It's been bad. It's been worse. Now it's finished. Adam Dunn has been officially benched, and will see little playing time in September according to Ozzie Guillen (If you actually believe him). So far, he has actually been true to his word. Dunn only has 5 at bats since August 24th, a span of six games. In those 5 at bats, he struck out 4 times and did not reach base in the miraculous at bat where he made contact.
Similarly, Alex Rios(Rivers in Spanish, hence the article title) is also having an absolutely atrocious year. At times it has appeared as if he isn't even trying out there. He can make the plays in CF, but he's having so much trouble at the plate, that it is almost becoming worse than the Brian Anderson situation. Definitely worse when you think about the $12 million he's being paid.
Other players on the Sox have had pretty unproductive seasons this year such as Gordon Beckham and Brent Morel, but Alex Rios and Adam Dunn's statistics really speak for themselves as having a much more negative impact on the team this season. Adam is batting .163 in 436 plate appearances, while Alex Rios is batting .214 in 488 plate appearances. They would both need to reach 502 plate appearances to qualify for the batting title. Rios is dangerously close, while the benching of Dunn could leave him just short of having the worst qualifying batting average since 1909.
Another way to look at Tweedledum and Tweedledee's tandem horrible seasons is to look at OPS. Both guys play positions where OPS becomes a factor in my opinion. We know based on the basic statistics that their OPS' must be pretty low on the list. How low? Try dead last. Yes, that's right. Among qualifying batters to this point according to MLB.com, Adam Dunn(149th) and Alex Rios(150th) rank second to last and dead last in OPS. They hold .577 and .570 respectively.
You could also look at their OPS+. Baseball-Reference wrote an article recently about the struggles of Jayson Werth being historically bad in the OPS+ department. He is likely going to join a historically bad list of right fielders to qualify for the batting title with OPS+ under 100. He stands at 98. To compare Dunn and Rios, they stand at 58 and 54. Yikes.
Despite the much higher batting average, Rios actually has an OBP 46 points lower than Adam Dunn's .289. How is that even possible? It could be argued that Rios is actually having the worse season! Despite having more hits than Dunn, he has nothing to show for it. This just means he doesn't hit when it counts, but it is not like Dunn has either this year.
Unsurprisingly, they both have negative WARs(Wins Above Replacement), but the real tale of the tape are their other "Above Replacement" statistics. Dunn, who has put up 6 seasons of RAR(Runs Above Replacement) of over 25, has a -24 RAR this season. Rios has a -13 RAR. Runs win ball games folks.
Adam Dunn was well on his way to setting the MLB record for single season strikeouts by a batter. However, with his benching, he will most likely not reach the 225 mark. He sits right now at 157 strike outs on the year, which amazingly doesn't lead MLB. Adam Dunn has walked 62 times and still doesn't have an OBP over .300.
Adam Dunn was signed to hit 40 home runs with 100 RBI. He currently stands at 40; 40 RBI that is. He has only hit 11 home runs and was recently passed by teammate Brent Lillibridge(13 HR in just 205 PA). It can't get much more embarrassing than this can it? Yes, it can. Juan freaking Pierre has more RBI than Adam Dunn, having driven in 41 runs this year. Un-frickin'-believable.
Neither of these guys is worthy to carry Paul Konerko's jock strap this year. Konerko is basically in the Top 10 or Top 5 at almost every offensive statistical category that baseball-reference.com keeps track of on their site. Here's a link: http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/AL/2011-batting-leaders.shtml Neither of these guys should currently be in a Major League lineup, let alone hitting cleanup. Ozzie continues to jumble his lineup card, and inexplicably, Rios continues to hit near cleanup when he should at best be hitting 9th.
The best solution in my view to get the White Sox through the end of the season would be to play Lillibridge/De Aza in CF and Lillibridge/Viciedo at First and Konerko/Viciedo at DH. This would give us different lineup possibilities that don't include Rios or Dunn. Give them a month off to think about how much they suck and see if they really want to work hard to improve or not and earn their playing time back.
I believe Adam Dunn genuinely cares about his poor performance, and feels bad about letting the White Sox and their fans down. He will work hard this offseason on his swing. With Rios, I'm not always sure he cares. This is the same guy who told a fan "Who gives a [profanity]!" when told he should be lucky someone (whom he blew off) wanted his autograph after an 0-5 game a few years back. You can watch that exchange here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt9hRCthV8E
Based on their careers, Dunn has a much better chance of bouncing back next year than Alex Rios. While Rios has shown he can be a productive player, he has not shown it often enough to convince me that he could ever be a solid full-time outfielder. Adam Dunn has shown everyone in the past that he is capable of putting up numbers that can lead a team. I hope Dunn figures it out next year. As for Rios, he basically has an untradable contract, which means we're stuck with this mistake for a little while longer. Oh and my last two cents? KW should be fired for this.
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