The White Sox have finally seen enough of 30-year old righty swinging CF Alex Rios to bench him. Rios has played in 19 games in July and he is 12 for 72 (.167 avg, .398 OPS) with 6 runs scored, 0 homers, 3 RBIs and 3 stolen bases. He has now played in 97 games for the White Sox so far this year and he is 75 for 360 (.208 avg, .555 OPS) with 43 runs scored, 6 homers, 23 RBIs and 8 stolen bases. It’s shocking to me that the White Sox pulled the plug on Rios with the idea of turning his position over to 27-year old lefty hitting outfielder Alejandro De Aza. De Aza came into this season playing in 86 games in his first three years in the majors in which he was 47 for 194 (.242 avg, .611 OPS) with 27 runs scored, 0 homers, 13 RBIs and 4 stolen bases. De Aza looked good last night in his debut with the White Sox as he was 1 for 4 with a homer, run scored and 2 RBIs. I look for Rios to get his job back eventually, but it might take a while.

33-year old lefty swinging LF Juan Pierre is on thin ice with the White Sox. Everyone in the organization, but manager Ozzie Guillen, wants to bench Pierre and replace him in LF with Dayan Viciedo who is killing the ball in AAA. Pierre has been awful so far this June. Pierre has played in 19 games so far this June and he is 17 for 80 (.213 avg, .530 OPS) with 10 runs scored, 1 homer, 3 RBIs and 1 stolen base. Pierre has played in 75 games for the White Sox so far this year and he is 76 for 303 (.251 avg, .605 OPS) with 34 runs scored, 1 homer, 16 RBIs and 10 stolen bases. Pierre has also been caught stealing 9 times already this year as he is having a rough time all the way around in 2011.

31-year old lefty swinging 1B/DH Adam Dunn and 30-year old righty swinging CF Alex Rios have been awful with the bats so far this year. In Dunn’s first 10 years in the major leagues, he has averaged 86.5 runs scored, 35.4 homers and 88 RBIs per year. This year has been a different story for him so far this year. Dunn has played in 60 games for the White Sox so far this year and he is 38 for 205 (.185 avg, .671 OPS) with 20 runs scored, 7 homers and 29 RBIs. Dunn has walked 41 times this year but he has also whiffed 84 times so far this year, but that comes as advertised. I think the White Sox need to start playing Dunn more in the field (RF) with Carlos Quentin DHing some to stay healthy. It just looks like Dunn is having a hard time adjusting to hitting without playing the field. Pat Burrell had that problem with the Rays last year, but when he was signed by the Giants and was stuck out in LF he started hitting again.

Alex Rios played in 147 games last year for the Pale Hose and he was 161 of 567 (.284 avg, .791 OPS) with 89 runs scored, 21 homers, 88 RBIs and 34 stolen bases. This year though, Rios has been awful with the bat. Rios has played in 66 games for the White Sox this year and he is 50 for 242 (.207 avg, .562 OPS) with 31 runs scored, 4 homers, 15 RBIs and 4 stolen bases. If the White Sox had other options in CF, Rios would be on the bench by now.

The White Sox were depending on Rios & Dunn to hit them about 70 homers this year and they have 11 right now. If those guys start hitting like everyone knows they can, the White Sox can make a run for the top of the A.L. Central.

Starting CF Alex Rios is off to a slow start for the Chicago White Sox. Rios has played in 12 games for the White Sox so far this year and he is 11 for 52 (.212 avg, .569 OPS) with 9 runs scored, 0 homers, 4 RBIs and 2 stolen bases. Rios is making contact as he has whiffed only 8 times this year and he has also walked 5 times (which is good for him). The White Sox are hoping that Rios gets it going with the bat soon as he was awful for them in 2009 and solid for them in 2010. They really need his bat to comeback to make the offense click on all cylinders.

32-year old lefty swinging LF Juan Pierre was brought in by the White Sox to provide speed and a .300+ bat at the top of the lineup. Well, he has provided speed so far this season as he is leading the majors in steals with 61. He has played in 154 games for the Pale Hose so far this year and he is 170 of 627 (.271 avg, .651 OPS) with 88 runs scored, 1 homer and 44 RBIs. The White Sox felt they had enough power to cover for Pierre’s bat as long as he got on base a lot. Hopefully next season Pierre will hit over .300 with 100+ runs scored.