To stretch the metaphor even further, sometimes you buy the sofa second-hand, and discover some change between the cushions.

So, let's flip the supposition by stating that *Rios* is the second-hand sofa, and his potential return to close-to-All-Star-form would be that change between the cushions.

Too stretch the metaphore even further, Rios is an old coach laying in your marn that cats and racoons piss and shit on and when someone asks you too if they can have it you can't understand why but can't wait too see it go.

barn sorry not marn

sometimes you find stains though....

And sometimes you simply find Alex Rios. Which is exactly what the White Sox found.
And by clearing out RF of Rios and the ledger of Rios' contract, Travis Snider can come back up and whoever is the Blue Jays' GM next season will have a fair bit more cash to play with to build a team around Halladay. A team of Toronto's means may be able to overcome one ridiculously compensated player (Wells) but two is simply too much.

In other words, Alex: we hardly knew ya. But we knew ya too well...

Now wait a second here. Last month when we were all bemoaning VWells' contract, Rios' was being held up as the kind of asset you hold on to. Being offered the chance to dump a big contract is one thing, but comparing him to a barnyard couch is another. Rios will likely play quite well in Chicago and looks like a rather smart pickup. Talk about exploiting the market weakness, the Sox should be given a better look. This is the Beane action of the moment. Everyone is really talking about the money, not the players and I suppose that's fine. But the White Sox added Peavy & Rios at relatively little cost when they don't have a great pipeline in the near future. They are starting to have real stability in the management side as well. This should be judged as win-win, not the Sox mistake.

Put in CF Rios has more value, to be sure, but he was never going to play CF regularly in Toronto. I don't remember where Rios was lauded as a great asset, but his contract, when compared to Wells' was much better value. But it still did not come close to justifying the outlay in dollars.

Christina... your stuff always cracks me up - yet is insightful. Nice work.

Speaking as a Tigers fan...I think this is a very good move for the White Sox (and given the relative prices paid, I think it's a better move for them than the Peavy deal). Why the single-minded focus on only his 2009 stats? The guy has .280-.290 level EQAs the 3 years prior. He fills a void in centerfield and he's got a skill set that ages well.

If the Cell inflates Rios's offensive numbers and if he plays a passable CF, I can see the White Sox flipping him a few years down the road before he gets too expensive. Besides, who knows if the market rebounds and contracts start going crazy again a few years from now.

I wonder if the Jays tried to waive Wells first and no one bit. Perhaps, it would have been too embarrassing to even try.

Without regard to cost, Rios is the more valuable commodity. Wells might approach useless soon and I don't think the Jays have any promising CFs on the farm.