No end in sight for Alex Rios slump

No end in sight for Alex Rios slump

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Heralded as a rising superstar and many teams breakout fantasy star of 2008, the Toronto Blue Jays’ Alex Rios has had a rough start to the season.

After witnessing his success over the past few seasons I originally anticipated luck playing a huge factor in Alex’s poor 2008 stats. I assumed his hits were getting gobbled up by fielders, thus lowering all of his major stat lines.

I decided to check this out. Via the Hardball Times are Rios’ batted ball statistics.

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As we can see from this selection of data Rios has a strong .330 BABIP (batting average balls in play) which are in-fact better than last years! He’s also hitting line drives at career norm rates. Typically one of these rates is off when a player is struggling vs career norms to the degree that Rios is. One area that is below career norms is his HR/F ratio, which is roughly half of last seasons. I do have to question how high this will rise throughout the season however, as his LD percentage points to Alex still hitting the ball hard.

BB/K ratios are similar to 2007.

After jumping over to the rise in groundball ratio (48.2%), Rios’ 2008 batted ball line looks very familiar to that of his 2005 season.

Alex Rios Basic Stats

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Rios’ 2005 stat line wasn’t too impressive. I’m making the call now that we may see a rise in Rios’ end of season HR/F ratio and perhaps a slight decline in his GB ratio. But I don’t see him rising his overall OPS much past .775 this season. A bold call with plenty of ball to play and a player in his accepted prime years but unless something drastic changes that’s what we’re likely to see in his year end stat line.



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One reply on “No end in sight for Alex Rios slump”
  1. says: Early

    Nice article. I was looking at coming up with a new stat called “GITMDP” – TM stading for Tailor Made – especially for Rios. His ground outs come at the most inopportune times. At least some of the time he grounds out with the bases loaded but with already two out, this breaking up the DP and he is unable to pad his stats. He is a chump.

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