****Royals@Tigers Official GDT 8/4/15****

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by okcchief

Because you act like he did something special. The last 30 games Rios had 5 more hits and the same RBI and HR as Infante. He's scored 2 more runs. You are saying he's trending so much better and it's just not true. They are both bad but one plays his position well. Again it doesn't matter that much Either way but if Rios turns it around it's based on nothing I've seen so far including the last month. You ask did Rios bang my mom? I should ask if he blew you after a game if you think that was a great month. I was excited about the potential of the acquisition, but he's been bad. Morales aces, Rios craps. It's all good, but he's done less than a 10 year minor league guy even with his scorching July. If he needs the hand to heal even more reason to rest him with a big lead. We might be able to survive without his production.

It's like this:

It absolutely true that Rios was a much better offensive player in July than Infante. There's literally no stat you can look at to say otherwise, unless you're looking at it incorrectly.

5 hits over a month is the difference between a guy who hits .300 and a guy who hits .240. That's 30 hits over the course of a year. That is a significant difference. (And hits are an antiquated way to evaluate a player, anyway).

Omar Infante posted a sub-.600 OPS in July, just like he has in every month except April (when he put up a whopping .621).

Alex Rios posted a .736 in July. I don't think that's a great month, but that type of performance would create a significant increase in offensive production over a sample size of a few months or a full season, when compared with who Infante was then and of late.

150 points of OPS difference is a significant improvement. That IS "trending so much better."

They're both going to play a lot between now and when Gordon returns. If Rios continues to produce at the solid, slightly above average rate he did in July, he should continue to play. If he slides back and his production looks more like the aggregate of his season, then Infante should play due to his defensive value.