Tampa Bay Rays news and links: Corey Dickerson goes deep

The Rays beat the Phillies 7-2 in Clearwater.

The highlight was probably Corey Dickerson’s opposite field home run. Rays Radio also has audio from Blake Snell and Kevin Cash, but here’s Dickerson talking about that swing and his approach (listen to how he uses that new, slimmed-down body to sidestep the charged language in a dumb, leading question—not sure from who; my beat-reporter voice recognition isn’t yet in midseason form).

Here are Roger Mooney’s three takeaways from the game. (Did Mooney just call a .300 year for Dickerson? Pretty sure that’s what I heard.)

Here’s the lineup for today’s game.

Links

• Zach Crizer of Beyond the Box Score wrote about the strengths and weaknesses in the Rays lineup last year, and about their attempt to upgrade.
• Rays Radio continued their excellent player spotlight series with a segment on Jacob Faria.

• Topkin wrote about the Rasmus brothers, and their relationship with their father. But the Tampa Bay Times’s website is down right now, so, uh, check there later.
• Former-Ray Reid Brignac is trying to become a switch hitter (h/t Mooney).
• Steve Kinsella checked in on the Rays’ injury recovery timeline for this spring.
• MLB Trade Rumors highlighted the position battles in the Rays camp.
• On that topic, a couple days ago, Jason Collette looked at who might end up as a right-handed specialist in the Rays bullpen.
• Travis Sawchik wrote about former-Rays prospect Jesse Hahn.
• According to Jeff Passan, MLB is considering making the baseball tackier.
• Baseball America is getting ready for the World Baseball Classic by looking back at past tournaments. Here’s 2013.