The Wheelhouse: Misunderstood

As noted last week in my Top-50 notes, Joey Votto has ranked in the top-12 among qualified hitters in ISO since 2010, he never wastes at-bats and has a great home park. Beyond that, he'll benefit from a significant upgrade in the leadoff spot after Reds hitters were a complete failure in terms of setting the table last season.

The risk with Votto, is that he showed minimal power from late June on, book-ending surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee in July. Over his final 40 games, Votto hit .295/.445/.403 with no homers, and nine RBI. For me, the surgery would have been more of an issue if it had taken place after the season, but it's not difficult to see why owners would be scared off by it given the magnitude of his power outage.

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