Shelton Named Rays' Hitting Coach
10/22/2009 | 12:00:00 | Baseball
Oct. 22, 2009
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Derek Shelton, a baseball player at Southern Illinois from 1989-92, was named the new Major League hitting coach for the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday.
Shelton was a four-year catcher for the Salukis and graduated from SIU in 1992 with a degree in criminal justice. In his career, Shelton had 122 hits, four home runs and had 70 RBI. As a junior, he led the Missouri Valley Conference by throwing out 43 percent of the runners who tried to steal base one him.
He was named the to All-Missouri Valley Conference Academic Team in 1991 and also made the Commissioner's Honors List that same year.
"It's exciting," Shelton said in a press release on MLB.com. "When this job became available and I was able to sit down with [manager] Joe [Maddon] and Andrew [Friedman, executive vice president of baseball operations] and talk about it, I think any hitting coach who likes hitting, and then you sit down and look at this lineup you're thinking this is awesome. I'm very excited to be around the caliber that we have. And I'm very excited to be able to work with them. There are some talented guys here."
After leaving Southern Illinois, the Gurnee, Ill. native played two years in the New York Yankees' organization before an elbow injury ended his career.
Shelton, 39, spent the past five seasons as the Indians' hitting coach.
Shelton was named Indians hitting coach on June 4, 2005, at the age of 34, replacing Hall of Famer Eddie Murray. He remained in that role through the end of 2009. Over his tenure the Indians ranked fifth in the Major Leagues in runs scored, seventh in batting average, third in on-base percentage, sixth in slugging percentage, second in doubles and 10th in home runs. In each of his first four seasons (2005-08), the Indians' offense ranked eighth or higher in the Majors in runs scored. In 2009 they finished 12th.
Shelton spent seven years with the Indians, also serving as hitting coordinator from 2003-05. Prior to that, he spent six seasons coaching in the Yankees organization. He began his coaching career with the Gulf Coast League Yankees in 1997 and earned promotions to Class A Tampa in 1998 and Double-A Norwich in 1999. He then managed three years for the Gulf Coast League Yankees (2000-01) and Staten Island Yankees (Short Season Class A; 2002), leading his clubs to first-place finishes in 2000 and 2001 and league championships in 2001 and 2002.
Shelton will be the sixth hitting coach in club history and the youngest. He follows Henderson (1998, 2006-09), Leon Roberts (1999-2000), Wade Boggs (2001), Milt May (2002) and Lee Elia (2003-05).