Joey Cora and Greg Walker approve of Gordon Beckham

Cowley:

Cora has already given the thumbs up on the work that Beckham put in last week. Especially after the third day of the three-day voluntary mini-camp.

“I feel like I got where I wanted to be in those three days,’’ Beckham said. “All I need to do at second base is relax. Joey was happy after the third day. He mentioned it was all worth it because of that third day.

“The main thing is the double-play feeds around the bag. Make sure you’re quiet with the feet and always going toward first base on the throws. But you can bet we’ll be out there before every home game doing a lot of early work. I think I should be very good by the time we get to June. I don’t see it being a problem.’’

His swing sure wasn’t.

Beckham, who hit .270 with 14 home runs, 28 doubles and 63 RBI in 103 games, also worked in the cage with hitting coach Greg Walker in Miami.

“Gordon looked like Gordon,’’ Walker said. “His swing is fairly low maintenance. It’s about the mental battle for Gordon. His big challenge now is to move over to second base and understand that mental battle of a long season.’’ …

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