At first, I thought the lobotomy had worked, J.P. Ricciardi turned Scott Rolen’s contract into a solid young third basemen and a couple of decent arms with potential. It seemed as though Ricciardi actually was half as stupid as he was before the dangerous, but necessary, medical procedure.
Unfortunately, that was just blind-luck, it seems. Ricciardi apparently did his best George Oscar Bluth (Gob) impression, making a luxury yacht disappear by packing it full of explosives and sinking the ship (or did he…) Ricciardi and his slick, gel-filled hair, managed to make Alex Rios disappear into nothing — BAMMO!
Alex Rios is now a Chicago White Sox, and will more than likely slide comfortably into center field and regain his sweet stroke in no time at all. Ricciardi answered every question, the only way he realistically could: “This is not a salary dump, we’re just giving ourselves financial flexibility.” Now, if this is a salary dump and Rogers demanded Ricciardi cut salary, that’s a different story, but from the sounds of it — this is Ricciardi, being Ricciardi.
First off, Alex Rios is only making about 12 million dollars a year for the next five or six years. Of that, Alex Rios is only making 5.4M this year, and a measly 9.7M next year. When viewed with something that Ricciardi seems to lack, PERSPECTIVE, this contract isn’t even mildly constraining.
Defensively, Alex Rios is capable of playing all three of the outfield positions and playing them well. Rios possesses the arm for right, and the giddy-up to play center. Over the previous three years, Rios has played as roughly a 13.5 UZR/150 across both CF and RF. While 2009 hasn’t been nearly as kind to Rios, he’s still an incredibly solid outfielder, wherever he’s playing.
Offensively, Rios has essentially outperformed his contract year-in and year-out and is somehow a liability after a mediocre two-thirds of a season. The inexplicable part of this entire equation is that Alex Rios’ skill-set hasn’t changed all that much.
| Season | BB% | K% | OBP | SLG | OPS | BABIP |
| 2004 | 6.80% | 19.70% | 0.338 | 0.383 | 0.720 | 0.355 |
| 2005 | 5.50% | 21.00% | 0.306 | 0.397 | 0.703 | 0.314 |
| 2006 | 7.20% | 19.80% | 0.349 | 0.516 | 0.865 | 0.346 |
| 2007 | 7.90% | 16.00% | 0.354 | 0.498 | 0.852 | 0.324 |
| 2008 | 6.50% | 17.60% | 0.337 | 0.461 | 0.798 | 0.335 |
| 2009 | 6.60% | 17.90% | 0.317 | 0.427 | 0.744 | 0.294 |
You’ll notice that the strike-out rate and walk-rate have remained constant, and only the peripherals have changed. Rios’ BABIP sheds the most light on the steep decline in AVG, OBP, SLG, and OPS. Rios has just experienced some terrible luck on batted balls, and now he’s a Chicago White Sox.
| Season | O-Swing% | Z-Swing% | Swing% | O-Contact% | Z-Contact% | Contact% | Zone% | F-Strike% |
| 2004 | 0.13 | 0.7 | 0.46 | 0.45 | 0.89 | 0.83 | 0.58 | 0.59 |
| 2005 | 0.2 | 0.68 | 0.47 | 0.47 | 0.89 | 0.81 | 0.56 | 0.6 |
| 2006 | 0.25 | 0.66 | 0.47 | 0.54 | 0.9 | 0.81 | 0.54 | 0.61 |
| 2007 | 0.24 | 0.64 | 0.45 | 0.61 | 0.92 | 0.85 | 0.53 | 0.59 |
| 2008 | 0.27 | 0.65 | 0.47 | 0.62 | 0.91 | 0.83 | 0.53 | 0.58 |
| 2009 | 0.26 | 0.65 | 0.45 | 0.63 | 0.91 | 0.83 | 0.49 | 0.58 |
Stranger still, Rios’ plate discipline has been exceptionally consistent. More than likely due to some of the EPIC FAIL that occupied the heart of the line-up, Rios has been seeing a below average amount of pitches in the zone. Thankfully, you’ll notice that Rios’ O-Swing and Swing% in general have both declined as a result of this.
Other than dropping 2% on his line-drive percentage, Rios has remained remarkably consistent. If this is just a prolonged slump, there’s a good possibility that Rios’ post-All Star Break numbers would provide some insight. Since the All-Star Break, Rios has posted a line of .274/.325/.479 — Goodtimes.
It’s fairly clear that Rios hasn’t exactly lost his skill-set, but rather just had some bad luck. Rios had trade value, regardless of what J.P. claimed during his press conference. To simply give Rios away is… well, whatever.
There’s obviously something else at play, because I refuse to believe that J.P. Ricciardi is THIS stupid. Everyone understands that Travis Snider will slide into Left Field, but that’s hardly the point. There would certainly be a few suitors for Rios’ services next year if he continued his current post-All Star success. Even if Rios continued to slump, there would be more than a couple teams with the foresight to predict a bounce-back year. ZiPS still predicts Rios as a 20HR / 20 SB player, and I hear those are fairly difficult to come across.
What an idiot. What a fucking idiot.
