Viciedo maturing at the plate

DETROIT -- The White Sox tough love toward Dayan Viciedo is being rewarded.

Viciedo exited Thursday afternoon's series-finishing 7-4 loss to the Tigers hitting an American League best .377 following a three-hit effort. Viciedo has gone on hot streaks that have carried the team in his previous two full seasons, but his patience has been truly impressive through the first 23 games and resulted in a .421 on-base percentage.

There's also the real possibility that because of his three years of professional baseball played for Villa Clara in Cuba, expectations were set a bit too high when the now 25-year-old first arrived in Chicago.

"You come over like he came and acquire him like we acquired him, maybe the expectation was a little different than just a general guy that comes up from the farm system," said White Sox hitting coach Todd Steverson of Viciedo. "And a lot of people believe that players from Latin countries, specifically the Cuban guys, are a little more advanced than what we have here as a development. The truth of the matter is they need to develop as well.

"It's kind of a touch-and-feel process when it comes to that. Once you start to get comfortable with understanding the league and how it goes and how people start to pitch you specifically and you are able to make the adjustment, then you start to go."

Earlier in this series, Viciedo talked about laying off sliders out of the strike zone that he has been peppered with throughout his career, as an example of Steverson's above comment. That sort of positive change was what the White Sox sought in order to give Viciedo everyday playing time.

"We have enough technology nowadays to put in front of your face and say, 'Hey, this is where you get yourself out and this is where you do damage.' You start to believe it," Steverson said. "You can't run from yourself. Once you own up to what you have been really, what your downfalls of your negativity in this game have been, and try to make a change to it, then that's step 1."