Corey Ray Adjusting Well to the FSL

Corey Ray HR Swing

Milwaukee Brewers 2016 first round draft pick Corey Ray hit his first home run as a pro on Thursday, exactly one month after making his professional baseball debut with the Brevard County Manatees.

Ray said after that game, that he knew the expectations were high for him, but he was not worried about it. “Everything will take care of itself. Whatever happens, happens,” he said. Well, on Thursday, his first round-tripper happened and it ended up being the decisive run in a 4-3 Manatees victory over Daytona, at Space Coast Stadium.

“I knew I got it good, but at Space Coast you never really know,” Ray said after the game. “Fastball right down the middle and just put a good swing on it.”

The home run came in the eighth inning against Tortugas reliever Brennan Bernardino and was measured at 404-feet. Ray led off the bottom of the first with a double and drew a walk in the sixth, before hitting the home run. He was the only Manatee to reach base, before the team put together a rally in the seventh.

“He rounded third and I said first of many my man,” said Manatees manager Joe Ayrault. “Kind of a joke between us… His first day in he was calling me coach and at the pro level, it’s first name basis. When he hit his first home run in BP, he called me coach and then said ‘my bad coach’. So tonight, when he was rounding third, he dropped a ‘my bad, coach’ on me and gave me a good chuckle over there at third.”

Ray is hitting .232 for the season and has been swinging the bat well of late, with four extra-base hits in his last four games. “The approach is getting better, the timing is getting better and I’m starting to feel more comfortable at the plate,” he said after Thursday’s game. “I think the extra base hits have come because I am starting to know what pitches I hit well and what pitches I should lay off. It’s just about getting the pitches that I hit well and not missing.”

As you might expect, it was not hard to see the excitement on his face during the interview, but was quick to point out how much of an impact Manatees’ hitting coach Ned Yost IV has had on his approach at the plate.

Corey Ray HR Swing

“I’ve been talking to the hitting coach here, Ned Yost, just about timing, not so much mechanical and my thing is just letting the ball travel,” he said. “Sometimes I get a little anxious and get out in front, pull my front side. His message to me was, slow everything down and let the ball get deep. That’s what I told myself going into the box and that’s what I’ve been telling myself the last few games and it’s starting to pay off.”

Statistically, the numbers don’t jump off the page at you, but in this league, they aren’t supposed to. This is notoriously, a pitchers’ league, due in large part to the size of the stadiums. Watching him regularly gives you a perspective on Ray, you’re not going to get from the statistics. He is young and he is doing well in a league that most guys don’t see until they are two or three years into their pro career.

Let the process happen and give this young man time to develop, if Brewers fans can do that, they will be rewarded. There is no doubt that the organization has a star in the making in Corey Ray.

This article originally appeared on 27OutsBaseball.com on 8/4/16