Joey Votto
Votto's plate discipline was legendary, but his 2012 season stands as one of the most quietly dominant MVP campaigns in recent memory. That .337 average and 1.041 OPS came with just 14 home runs — a masterclass in getting on base and driving runs without relying on power.
The Canadian slugger's career 123 OPS+ tells the story of sustained excellence across 17 seasons in Cincinnati. His peak coincided with the Reds' brief competitive window, when his patience at the plate and gap-to-gap power made him the perfect centerpiece for a scrappy lineup.
What made Votto special was his ability to work deep counts and turn borderline strikes into walks. He combined old-school hitting approach with modern analytics thinking, maximizing his value through on-base percentage long before it became fashionable.
Career · Batting
17 seasons| Year | Team | G | AB | HR | RBI | AVG | OPS | OPS+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | CIN | 24 | 84 | 4 | 17 | .321 | .907 | 120 |
| 2008 | CIN | 151 | 526 | 24 | 84 | .297 | .874 | 117 |
| 2009 | CIN | 131 | 469 | 25 | 84 | .322 | .981 | 131 |
| 2010 | CIN | 150 | 547 | 37 | 113 | .324 | 1.024 | 141 |
| 2011 | CIN | 161 | 599 | 29 | 103 | .309 | .947 | 132 |
| 2012 | CIN | 111 | 374 | 14 | 56 | .337 | 1.041 | 144 |
| 2013 | CIN | 162 | 581 | 24 | 73 | .305 | .926 | 130 |
| 2014 | CIN | 62 | 220 | 6 | 23 | .255 | .799 | 114 |
| 2015 | CIN | 158 | 545 | 29 | 80 | .314 | 1.000 | 139 |
| 2016 | CIN | 158 | 556 | 29 | 97 | .326 | .985 | 133 |
| 2017 | CIN | 162 | 559 | 36 | 100 | .320 | 1.032 | 138 |
| 2018 | CIN | 145 | 503 | 12 | 67 | .284 | .837 | 115 |
| 2019 | CIN | 142 | 525 | 15 | 47 | .261 | .768 | 101 |
| 2020 | CIN | 54 | 186 | 11 | 22 | .226 | .800 | 108 |
| 2021 | CIN | 129 | 448 | 36 | 99 | .266 | .938 | 129 |
| 2022 | CIN | 91 | 322 | 11 | 41 | .205 | .689 | 98 |
| 2023 | CIN | 65 | 208 | 14 | 38 | .202 | .747 | 102 |
| Career | 2056 | 7252 | 356 | 1144 | .294 | — | — | |
Every ball this hitter has put in play — how hard it left the bat, and at what angle. The red field behind the dots shows how much damage that kind of contact does, league-wide: the darker the red, the better things go for the hitter.
The field — league-average xwOBA (what a batted ball is typically worth: 0.0 is a sure out, ~2.0 a sure home run) for every exit-velocity × launch-angle combination, measured from 1.3 million regular-season balls in play since 2015. The dark ridge — balls hit 105+ mph at 25–30° — is the barrel zone, where contact becomes near-automatic extra bases.
The dots — this hitter’s career regular-season balls in play, grouped to a fine grid; a bigger dot means more batted balls at that exact combination. Dots piled onto the red ridge are damage; dots low on the pale field are weak or mishit contact. Spring training and the postseason are excluded.
Matchups, projections, comps — grounded in Lahman, Retrosheet, and Statcast.