Originally Posted by
AtomicDumpling
The Reds were very slightly below league average in BA (9th in the 16-team NL), but well below average in OBP (12th in the NL). Votto had a historically high OBP -- a truly remarkable OBP way, way better than anybody else in the league. His batting average was good too, but not to the extent that his OBP was.
Batting average has been proven to be not much of a factor in run scoring. Talking and worrying about batting average is a waste of time. The Reds need to improve their OBP and their SLG if they want to score more runs. Chasing batting average is just as likely to lead you astray as help you. Batting average has two huge flaws (counts all hits the same, ignores BBs and HBPs) that make it pretty much a worthless statistic, especially when you consider there are vastly superior statistics readily available (wOBA being the best and OPS second best).
The Reds can't afford to trade any of their power to improve contact. That would be a losing proposition. The Reds have a little better than average power (SLG 6th in NL), but their power is not good enough to be a top offense. The Reds need a huge boost in OBP and a big boost in SLG if they want to come close to leading the league in runs scored.
The only reason I even mentioned batting average in the earlier post was because people were saying the playoffs exposed an alleged Reds' batting average problem -- even though the Reds had the highest batting average in the playoffs.
I apologize for quoting my own post but I wanted to add an interesting sidebar to the topic.
Joey Votto's .474 OBP this year was the highest in Cincinnati Reds history! He broke Joe Morgan's record of .466 set in 1975.
Code:
Rank Player On-Base% Year
1. Joey Votto .474 2012
2. Joe Morgan .466 1975
3. Bernie Carbo .454 1970
4. Augie Galan .449 1947
5. Joe Morgan .444 1976
6. Rube Bressler .433 1926
7. Kal Daniels .429 1987
7. Kevin Mitchell .429 1994
7. Cy Seymour .429 1905
10. Pete Rose .428 1969
Votto's OBP could have been almost 50 points lower and would still have been in the top 10.
Here are the Reds' career leaders in OBP:
Code:
Rank Player On-Base% PA
1. Joe Morgan .415 4973
Joey Votto .415 3064
3. Johnny Bates .401 1628
4. Dummy Hoy .392 2582
5. Frank Robinson .389 6408
6. Mike Smith .382 1568
7. Adam Dunn .380 4562
8. Rube Bressler .379 2543
Pete Rose .379 12344
10. Heinie Groh .378 5162
Cy Seymour .378 2420
Curt Walker .378 3945
Votto's .4155 OBP ranks him 24th in major league history. The only active player with a better OBP than Votto is Todd Helton with his .4189 mark. The all-time leader is Ted Williams at .4817 OBP.
While Votto is tied with Joe Morgan atop the Reds' career OBP ranks at .415, Morgan's total career OBP is only .3921 tied for 95th all-time.