Dayan Viciedo Should Go Into Politics

Living in Chicago, I've always been intrigued with the Dayan Viciedo story, the 19-year-old kid from Cuba that was given a shot at the White Sox 3B job in spring training.

Since the White Sox were getting rid of Joe Crede and his bad back and Josh Fields had lost a little bit of his luster the year before, Viciedo and his mysterious scouting reports started to fuel rumors that he could step right into the Bigs and take over the 3B spot.

Baseball America had this to say:

Viciedo has excellent power and hitting ability, however, with one scout comparing him to Giants prospect Angel Villalona. He slugged over .500 two of the last three seasons in Cuba’s Serie Nacional, its top-level league, hitting 14 homers in 2005-2006—as a 16-year-old—in his best season.

His Villa Clara manager, former national team star Victor Mesa, told Cuba’s Granma news in 2006 that Viciedo has “a good arm and tremendous power. He’s got excellent technique, but at the same time is surprisingly calm for his young age and very secure in defense.”

Regardless of how big/chunky he was back then, being that he was only 19 and the Sox were willing to pay him $11 million for four years, everyone was pretty excited.

Here's a video that shows him working out right around the time he signed the deal:



He looks huge, doesn't he? The glove looks tiny in his hand and the one comment by his trainer Jorge Toca is kind of ridiculous:

He has all the talent to make it to the Major Leagues and become the first Cuban player to hit 40 homeruns.

The other trainer is probably getting paid pretty well too:

He could be rookie of the year because of the way he works hard and his talent.

To top it all off, here are his stats from Cuba:



Not bad, but not great. And who knows how a 19-year-old's stats from Cuba will translate to the bigs. Here's what he's done in AA so far this year:

In 47 games, he's hitting .260, .277 OBP, 3HRs, 5BB, 39Ks. Ouchy.

Regardless of whether or not he'll "make it," I still thought Viciedo was an interesting story. One worth digging a little deeper into, Señor Gammons style.

So I figured I'd unearth a few interviews, grab some quotes, and see what the kid is really like when he talks to the media in Spanish. After all, that's how we roll here.

And I did find some interviews, but as you'll see my project didn't gain much steam. The reason? Dayan Viciedo is a young, Cuban player—and young, Cuban players are well trained in the fine art of doublespeak.

This guy talks a better game than Rod Blagojevich.

Check out the steely look in his eyes:



Nothing can phase a 19-year-old kid with that look in his eyes. Now let's move on to some actual speaking.

In case you don't know Spanish, here's what you're missing:

I'm gonna give it my all, everything I've got. I talked to Alexei about Ozzie Guillen and the good thing is he gives players a chance.

And on and on he goes, spewing more and more classic baseball clichés without a care in the world. You'll notice his head move a couple times, but his shoulders never budge. Not sure if that's because he's as big as Jabba the Hut or because this kid just plain doesn't get razzled.

You ride an inflatable boat in a race for your life and see if a TV interview phases you any.

My conclusion? Dayan Viciedo may or may not make it in the Bigs. Alexei Ramirez got off to a slow start last year and then had a great season. This guy is 19, should have no problem with the media, and he's got a lot of tools.

He's so good that Señor Gammons couldn't even find a chink in his armor. This kid's definitely worth keeping an eye out, maybe one day he'll slip and some personality will finally come through.

What to do with Jake Fox?

Check our señor Fox's numbers at AAA Iowa over the past 40 games: he's hitting .423 with a .503 OBP and he's already hit 17 HRs and driven in 50 RBIs. He's also scored 40 R in just 40 games.

How insane is that? I love me a good minor-league story, and this is one of the better ones. In fact, he's even getting some love from BaseballAmerica, reaching #11 on an old Prospect Hot Sheet.

Sweet.

But it doesn't do Jake any good to get all that buzz without a callup to the show. You've watched Bull Durham, you know it ain't fun being in the minors.

What can the Cubs do to take advantage of this monster surge of power?

Call him up: But where do you play him? Sure, he used to be a catcher, but that was a while ago. Now he's more of a 1B, and the Cubs already have Derek Lee and Micah Hoffpauir (another great minor-league story of persistence). So unless you want to put Soriano at 2B and shift the Hoff to LF, and then play Fox at 1B when Derek Lee is hitting into too many double plays, I just don't see it happening.

Trade him: Other teams' GMs aren't as stupid as you think. You can't just "trade him for a prospect" because his numbers look good—this isn't MLB '09: The Show. The best you could do is to send him to a struggling team with a struggling 1B and hope to get a decent reliever with a good arm that can't throw strikes. And that means Piniella will start kicking people around in the clubhouse. Maybe you trade him to the D-Backs to platoon with Chad Tracy or something.

The Real Jake Fox

Here's the thing about Jake Fox: he will not continue to hit like this. He will not hit over .400 at AAA or at the big-league level. Has he earned a shot at playing in the bigs? For sure. And it pains me to see guys like him, like Julio Zuleta, and Roberto Petagine never get a serious crack at a major league lineup.

But the reality is that he's in AAA for a reason—he doesn't have a position and he's a bit of a late bloomer. Now he just needs to get a little lucky to get his shot.

Then he'll have to prove it all over again once he does....