Cast aside the .207 average. I also don’t care if his career year might have been back in 2007. Sucking in the three hole? Well, it happens. But the #1 thing that really pisses me off about Alex Rios is the number of times that he’ll ground into double plays!
In the off-season I wrote an article on the fastest MLB players that also ground into far too many double plays. Alex Rios was on the top of that list. In 2008 he stole 32 bags. This shows some speed. Jays fans also witness Rios’ running speed in the outfield every game. But somehow he grounded into 20 double plays last season.
Back to 2009 he’s at it again. He’s grounded into 3 doubleplays in 14 games, putting him on a pace for 35 this season.
Alex for the love of god start striking out with runners on. It’ll do less damage.
Look on the bright side, at least you didn’t GIDP
Nail on the haed. Between this year and last, between Rios and Overbay they have hit into 47 DP’s. Talk about rally killers . There was one game last year Rios hit into three DP’s.
This is hard to deal with when he is not hitting, not getting on base and playing terrible RF (look to the minnesota series).
Last year he showed some power and was getting on base and stealing and throwing people out from RF. Not this year. He will turn around production wise but I wish he would beat some of those DP’s out!
There are a lot of good hitters atop the GIDP list. My problem with Rios and GDP is those grounders are symptomatic of a bad approach at the plate (rolling over on pitches away).
I think this goes back to the research you already did on his GB rate. If he’s trying to pull everything, good pitchers will let him get himself out.
Rios gets terrible reads on flyballs – the only thing that saves him is that once he gets moving his speed compensates somewhat. His nonproduction will continue until he stops trying to hit home runs.
While w’re at it. How is it that Wells lets a flyball of the bat of Morneau in the Minn series get over his head?