Viciedo joins the ChiSox

The White Sox boast a legitimate MVP candidate in Alex Rios (3.4 WAR) and the mammoth production of Paul Konerko (.417 wOBA), but their offense as a whole has largely underperformed. They have a .322 team wOBA, which tends to happen when you have seven players with sub-.320 OBP’s in the lineup as Chicago did yesterday.

Kenny Williams shook things up a little bit following last night’s win over Pittsburgh, replacing Jayson Nix and his .227 wOBA with hot shot third base prospect Dayan Viciedo. The Cuban defector signed a $10M big league deal before the 2009 season, though his performance last year was generally underwhelming (.280/.317/.391 in 540 Double-A plate appearances). Baseball America noted that Viciedo “can drive the ball to all fields and possesses tremendous opposite-field power” before the season, and he started to deliver on that promise with a .290/.329/.525 performance at Triple-A this season.

He’s a third baseman in name only, but he already has fantasy eligibility at that position in Yahoo! leagues and we couldn’t care less about how many balls he misplays. CHONE projected a .243/.273/.367 batting line with 11 HR and 59 RBI in 431 PA this year, which accurately reflects his unwillingness to work the count (just 26 unintentional walks in 795 pro plate appearances). Baseball America also noted that Viciedo “sits on fastballs to the point where he often looks helpless against offspeed pitches,” which will be his undoing in the bigs if he can’t adjust.

Regardless, Viciedo will run into one occasionally and hit the ball into the people even without the plate discipline, especially at U.S. Cellular Field (which has inflated homerun output by about 25% over the last three years). Homers impact four fantasy categories, so there’s definite value here. The White Sox aren’t likely to put many men on base in front of him, so the RBI total will likely lag a bit, but you should be in the clear as long as you’re not targeting him as an every day third base solution. Chances are Viciedo will pick up first base eligibility at some point, and a little extra flexibility is always appreciated.

Part of me gets the Jeff Francoeur vibe here, meaning that Viciedo will tear things up for a few weeks, then fall back to Earth once the book gets out how to pitch him. Again, I have no evidence of this, but it always seems like these extreme plate indiscipline guys initially perform well before dropping off. Perhaps it’s confirmation bias, I don’t know. Either way, Viciedo can provide a little pop at a bench spot or as an injury fill in, but not much more beyond that.