Votto Freaking Sucks

[Kate Upton]

You want to know why this team has trouble scoring runs? Look no further than our $200 million slap hitter.

He is paid to hit the ball out the park and drive in runs. I don't care about his OBP. I don't care about his batting average. I'd rather he hit .270 with 35 HR's than the shit display of the slap hitting, double play extravaganza that this piece of dung has become.

Can you remember the last time this piece of shit came up with a big hit? Me neither. He's 4-26 with 2 outs and RISP.

I don't want to hear about how's "pitched around" either. You don't think Miguel Cabrera gets pitched around? Ryan Braun? Pujols before he went to LA? It's not an excuse.

The guy sucks.

Fuck you Votto. You are without a doubt the most overrated "great player" in all of baseball.

 

[Kate Upton]

Since when are pitchers "spent" just because they pitch 1 inning 2 days in a row?

Shut up Dusty.

You're either full of shit or you have a bunch of 8 year old girls in your bullpen.

 

[JohnU]

If Dusty left Bailey in to protect his bullpen, then he ought to ask the bullpen to pitch better.

 

[Kate Upton]

If Dusty left Bailey in to protect his bullpen, then he ought to ask the bullpen to pitch better.

He said that was part of it...that and Homer was "dealing"

I actually don't have a problem with leaving him in as long as he did, because he was pitching well, but spare me this bullshit about "guys being spent"

2 innings in 2 days after 4 days off is enough to tire out your bullpen?

Sure Dusty.

 

[Kate Upton]

Votto has exactly 29 HR's and 100 RBI this and last season combined...

That's in 208 games, and 902 plate appearances.

This guy is a turd.

 

[SportsChic]

Calm down JD.

So does Zack Cozart as a bench warmer on my roto team on yahoo.

 

[Kate Upton]

Calm down JD.

So does Zack Cozart as a bench warmer on my roto team on yahoo.

Zack Cozart is probably making 500K a year, and everybody knows he sucks.

 

[SportsChic]

Zack Cozart is probably making 500K a year, and everybody knows he sucks.

Crack me up!

Just dropped him for Simmons from the Braves.

 

[JohnU]

Votto isn't necessarily the problem, but he's bought into the problem and has become a symptom of it.
The problem is the anemic approach Jacoby and Baker present as a laughable offense. Votto clearly is seeing that the only way to get anything going is to be on base. Fine ... but, so what?
The more he does that, the less effective he becomes and, as a result, makes a bad offense even worse by becoming at best a guy you can just walk or pitch outside. A line drive single here and there is fine if other guys are on base.
But they aren't on base and they ain't gonna GET there. This team is managed by a bad philosophy and everyone knows it. EVERY-one knows it.
Votto isn't fixing anything by being the most wonderful singles hitter since Shin-Soo Choo.
There is no excuse for the middle of that order to get zero hits.
ZERO hits.

 

[Kate Upton]

Votto isn't necessarily the problem, but he's bought into the problem and has become a symptom of it.
The problem is the anemic approach Jacoby and Baker present as a laughable offense. Votto clearly is seeing that the only way to get anything going is to be on base. Fine ... but, so what?
The more he does that, the less effective he becomes and, as a result, makes a bad offense even worse by becoming at best a guy you can just walk or pitch outside. A line drive single here and there is fine if other guys are on base.
But they aren't on base and they ain't gonna GET there. This team is managed by a bad philosophy and everyone knows it. EVERY-one knows it.
Votto isn't fixing anything by being the most wonderful singles hitter since Shin-Soo Choo.
There is no excuse for the middle of that order to get zero hits.
ZERO hits.

There is some truth in this, and Votto himself kind of confirmed this earlier in the year when he stated "My job is to not make outs"

The hell it is you dumb fuck!

YOUR JOB IS TO DRIVE THE BALL OUT OF THE FREAKING BALLPARK AND TO DRIVE IN RUNS!!!

And that was before he signed this $25 million a year deal. Now?

YOUR JOB IS TO BE ONE OF THE 5 BEST PLAYERS IN ALL OF BASEBALL!!!

Right now? He isn't even close.

And Votto does come up with runners on base pretty frequently. Choo is on base at a near identical clip as Votto...the difference being CHOO'S JOB IS TO JUST SIMPLY GET ON BASE FOR YOU DRIVE HIM IN YOU ASSHOLE!!!

 

[JohnU]

Worse, the dropoff after the 4 spot really gets dramatic.
If Bruce is in one of his funks, there's almost zero impact from 6 on down.
But I'd venture that the bottom third produces as much as the top half, most of the time.
This team just doesn't have anything to work with. If Votto wants to pretend he's a leadoff guy, fine ... switch him with Choo.

 

[Kate Upton]

If Votto wants to pretend he's a leadoff guy, fine ... switch him with Choo.

WORD!!!!

The 3 hole is a power slot.

Votto is a slower version of Jeter.

 

[redsfan03]

Votto's certainly not worth $200 million the way he's been playing since getting injured last year. The Reds bet their future for winning now and so far it looks like that was a horrible move. With Dusty in charge "winning now" doesn't appear to be in the cards. Window of opportunity wasted.

 

[JohnU]

Votto's certainly not worth $200 million the way he's been playing since getting injured last year. The Reds bet their future for winning now and so far it looks like that was a horrible move. With Dusty in charge "winning now" doesn't appear to be in the cards. Window of opportunity wasted.

Dusty seems comfortable in 3rd place. If he gets beat in the WC play-in game, so what?
He comes back next year.

 

[BigDDude]

Dusty seems comfortable in 3rd place. If he gets beat in the WC play-in game, so what?
He comes back next year.

There is no way in hell that Phillips is the N.L league leader in r.b.i if not for Votto.

 

[Kate Upton]

There is no way in hell that Phillips is the N.L league leader in r.b.i if not for Votto.

I don't disagree with that...

But there's also no way in hell that Votto should have just 43 RBI at this point in the season with Choo hitting in front of him.

 

[JohnU]

RBI to me is a statistic of opportunity, just like the vapid crap that every announcer thinks is sabremetrics -- RISP.

You have to get to a base before you can be driven in. Votto's low RBI total is the product of not putting the ball into play more ... rather, he's taking walks. He also seems frustrated when he gets out of walk mode and attempts to start driving the ball. His bad at-bats come with this, I think.

I like RBI inasmuch as it demonstrates a "clutch" nature of the hitter, but the problem with the Reds is that there isn't any "clutch" in the 6-7-8 spots in the order. Once you strike Bruce out, there's nothing stopping you from an easy inning.

Votto needs to take the lead in manhandling pitchers early in the game, early in the count, and often. At the end of the lineup, SOME-body needs to start getting ON base so that the top of the order can come up.

Then again, it came up Sunday, 3 on, 0 out ... and produced a gimmee run with the infield back for a DP, which they conveniently got.

This ain't all Votto, sadly.

 

[Kate Upton]

RBI to me is a statistic of opportunity, just like the vapid crap that every announcer thinks is sabremetrics -- RISP.

You have to get to a base before you can be driven in. Votto's low RBI total is the product of not putting the ball into play more ... rather, he's taking walks. He also seems frustrated when he gets out of walk mode and attempts to start driving the ball. His bad at-bats come with this, I think.

I like RBI inasmuch as it demonstrates a "clutch" nature of the hitter, but the problem with the Reds is that there isn't any "clutch" in the 6-7-8 spots in the order. Once you strike Bruce out, there's nothing stopping you from an easy inning.

Votto needs to take the lead in manhandling pitchers early in the game, early in the count, and often. At the end of the lineup, SOME-body needs to start getting ON base so that the top of the order can come up.

Then again, it came up Sunday, 3 on, 0 out ... and produced a gimmee run with the infield back for a DP, which they conveniently got.

This ain't all Votto, sadly.

RBI is a stat of opportunity, but you also have to take advantage of those opportunities to accumulate RBI.

No, it's all on Votto, and me saying he sucks was obviously out of frustration from yesterday. He doesn't suck...

But he's also not performing at a level that he's being paid to perform at, or at a level the team itself needs him to perform at in order to score more consistently.

 

[Redsfan1507]

Votto is the best hitter the Reds have had in a long, long time. He's not Roy Hobbs, though.

If anyone believes Ryan Ludwick is worth $12 mil a year, and A-Rod is worth $25 mil, I can't imagine that they think Votto at $15-$18-$20 mil is overpaid. ALL MLB players are overpaid...not a single one would turn it down if they only made $1 mil a year, or $300,000 for that matter. It's always about what the market will bear.

I've always though Votto was a perennial batting title threat...if he weren't in a lineup role with a manager that needs him to hit 30 HR. He CAN do that to...I've seen him. BUT- it doesn't take as long for some managers as maybe Dusty, to decide that walking Votto is the simplest shortcut to cuting the Dusty Baker Reds legs out from under them...if you can stop Dusty's teams from hitting regular homers, you can stop his teams from scoring regular runs...and Votto is about 1/2 of the likely candidates to hit one regularly (Bruce is the other).

Dusty doesn't like hitting 2 lefty hitters back to back, so he's reduced to doing what we've always accused him of- of habitually putting an easier hitter between 2 offensive threats... Regardless if it's Phillips, Rolen, or Ludwick, whoever you put between Votto and Bruce has so far, been a LOT less likely to hit a longball as either. Dusty doesn't steal, so there is very little incentive for pitchers to give him a quick fastball, either. So, Votto gets pitches he can hit for singles the other way, an occasional oppage long one, a few doubles, but THE game plan is don't give him anything to drive out of the park. Bruce, although more homer frequent than Votto, has a lot more weaknesses in his swing- he's susceptable to a fastball up AND the breaking ball in or in the dirt. Brandon Phillips tries to pull everything in the cleanup hitter role, and hes a groundball frequent hitter anyway, so any pitch away and down has good chances of success, and his power is realy only a factor in small parks. It's a pretty easy scouting report for opposing pitchers, IMO...The Reds are station to station, high LOB, low baseball IQ baserunners that strike out a lot, and rarely play small ball. Don't let the 3 run HR beat you, score 4 runs yourself, and your three-quarters home.

BTW, Votto doesn't fail very often in bases loaded no out situations...in fact most of his "opportunities" seem to come with 2 outs, where the MLB average is about .200, or with 2 out and no one on. As long as he's the ONLY .300 hitter in this lineup, and the OF is hitting around .260 combined, I'd say THEY are the ones that need to hit a few more homers, and leave Mr. Votto to keep doing what hes doing.

 

[JohnU]

The odd thing is that small ball WILL lead to more home runs and more long hits.
The Reds were lucky to win 2 games from the Parrots, who played just bad enough to lose the first 2 games.