Votto Hitter

"Can you believe all the money Joey Votto got?" asked a friend, a Braves fan. "Joey Votto! Is he really that good?"

I can understand his confusion. Votto's traditional stats sing a nice little ditty, but not an aria worthy of the bouquet of Benjamins the Reds have bestowed upon him. Last season, Votto hit .309 with 29 HR and 103 RBI. That's not superstar yo.

This year, Votto is hitting .360, but he's only got 10 HR and 38 RBI. Is that any better than, say, Carlos Gonzalez of the Rockies, who's at .318, 14 HR 45 RBI?

Well, my Toyota Yaris and a Lexus both have four wheels. The Lexis has more headroom but my Yaris gets better gas mileage. So they're about even in quality, right?

Seeking better information yields more accurate answers. Votto leads the NL with 25 doubles, 46 walks, a .480 on base percentage and a .640 slugging percentage (compared to an estimable .383 and .599 for CarGo.) According to Baseball-Reference, Votto is the best hitter in MLB so far, leading baseball in OPS, OPS+, batting runs added, batting wins added, offensive wining percentage, wins above replacement and so on.

That's because the ability to achieve safe passage to first base via plate discipline travels in the blind spot of batting average. Doubles and triples hide behind the curtains in home runs' room. And RBIs -- need we flog that horse carcass again? They're as relevant as a vice president.

It was less dramatic last year, but Votto still led the league in walks and on base percentage, and hit 56% better than average. And of course, he was so good in 2010 that even the baseball writers voted him MVP. On top of that, he's a Gold Glove quality fielder.

So yeah, Joey Votto's really that good. Just don't ask the Triple Crown stats to tell you that.

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