Lance is all over this on 1530 ESPN.
His argument:
Pujols went into TLR's office earlier this season when the Cardinals were having injury problems and offered to play 3B, so Berkman could play 1B, and they could get one of their better hitting OFers into the lineup.
Alonso is a defensive nightmare in LF. Lance believe Joey should take one for the team and offer to play LF. He said Joey played 44 games in the 2007 minor league season in LF, and played 7 games with the Reds in LF in 2007. I actually don't remember Joey ever playing LF for the Reds, but I'll just go with it. So he says put Votto in LF to get Alonso's bat in the lineup and play him at 1B.
Do you think Joey should do it?
My opinion is, I don't have a problem with it. I'm actually more concerned about Alonso playing 1B, than Joey playing LF. But I don't think it makes Votto a selfish person for not volunteering to do it.
I mean, I used to play 3B alot in softball leagues, but eventually played most of the time at 2B, where I was far more comfortable. In the end, I never wanted to go back to 3B, the hot corner, even though I had played it a bunch. Maybe Votto feels the same way. Just because he played adequate LF back in 2007, doesn't mean he's comfortable there 4 years later.
I can see both sides to the argument, and in no way feel Joey is selfish for not doing it. But if he is asked, I think he should do it for the team. And if he ends up not being comfortable, make his feelings known at that time.