Votto enjoying Votto-like second half

Reds 1B Joey Votto (Etobicoke, Ont.) is again having an impressive second half.

By Neil Munro
Canadian Baseball Network
If you didn’t notice, Joey Votto is now batting over .300 for the year after such a terrible start. 

Following his four-hit game of Aug. 14th, his average reached .301, and now stands at .303. This doesn’t seem all that great compared to his career average of .310 but he was off to such a dreadful start this year. 

On May 23rd, he was batting just .203, with a slugging percentage of .351. I thought at the time that if he could bat around .350 for the rest of the season, he could wind up near .300 by this year. Little did I guess how much he would improve on those numbers since that point in time. 

I thought I would compare Votto’s second half in 2016 to last year when his Ted Williams-like figures propelled him into finishing third in the NL MVP vote. His 2015 stats after the All-star break read:

14 HR, 38 RBI, 86 walks, .362 B.A., .535 OBP, and .617 SLG (in 73 games).

In 2016 he is almost making those eye-popping stats seem pedestrian by comparison:

5 HR, 20 RBI, 24 walks, .455 B.A., .552 OBP, and .707 SLG (in 28 games).

I thought he should have been Player of the Month for July when he posted NL monthly best stats of .413 B.A., .539 OBP and 1.176 OPS, as well as leading the NL in runs scored and walks for the month. However, he did not get the nod in the voting (Daniel Murphy was the winner).

It would be very interesting to figure out why Votto’s first half in each of the last two seasons has been sub-par (particularly by his standards) and then why he is almost unstoppable after the All-Star break. One unfortunate consequence of this is the fact that he does not get many votes for being selected to the NL All-star team.

Before the break, Votto ranked 12th in the NL in on-base average, some 40 points behind the league leader at that time (Matt Carpenter of the Cardinals). In less than five weeks since then, he has surged into the league lead in this category (with a .428 mark) ahead of Paul Goldschmidt (.414), the Rockies D. J. LeMahieu (.410) and Carpenter (at .405). 

He also now leads all major leagues batters being narrowly ahead of the AL leader, Jose Altuve (currently posting a .427 figure). Votto remains well ahead of the pack of active ball players in career OBA (at .424). Mike Trout’s recent surge has lifted him into second place now with a .401 average. Votto is currently tied with Bryce Harper for the major league lead in walks (both have 85 as of last night) just ahead of Goldschmidt (82). 

These three ranked first, second and third in bases on balls last year and it looks like the three of them will hold on to a podium finish again in 2016. Trout leads the AL in walks with 80, the Giants’ Brandon Belt is second (with 76) while the Jays’ Josh Donaldson is third with 75.

Votto is also moving up fast in several career batting categories among Canadian-born players. He is now seventh in runs scored at 728 (Jason Bay is sixth with 737), eighth in base hits (1345 with Terry Puhl with 1361 hits in his sights), and fifth in total bases (at 2307 he won’t catch Matt Stairs’ 2481 TB until 2017). 

Votto’s 211 home runs has him fifth with Bay’s 222 HR fourth and Justin Morneau’s 244 third (a moving target). Votto’s 839 career bases on balls is second all-time behind Larry Walker’s record of 913 BB and he should take over first place early next year. 

In the all-important percentage categories, Votto ranks third in batting average (.310 behind Tip O’Neill at .326 and Walker at .313), second in slugging percentage (.531 to Walker’s .565) and second in OPS (with a .955 mark just behind Walker’s .965). Votto is the top Canadian performer in history in on-base average with his .424 figure (Walker and George Selkirk both finished up with .400 marks right on the nose). 

Votto ranks 14th in OBA among all ball players in major league history, just a few thousandths of a point behind Eddies Collins and Ferris Fain.   

Clearly, Votto is not going to bat .450 for the rest of the year, but I will be watching closely to see if he maintains his current lofty level or does tend to return to just being “a routine All-Star type hitter” over the last six weeks of the season.