Williams: Dunn Looks Like Player Sox Signed
(WSCR) Adam Dunn's first season with the White Sox was forgettable, to say the least.
Dunn's .159 batting average, 11 home runs and 42 RBIs in 2011 didn't exactly live up to the four-year, $56 million deal his signed before the start of the season.
Through the first few weeks of spring training in 2012, Dunn it turning it around, batting .276 (8-for-29) with four home runs and 12 RBIs.
"Adam Dunn is now getting to the place where we couldn't get him to last year," White Sox general manager Kenny Williams said. "He's in a ready position every time the pitcher releases the ball. He gets to that load position, where he was always in between and always late last year. The worst thing you can be in the big leagues is in between. ... It's consistently hard contact and consistently good approaches, good passes at the baseball. It looks like the guy we signed last year. We're very hopeful that he can carry us into this season."
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Williams said he also expects to see improved number from Alex Rios, who is making the switch from center field to right field.
"We just need to keep Alex where he is," Williams said. "Mentally, some of the things that he has been saying with regards to getting back to his days where he hit .280 and almost made the All-Star team just two years ago with us, where he was spraying the ball from left-center field to right-center field and pulling it naturally. He got into a mindset last year and even said it that he was a pull hitter. It's taken us all this time, and Jeff Manto has shown him evidence of his good years where he is not a pull hitter. He is a gap-to-gap hitter. ... If we keep him right there, he's Alex Rios and he's multi-talented. He could have an across-the-board good year, defensively and offensively."
