GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Alex Rios put a confident swing on a Travis Wood pitch and drove it deep to center field for a first-inning sacrifice fly against the Cubs Friday – just the kind of productive cut the White Sox are looking to see from him, Gordon Beckham and Adam Dunn.

Rios, Beckham and Dunn. Not a law firm, but three White Sox hitters with the pedigree to do so much more than they accomplished in 2011.

"They're all in tune, all back to basics," says first-year batting coach Jeff Manto, noting positive early results.

For each, last year is just that. It's 2012 that counts.

"(2011) would be completely out of my head if people didn't consistently bring it up," says Dunn, who batted .159 with 11 homers and 117 strikeouts in his first 122 games for the White Sox. "I'm in a great place and ready to get 2012 started so people will talk about 2012, not 2011."

Dunn hit a towering three-run homer against Texas fireballer Neftali Feliz and drove in four runs on his first two at-bats on Thursday. Previously, he'd walked three times in four plate appearances this spring.

"Results are great, but the goal is to get ready for the season," said Dunn, who had hit 38 or more homers in each of the previous seven seasons before signing a four-year, $56 million free-agent deal with Chicago. "(The homer) felt good, but I was more happy with the direction the ball went (more than 400 feet to right-center). The main thing is direction and staying through the ball."

Manto could see the work Dunn has put in paying off by the way he "stayed tall" at the plate and had good swings on breaking balls.

"He's a great major league hitter and we've got to remind him of that," said Manto after Dunn's batting cage session Friday morning. "One bad year – that's in the past. He's taken ownerhip of that and has moved on. We've all moved on."

Beckham is most certainly in that group. The White Sox second baseman hit .270 with 14 homers in 103 games as a rookie, but last year dipped to .230 with 10 homers in 150 games.

"Obviously, I know I that I haven't played as well as I'm capable, but that's not important this year," says Beckham, whose third-inning single on Friday made him 4-for-8 this spring. "I've taken steps to improve what I need to improve and get back to where I was when I first came up.

"I expect better out of myself, but I'm not going to make it a statistical-type issue. I'm working on things in games, trying to make it as 'not-hit-oriented' as I can by just maintaining my attitude and how I approach every day. I'm trying to put the emphasis on this team and not me. Who I was last year -- and I can probably speak for a lot of people in here – is not who I am. We all had to make changes. Everybody went into the offseason knowing that and, I think, a lot of people came back to spring with those changes made."

Manto says Beckham looks like the player he first saw when he was drafted eighth overall out of the University of Georgia in 2008.

"He looks great," Manto says. "I think he can hit anywhere from 2 (in the order) to 6 and drive in runs. I'm not sure he's the home run guy. I don't see him sitting on 25 homers, but I definitely think he's a 35-40 doubles guy and definitely a run producer."

Like Beckham, Rios hasn't put up the kind of numbers the White Sox hoped for when they inherited most of his seven-year, $69.8 million contract from the Blue Jays in 2009. He posted an .852 OPS for Toronto in 2007. But his combined OPS for his first three seasons in Chicago is .685. He went from hitting .284 with 21 homers in 2010 to .227 with 13 homers in an injury-plagued 2011.

"Alex (Rios) is another guy we're just trying to get in the right direction," Manto says. "There's more there. Maybe he got away from it. But his batting practice and his preparation has been great. He's definitely going to have a great season."