Re: Votto Hitting verses walking
Misleading thread title. Expected to see a video of Joey freestyling or otherwise rapping. I'm out of here.
Re: Votto Hitting verses walking
Nothing more exciting than Votto being up in the bottom of the 9th with 2 on, 2 outs and the Reds down 2. He works the count by taking a couple of high and outside pitches for balls and then 2 middle in pitches for strikes, as he is looking for something to slap to left field. The next pitch is a bit low, full count.
Votto chokes up a little bit more, the next pitch is on the outside corner and he fouls it off.
The next pitch is a waste high fastball on the inside corner borderline ...and Joey takes it for.......ball 4! Awesome he WALKED!
Now if the next 3 batters all walk, like Joey... Reds Win... Reds Win...
Re: Votto Hitting verses walking
Quote:
Originally Posted by
dougdirt
I could not care one bit what the batting average of any player is. I care about how often they get on base, not how often they get a hit. Hits are important, but they only tell you part of the story.
I could. At least as far as splits are concerned. Choo more or less is a two outcome player versus left handed pitching. out or walk. Very little chance of hits or power. The batting average tells us the hits part of that. Yes his OBP is like 350 but it's inflated by an absurd amount of hbp. Switch to a lefty and the best you can hope for in most situations is a walk and his BA tells us this. Is it as an important a stat as it was deemed to be years ago? No. But if used in context it can be helpful. Hits have a different value than walks. Average can tell us the percentage of time a player gets on that allows for more runner advancement than a walk. It's not like it is useless, it's just often misused.
Re: Votto Hitting verses walking
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Falcon7
Nothing more exciting than Votto being up in the bottom of the 9th with 2 on, 2 outs and the Reds down 2. He works the count by taking a couple of high and outside pitches for balls and then 2 middle in pitches for strikes, as he is looking for something to slap to left field. The next pitch is a bit low, full count.
Votto chokes up a little bit more, the next pitch is on the outside corner and he fouls it off.
The next pitch is a waste high fastball on the inside corner borderline ...and Joey takes it for.......ball 4! Awesome he WALKED!
Now if the next 3 batters all walk, like Joey... Reds Win... Reds Win...
I find it amazing that some Reds fans have one of the 5-10 best hitters in baseball on their team, yet complain because they would prefer a DIFFERENT type of perennial all star with an MVP.
I find it amazing that some Reds fans will take the word of worse hitters than Joey that he isn't "doing it right" because they "played the game", ignoring that Joey has also "played the game" at a higher level than almost all of the talking heads.
A team of 8 Vottos would lead the league in runs by a historic margin. Some reds fans would still complain The Cincinnati Vottos didn't do it the "right way" though, I guess.
jvs
Re: Votto Hitting verses walking
I love when people at the game talk **** about how votto sucks this season, and then on the jumbo tron they show where he ranks in the league in all offensive categories...it gets pointed out to them, they shut up the rest of the game.
If anyone was at the game last night section 118, you might have seen this. It was great
Re: Votto Hitting verses walking
Quote:
Originally Posted by
CoachBombay
I love when people at the game talk **** about how votto sucks this season, and then on the jumbo tron they show where he ranks in the league in all offensive categories...it gets pointed out to them, they shut up the rest of the game.
If anyone was at the game last night section 118, you might have seen this. It was great
I'm not saying anything about Votto sucks. I'm saying he isn't a #3 hitter. To be honest, with his skill set as a good OBP guy, average power, and lack of speed, I have no idea where he would be optimal. As it stands right now, I'd rather have him hit #2 than #3, but there are two problems with that. First it would create a scenario with back to back lefties, which Dusty Baker hates and is part of the reason Bruce hits #5 and not clean up behind Votto. Then secondly it would require a guy to hit #3 that is good enough with the bat not to hit into double plays all the time because of Votto's lack of speed, and the Reds don't really have a guy like that.
Re: Votto Hitting verses walking
Quote:
Originally Posted by
junkhead
Do you know that Choo's career AVG vs L (.242) is higher than Bruce's(.235)?
Choo has struggled the last two years but the year before that he averaged better against left handed pitching... while having his worst year in mlb.
@oldschool83 I think you are picking and choosing which stat to give relevance to and which are flukey. If the obp is flukey because of hbp then can we also say the low avg is flukey because of a low babip (.043 lower this year compared to his career numbers).
Re: Votto Hitting verses walking
Choo has looked considerably better recently against LHP, but we all know that ideally he doesn't go out in those situations - esp if we can field someone like Hamilton. I stated elsewhere here that I wouldn't want Hamilton playing in the WC game, but if we face a LH starting pitcher, Hamilton might be a good option.
To the point of the thread, it gets frustrating seeing Votto walk all of the time, but keep in mind that he'll continue to do that for the rest of his career. Power hitting is not maintainable long term, but Votto's strategy is.
Re: Votto Hitting verses walking
Quote:
Originally Posted by
junkhead
Do you know that Choo's career AVG vs L (.242) is higher than Bruce's(.235)?
I was speaking of recent trends. This season. I think choo is a wonderful player, but like with anyone else let's know his limitations as well as his strengths.
Re: Votto Hitting verses walking
Quote:
Originally Posted by
TitosLoveChild
Choo has struggled the last two years but the year before that he averaged better against left handed pitching... while having his worst year in mlb.
@oldschool83 I think you are picking and choosing which stat to give relevance to and which are flukey. If the obp is flukey because of hbp then can we also say the low avg is flukey because of a low babip (.043 lower this year compared to his career numbers).
Or it can be weak contact too. Plus the eye test says choo doesn't see the ball all too well against lefties. Either way, choo is a far superior player against right handed pitching.
But back to votto. Yes it's frustrating to see him take marginal pitches, but you can't argue with the guys OBP. Let's get a guy that can create more hittable pitches in front of him (Hamilton) and a guy that can instantly make the other team pay for walking him. (Bruce) but preferably a right handed guy to have three solid bats in a row.