How does he look?

"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.’’

How is his defense?

"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.’’

Does he know the future?

Beckham had been out and about one fall afternoon when he noticed a text from teammate, and good friend, Chris Getz that simply read, "There are rumors that I’m getting traded.’’

"I read it and I was like, ‘What, c’mon,’'' Beckham recalled this week. "I was thinking it was just another one of those wild baseball rumors, so I sent a text back to Chris and told him, ‘Don’t worry. No way that’s happening. You’re too valuable.’ ‘’

Cowley