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Joey Votto, modern thinker: Can't be 'stuck in the past' with stats

Joey Votto pays attention to baseball's new math, and he likes to zero in on one calculation that he knows will rub some people the wrong way. 

"It's going to drive a lot of people crazy when I respond, but I can't help but be myself. It would probably be Weighted Runs Created Plus (wRC+)," Votto said in an interview with Lance McAlister of Cincinnati radio station WLW on Tuesday (podcast link). Votto was answering a listener's question about which stat the Reds' all-star first baseman considers the most important.

Joey Votto (AP Photo)

Votto had trouble explaining the stat ( does it better), but his basic point was that he has moved away from the old methods of evaulating players (hint, hint, Marty Brennaman).

"I'm all about neutralizing talent and making things fair, and evaluating a player based on what he does all the way around," Votto said. "I think we're in a new era of baseball where it's not OK to have a lumbering slugger in the corner of the outfield not catching the ball, and not taking the extra base.

"I think the smart teams are chasing those well-rounded players, making that well-rounded lineup, having that well-rounded team. We saw it with the Boston Red Sox and the Cardinals this year, two fantastic, well-rounded teams (that met in the World Series)."

Votto has an interest in working in baseball after he finishes playing, so it's not surprising that he wants to be on the side of progress.

"I think we're kind of in the middle of the transition from the basic line of batting average, home runs, RBIs to a more complicated evaluation of a player and we're in the middle of that transition where there's right now some pushback (from the likes of Brennaman, who thinks Votto should expand his strike zone at times so he can drive in more runs), but eventually I think it will become the norm and I really don't want to miss that wave," Votto said. "I'd like to learn. I'd like to eventually be able to speak that language and not be stuck in the past."

Like, perhaps, a certain Hall of Fame team broadcaster?

"That number (wRC+) tells me that, relative to my competition, I'm still doing well, despite what people say," Votto said, without naming names.

For the record: Votto has led the National League in on-base percentage each of the past four seasons and has led it in walks the past three, but his RBI totals have dropped from 113 in 2010 to 103 in 2011 to 73 in 2013. He missed a third of the 2012 season with a knee injury.

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