This thread has a lot of silly.
I’ll add one more thing and then you guys can compare Votto to Hank Aaron
It’s really hard to compare different eras in baseball. Look at the value of SB in the 80’s? For a while there was a big value in BB. Strikeouts in the 50’s compared to now? Launch angle, exit velo. Things change. Votto is Votto. Votto goes to the plate trying to do something different than Suarez. Votto wants to put a great swing on a hittable pitch within the strike zone. Suarez is trying to rip HR and doubles into LCF.
Rickey Henderson is the only comp to Votto I can think of as far as working to take walks. Votto does it because it gets him on base and getting on base is never a bad thing. It keeps him helping the team when he isn’t hitting great. Rickey worked the walks to attain SB opportunities. Rickey played 24? years and other than the occasional runner on 2nd/3rd scenario.....no one ever unintentionally intentionally walked him......Votto gets a decent number of those (used to be more than now)...Votto when he was a good power hitter got a lot of those unintentional intentional walks and why not with 2 outs and no one on. It would take 2 hits (maybe) or a triple+ to score him as he is a slow/bad base runner. The kudos to him goes for not chasing bad pitches in those situations but he’s very smart and I feel he knew his situation most of the time. If Votto has 100 PA...pitchers never “intentionally” help him get a double but a number of times they’ll “intentionally” walk him.
Joe Morgan worked walks and could steal 60 and had best team ever behind him to score him....but players in Votto’s mold tried to drive in runs in the 70’s and many other decades.
It’s really hard to compare different eras IMO. Wasn’t really long ago batting average and wins were key key stats for players.