In case you missed it last night, Carlos Quentin’s move to the disabled list opened up a spot for Dayan Viciedo’s long awaited call up. The Cuban has had a terrific year in AAA and could bring a nice boost of offense and excitement to the team. Then again, Ozzie Guillen keeps trying to take the fun out of it.
Viciedo leaves Charlotte with a final line of .296/.364/.491 in 452 at-bats. This is a notable improvement over his AAA line last year (.274/.308/.493). The Cuban’s K-rate dropped from 21.5% to 16.3% this year and his walk rate nearly tripled. That improved plate discipline has improved his stock. Throw in good power at 22 years old and it’s easy to see why Sox fans have been begging for him to be with the big league club.
This year, Viciedo got off to yet another slow April, for the third time in his three years as a pro, but also for the third time he bounced back with a strong May. He kept the momentum through June before a hand injury bothered him in July. He landed on the DL and was slow to perform upon his return.
Lately the outfielder has turned it around. He had a decent .810 OPS for August, most impressively with 14 walks in 78 at-bats, but was hitting .343 with four homers in his last ten games.
So what should we expect from Viciedo? Last year he hit .308/.321/.519 with the Sox in 106 plate appearances. I’m thinking something like .285/.325/.450. I don’t expect the walks to translate to the Majors because I think a portion of his walks in AAA were due to pitchers respecting him and pitching around him. That said, Viciedo wasn’t really letting pitchers pitching around him before so there will likely be an improvement over the two walks he drew last season.
Anyone else got any predictions? Send a comment.