Rios' Tinkering Awakens Inner Slugger

[ThomasTomasz]

So many times a prospect has heard the criticism: If you don't hit for power, you won't stay in the big leagues.

So many times a prospect has tried to heed the warning only to ruin his swing and hamper, if not destroy, his career.

That's why the story of the Toronto Blue Jays' Alex Rios is worth mentioning.

The Blue Jays' first-round pick in 1999 (19th overall), Rios was one of those famed five-tool players. Yet the tool everyone expects a right fielder to have is power. And Rios' homer stroke was lagging.

He had 426 at-bats as a rookie in 2004, but homered only once. Last season, he had 481 at-bats and 10 homers. And when the Blue Jays revamped their roster this offseason, Rios found himself in a platoon with Eric Hinske, even though Rios is, by all accounts, outstanding defensively.

"We didn't know how he was going to come back from last year," said manager John Gibbons. "He took some heat after his first year about not being able to hit home runs. ... When he went home in the offseason, he worked hard, made a couple of adjustments and now he is starting to come into his own."

On Tuesday, Rios hit his 11th homer - a career high. He's among the league leaders in batting average, slugging percentage and OPS (on-base plus slugging). The Hinske platoon is a distant memory.

Rios, 6 feet 5 but only 195 pounds, said he was aware of the criticism but couldn't do anything about it.

"I didn't think much about [hitting homers]," Rios, 25, said. "It's just nothing you can work on. If [power] is going to come, it is going to come and I'm doing a little better than last year."

The main difference, he said, is "confidence, I guess." He's seeing more pitches, and consequently, better pitches to hit. Now he's back to being the five-tool player that scouts had predicted, without messing up his swing or his career.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/b...ports-baseball

[ThomasTomasz]

Interesting. Gibbons put Rios in a platoon, despite many scouts (as well as prospect services like Baseball America) saying that Rios, in his prime, would be a Magglio Ordonez, with better defense, and more speed. It would just take Rios time for him to grow into his power. Well, at long last, Rios has discovered his power, and the platoon is finished.