Obviously, every lefty hitter will not be on the team at the same time. But -- other than Encarnacion -- there are only 4 positions for these guys. If the first baseman and all three outfielders are lefty, and your only power righty bat is Mr. Encarnacion, I think you have a lack of balance in the lineup.
For all the love of these young guys, some of them are best used as trade bait. The only sure thing I see is Bruce.
Wasn't there some short-lived experiment a couple years ago where Votto took a few groundballs at 3B? I think somebody felt Votto's arm was strong enough coming out from behind the plate.
Remember those horrendous Johnny Bench experiments at 3B?
“I think I throw the ball as hard as anyone. The ball just doesn't get there as fast.” — Eddie Bane
“We know we're better than this ... but we can't prove it.” — Tony Gwynn
I've seen WOY and a few others invoke the name of Tony Perez when talking about EE moving, but I can't imagine that Perez's move involved kicking a similar talent out of the way at 1b. I simply don't know.
What bothers me about moving Votto to LF, even for a game, is that I don't understand why you complicate his pushing to get to the bigs. By all accounts, he needs plenty of 1b work, so leave him be to get that work. It's not like Votto will be busting through the OF log-jam in Cincy anytime soon. It just seems ill-advised in every respect...
Reds Fan Since 1971
Thanks. Couldn't remember how that went down. But that all happened at the big league level, no? With May, they had an idea about his ceiling and got value for him. With Votto, do we know what his ceiling is? I don't think we do. I am not for adding an extra piece to block his assent when EE already has a position he is perfectly capable of handling and getting better at.
As for why Votto is struggling, he's 23 in AAA. Pitchers have got him off balance and he's not hitting the ball with as much authority as he did last season. That's to be expected. Baseball is not easy, the jump from AA to AAA is a big one and Votto's struggled before.
It could be another two years before he's ready to be a plus 1B.
As others have noted, there's a lot of ways to fill the 1B slot, perhaps even Encarnacion. The real question is how good do you expect Votto to be? If you think he's going to be superior, then he's worth the wait.
I'm not a system player. I am a system.
Votto really is no longer struggling at AAA. That doesn't mean he should be brought up or that he won't start struggling again. I think we're probably making way too much out of Votto's playing a game in LF. Louisville's got a surplus of infielders and a shortage of outfielders. Herr, Bellhorn, Snyder, and now EE are all primarily 3B; Votto, Snyder, and J. Gutierrez are 1B. Herr and Bellhorn can play second, but that's about the end of the flexibility unless somebody goes to the outfield. Seems to me the plan is still in order: let Votto continue to get AAA action and see if Edwin is really going to be able to play major league 3B. I hope he can because he's a lot more valuable as a third baseman than as either a first baseman or corner outfield, but it's not clear yet that he can do it.
M2, no offense, but you are WAY off on this one.
Joey Votto is actually hitting the ball harder than he did last year, which can be seen by the fact he is hitting 4% more Line Drives than last year. The difference is his BABIP is about 70 points lower than it was last year (but the gap is closing as the season moves on because well, thats what happens when you hit the crap out of the ball but make more outs on line drives than you make hits on line drives for the first 5 weeks of the season). He also just got contacts earlier this week and 'is seeing the ball much better'. Votto is on the verge of blowing up right now and is destroying the ball in May so far to the tune of a .383/.482/.553 line with a 1/1 bb/k ratio.
doug, I don't think M2 disagree's. But he is going through some adjustment. Granted, the guy seems to get off to bad Aprils every year, but that may be just adjustment times. If he just is a slow starter, better get a manager that understands the hitter. Narron probably would have bench Votto this year for example(and screwed around with a great May so far).
Votto is most likely not going to be a plus 1st baseman in 2008. But as a 25 year old in 2009 he may very well be something else. If that is what Krivsky thinks, he better be paving the way for him sometime over the next year.
But Krivsky's evaluation skills are in question. I worry that he will trade Votto for peanuts and then the guy turns into a superstar
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