who knows what the future holds for Dickerson or any other regular on their roster? P.S. Ole Miss alum Alex Presley had two more hits – he is 6-for-9 in the series – to help Fresno beat El Paso 5-4 and go up 2-0 in their Pacific Coast League best-of-5 conference series. Ex-Mississippi State standout Hunter Renfroe homered for El Paso. … Stone County High product D.J. Davis was 3-for-4 in Lansing’s 5-4, series-clinching win over Great Lakes in the Class A Midwest League playoffs. Vancleave’s Tyler Bray notched a hold in Peoria’s 3-2, series-clincher against Kane County and his brother Colin Bray. Colin was 1-for-4 but didn’t face Tyler. And former Southwest Mississippi CC star Kade Scivicque went 2-for-3 with an RBI as West Michigan eliminated Fort Wayne 2-1.

18 Aug

holding pattern

The return date for Corey Dickerson, out since July 30 with broken ribs, is now listed as “possibly September” on the MLB web site. Last week, it was “possibly August.” The ex-Meridian Community College star from McComb has played only 43 games for Colorado this season sandwiched around three stints on the disabled list, the first two related to plantar fasciitis. Comments from Rockies manager Walt Weiss, whose club is floundering in last place, would seem to suggest that Dickerson, 26, might not play again this season. He is batting .315 with five homers and 18 RBIs. “I love coming to the ballpark, and I know when I’m healthy, I’m going to succeed,” Dickerson told mlb.com in an Aug. 16 article. The lefty-hitting outfielder broke out in 2014, when he hit .312 and blasted 24 homers.

20 Jul

on the move

Corey Dickerson has taken another step on the path to returning to the Colorado Rockies’ lineup. The former Brookhaven Academy and Meridian Community College star played left field and went 1-for-3 on Sunday in the first game of his rehab assignment. He is with Class A Modesto in the California League. Dickerson, dealing with plantar fasciitis in his left foot, has only 127 MLB at-bats this season and is hitting .299 with five home runs and 16 RBIs. He last played a game for the Rockies on June 16. Colorado manager Walt Weiss told the Denver Post that Dickerson would get about 25 rehab at-bats and should be back with the Rockies “real soon.” Dickerson had a breakout year in 2014, when he batted .312 with 24 homers, 76 RBIs and 74 runs in 131 games. He was All Mississippi Baseball’s Cool Papa Bell Award winner, given for the best season by a Mississippian in the majors. … Ole Miss product Alex Presley, designated for assignment by Houston on Saturday, may soon land with another MLB club, according to various reports. Presley, a lefty-hitting outfielder who had just 12 ABs with the Astros this season, is a .259 career hitter who can do a lot of little things well.

18 Jun

aches and pains

One stint on the disabled list was not enough time for Corey Dickerson’s plantar fasciitis to sufficiently heal. The former Meridian Community College star, in the midst of another strong season with Colorado, went back on the 15-day DL on Wednesday. He came off his first trip on June 11. “It won’t get better until it has time to rest,” Dickerson told mlb.com. Dickerson, 4-for-16 without an RBI during his brief return, is batting .299 with five homers and 16 RBIs in 38 games. When he might rejoin the Rockies is unclear. The MLB all-Mississippi injured list now includes Zack Cozart (knee, out for the season), Cliff Lee (flexor tendon, possibly out for good), Desmond Jennings (knee, return uncertain), Aaron Barrett (biceps, return uncertain) and Lance Lynn (forearm, due back next week). P.S. Daniel Castro, who got a hit in his first big league at-bat for Atlanta on Wednesday, joins a lengthy list of former Mississippi Braves shortstops to make The Show. The others: Luis Hernandez, Yunel Escobar, Diory Hernandez, Brandon Hicks, Brent Lillibridge, Tyler Pastornicky, Andrelton Simmons and Ed Lucas. Castro hit .277 for the M-Braves in 2014 and was batting .389 this season when he was bumped up to Triple-A Gwinnett.

03 Nov

the envelope please …

It’s not always about numbers in baseball. But sometimes, the numbers are just so good, they have to be celebrated. Corey Dickerson had just such numbers in 2014. In his first full season with the Colorado Rockies, the McComb native and ex-Meridian Community College standout batted .312 with 24 home runs, 76 RBIs and 74 runs in 131 games. He slugged .567. He had 27 doubles, six triples and eight stolen bases. Even though the Rockies had a rough year, Dickerson’s numbers make him an easy choice for the 2014 Cool Papa Bell Award, given here for the best season by a Mississippian (native or college alum) in the major leagues. Dickerson, 25, a left-handed hitting outfielder, was projected (by Rotowire.com) to hit .275 with eight homers and 32 RBIs in a backup role in 2014. He far exceeded those numbers and appears poised now for even bigger and better things. … Dickerson gets the nod for the award this year over Billy Hamilton (.250, 72 runs, 56 steals in 152 games as a rookie for Cincinnati); Brian Dozier (23 homers, 71 RBIs, 112 runs, 21 steals for Minnesota); and Lance Lynn (15-10, 2.74 ERA, 203 2/3 innings for division-winning St. Louis). … Previous winners of the Cool Papa Bell Award, named for the first Mississippi native to be enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, are Desmond Jennings, Lynn, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt and Chris Coghlan.

24 Aug

star turns

Take 1: What will Gustavo Nunez do today? The Mississippi Braves infielder has had quite the weekend so far. On Friday night at Trustmark Park, he hit an inside-the-park home run — his first homer of the season — and also scored the game-winning run on a sac fly in the eighth inning. On Saturday night, Nunez hit an 11th-inning, walk-off homer. With the 6-5 win over Birmingham, the M-Braves, winners of five straight, kept a grip on first place, by a single game over Jacksonville, in the Southern League South. The win was also the M-Braves’ 77th of the year, most in a season since the team moved to Pearl in 2005. Nunez, a 26-year-old Dominican signed by Atlanta in the off-season, doesn’t typically garner a lot of attention, but he has had a good year. The switch-hitter, whose walk-off on Saturday came from the left side, is batting .302 with 29 RBIs and 43 runs in 85 games. He has played shortstop, second base and some outfield. This is his eighth pro season. … Take 2: Corey Dickerson’s dream season for Colorado continued on Saturday when he hit a game-tying homer — third deck in right field at Coors Field — in the ninth inning and then slapped a game-winning single in the 13th as the Rockies beat Miami 5-4. Meridian Community College alum Dickerson, in his second MLB season, is batting .322 with 19 homers and 61 RBIs. His homer on Saturday was just the 33rd to reach the third deck at Coors in the ballpark’s 20 seasons. “It was pretty awesome that it went that far,” Dickerson, a lefty hitter, told mlb.com. P.S. Brian Dozier, the former Southern Miss star, has scored six runs in the last two days (three games) for Minnesota to run his American League-leading total to 91. The Twins have put up 38 runs the last two days against slumping Detroit, winning two of the three games. Dozier is batting just .235 but has a .341 on-base percentage. He also has 20 homers and 20 steals, the first 20-20 season by a second baseman in Twins history.

13 Aug

rising above it

While the Colorado Rockies are sinking like a stone in the standings, Corey Dickerson’s star continues to rise. The Meridian Community College alum from McComb extended his hitting streak to seven games in the Rockies’ 4-1 loss at San Diego on Tuesday. (Colorado is an MLB-worst 46-73.) Dickerson, who homered for the third straight game, is 12-for-28 (.429) with the three bombs, 10 RBIs and seven runs during his hit streak, which began with a 4-for-4 effort on Aug. 6. His season numbers are outstanding: .321, 16 homers, 50 RBIs, 51 runs, 19 doubles and four triples. That’s 101 runs accounted for in 94 games. Yes, Coors Field is a hitter’s dream, but Dickerson’s road numbers are also good: .271, eight homers, 20 RBIs. The 25-year-old lefty-hitting outfielder has emerged as a leading candidate for allmississippibaseball’s Cool Papa Bell Award. P.S. There was nothing lucky about T.J. House’s 13th big league appearance. The former Picayune High star threw three shutout innings for Cleveland against Arizona on Tuesday before the game was washed out. The rookie left-hander, who can’t seem to catch a break, is 1-3 with a 4.13 ERA in 12 games, 11 starts.

13 Jun

makes no sense

If Corey Dickerson of the Colorado Rockies has a bruise on his right thigh today, he could consider it a badge of achievement. The former Meridian Community College standout from McComb wore out Atlanta in their four-game series, going 7-for-13 with a homer, five RBIs, four runs, four walks and an HBP. Dickerson was hit in the thigh by the Braves’ David Carpenter in the eighth inning of Thursday’s game, a 10-3 Rockies win. The plunking came immediately after Dickerson’s inadvertent whacking of Braves catcher Gerald Laird on a backswing. That makes no sense. Dickerson said he couldn’t be sure if he was hit intentionally; Carpenter, who was ejected, denied doing so. But it was pretty obvious. Rockies manager Walt Weiss, also ejected after charging onto the field, certainly thought so. Maybe Carpenter was just frustrated by his soaring ERA. Maybe the fact the Rockies — and Dickerson, in particular — were pounding the Braves for a second straight day had something to do with it. Whatever it was, Dickerson didn’t deserve to be hit. It was a classless act. P.S. Tyler Moore, another former MCC standout, is 8-for-20 at Triple-A Syracuse since Washington sent him down on June 5. The Mississippi State product has two homers and seven RBIs over that stretch.

11 May

have a day

Seth Smith went 3-for-4, drove in four runs, scored two and came up a single shy of the first cycle in San Diego Padres history. But the Ole Miss product’s big day wasn’t the best by a Mississippian in the majors on Saturday. No, that honor would have to go to Corey Dickerson, the ex-Meridian Community College star from McComb, who went 4-for-5, hit two homers, drove in four runs and scored three in Colorado’s 11-2 win at Cincinnati. Dickerson, in his second MLB campaign, is batting .385 with four homers and 11 RBIs as a platooning outfielder for the rolling Rockies, second in the National League West. Jackson native Smith, playing more regularly for the Padres, has been on a roll of his own with 15 hits in his last 27 at-bats. He is batting .327 with three homers and 13 RBIs. P.S. Vicksburg native Ellis Burks, who had some monster years with Colorado during his playing days, is working as a part-time instructor with Rockies hitters this season.