Alfredo Ruiz joins the Rio De Janeiro Hall of Fame

[Echo127]

I am happy to announce the addition of 1B/2B Alfredo Ruiz to the Rio De Janeiro Hall of Fame!

Ruiz was a career Jaguar. He was drafted by Rio in Rd 2 of the 2105 draft, debuted in 2108, and spent 11 seasons at the major league level with Rio. Ruiz was a prototypical leadoff hitter, and that's where you would find him in the lineup in nearly every game that Rio played between 2108 and 2118.

Ruiz came up through the Rio system as a 2B, but played out the peak seasons of his career at 1B. As a 1B, he broke against the conventional wisdom that says you need a big bad HR masher at the position, instead offering elite OBP, baserunning, and defense. For his career he never hit more than 4 HRs in a season, but consistently offered a high-.300's OBP and 40+ stolen bases. As of 2128 Ruiz is the #2 base-stealer in ABL history, with 538 SBs. He trails only the incomparable Pio Seixas. Career accolades include 1 Silver Slugger (at 2B), 2 Gold Gloves (at 1B), and 4 ABL Championships (all with Rio). As is becoming a trend with Rio Hall of Famers, he had a brief swansong with Santo Domingo where he continued to give his all for Rio De Janerio by putting up -0.1 WAR for the Palmchats in a brief 8-game stint.

Over the course of his career with Rio, accumulated 39.1 WAR. 39.2 WAR, if you consider his time with SD ;-).

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Ruiz joins:
1B Ze Vargas,
2B Ricardo Ramirez,
3B Ernesto Colon,
SS Piero Folena,
CL Justin White,
SP Bob Turner.

Also, as I'm looking at the above list of already-inducted HoFers, I now realize that Ruiz is the first Rio HoFer who wasn't part of Rio's first WBA Championship in 2105. Interesting.