Joey Votto on XM "Minors and Majors"

[mth123]

Fairly un-eventful. Seems like a really nice kid with his head on straight. Some highlights:

- Wishes he was hitting more HR.

- Trying to cut K's.

- Thinks his defense has improved (he says that about 3/4 of the way through 2006 it "came full circle") and extra time in AAA has helped him refine "the little things."

- Credits Mark Bellhorn for helping him and sounds like a mentor situation. Votto says he and Bellhorn spend time after the game talking hitting in the clubhouse.

- Plays Pepper with Bellhorn daily to help his defense and keep his swing short.

- No mention of LF.

[redsfanfalcon]

Good insight...thanks for the report. He'll be up later this year, I would bet.

[mth123]

Good insight...thanks for the report. He'll be up later this year, I would bet.

This was kind of a fluffy interview, but if I came away with anything from listening, its that Joey seems to be a bit of a throwback "baseball player" as opposed to an athlete who plays baseball. He seems to enjoy working on his game, talking about the game and thinking about the game. At one point he talked about a 10 hour bus ride (which he said was not usual but a rain out or something caused it) where he and teammates, Bailey included, spent time in the bus talking hitting and talking pitching and even referred to talking a little about baseball history.

He said something else that struck me when the host asked him what his favorite video games were. I'm paraphrasing, but he said something about not having much time to play video games anymore because he was spending a lot of time with Bellhorn in the clubhouise talking baseball. I think this coupled with the comments about trying to cut his Ks and working on the little things would make him pretty popular in the current regime. He's kind of a "baseball guy."

[TOBTTReds]

He said something else that struck me when the host asked him what his favorite video games were. I'm paraphrasing, but he said something about not having much time to play video games anymore because he was spending a lot of time with Bellhorn in the clubhouise talking baseball. I think this coupled with the comments about trying to cut his Ks and working on the little things would make him pretty popular in the current regime. He's kind of a "baseball guy."

He reads books a lot too. So maybe he just isn't a video game guy. He reads a lot of novels. Very sophisticated guy, kind of unbaseball like.