That Time Joey Votto Hit .400 | Baseball Bits

this video was sponsored by tops MLB bunt tops bunt is an officially licensed MLB car trading app that's currently running a patriotic card set to celebrate Independence Day I pulled this motion Justin Verlander and also available as Joey Votto ironic download top son will be bunt for free using my link in the description july 12th 2016 it wasn't that long ago yet it's a time that feels completely alien to us now Major League Baseball's finest and Addison Russell congregated in San Diego to play the all-star game the American League won 4-2 - with Eric Hosmer claiming MVP but one of baseball's brightest stars was nowhere to be found Joey Votto wasn't bad in the first half of 2016 but he was certainly below his usual level of performance he does however tend to improve as the season rolls along while Votto didn't participate in the festivities that summer he would have the last laugh he was going to do something special in the coming months something that in the past would put you on the pantheon of hitters but now seems to be impossible he was going to hit 400 why are there no more 400 batting average seasons let's break it down there are three ingredients to getting four hits every 10 at-bats ingredient number one avoiding strikeouts as I always say the thing about strikeouts is that they're always outs ingredient number two batting average on balls in play it's not enough to just put the ball and play and hope for the best the league average Babbitt which is the abbreviation I'll be using for batting average on balls in play is around 300 so if an average hitter were to end every at-bat with a ball in play they'd hit just 300 thankfully ingredient number three comes to the rescue it's a special new type of hit discovered by an alcoholic pitcher in Boston about a century ago if you hit the ball over the fence it's always a hit and never in play he slurred so let's build our ideal 400 hitter the best at avoiding strikeouts in 2019 Hansa Alberto who struck out in just 9.5 percent of it bats last year's highest Babic crown goes to you on Moncada and insanely lucky 406 that's the second highest Babbitt since integration in 1947 it's really not a normal League leading batting average on balls in play but we'll stick with it to get a better idea of how bad it works I would estimate that players can maintain Babbitt's as low as 250 and as high as 350 throughout their careers anything above or below that is what I called the luck zone obviously the higher the luckier you are when it came to hitting home runs at least on a rate basis nobody topped Nelson Cruz who fought off father time to go yard in 9 percent of his at-bats if you combine those three ingredients you arrive at a batting average of 421 lovely so what's the catch these three ingredients are in direct conflict with one another now swapping two strike outs on a plate appearance basis here are the top ten hitters by Kay percentage in 2019 hi David Fletcher of these ten you leaguer al and Alex Bregman are the only ones with an above average home run rate now let's look at the players with the most homeruns suddenly its strikeout rate that becomes a huge problem as home run hitters more strikeouts due to their plate approach but it's perhaps the relationship Babbitt has with these two that's the most discouraging home runs are typically fly balls but fly balls have the lowest batting average on any batted ball category the low strikeout guys are contact machines but a lot of that contact is weak contact which prevents them from putting up a lead babbitt's and even though we were able to build a 421 hitter from Alberto when cata and Cruz Moncada is really doing some heavy lifting here if you swap in JD Martinez and his League leading 375 babbitt in 2018 we're suddenly stuck with a 396 hitter under the most ideal circumstances possible the Babbitt ceiling has shifted as well if you look at baseball pre-integration back when players actually hit 400 in the season the highest babbitt's are way higher for a multitude of reasons keep all this in mind as I talk about Votto the forces of the game don't want him to hit 400 and yet for half a season he did just that [Music] while Rogers Hornsby anti-cop may spring to mind as the kings of hitting 400 in a season Joey Votto's game is much more similar to that of Ted Williams who is still the last person to accomplish such a feat Votto is a disciple of Teddy ballgame the science of hitting is his Bible just hear for yourself I carried the book with me and I read I've read it several times over and any time I have any doubts when it comes to hitting I go to the book and it's just it served me really well so I by the way here's another clip from that interview his age is 35 to 39 were not too dissimilar from this P kick from his Pico ps+ so or excuse me from his career o PS Plus which is really all you do follow you should pay attention to so for anything so I'll use baseball savants expected numbers and and it says I'm doing well which I really do feel like I'm doing well so I love Joey Votto so much the sky is blue grass is green Joey Votto and Ted Williams walk these are simply facts of our existence Votto elites all active players in walk rate Williams leads all-time bottle leads all active players an on-base percentage williams leads all-time and what walks don't directly impact batting average what they can do is cut down on the sample size of batted balls over the course of a season after all the higher the sample size the lower the chance of getting a lucky batting average on balls in play but here's the catch it takes patience to walk at a high rate and the challenge becomes taking pitches without striking out every 400 hitter walked more than they struck out Ted Williams in 1941 is perhaps the most disturbing of them all generating a hundred and forty seven bases on balls while striking out just 27 times how is that even possible just to qualified hitters avoided striking out more than they walked in 2019 Carlos Santana who shares a name with a famous guitarist and Alex Bregman who's himself a noted percussionist in the second half of his 2016 campaign photo walked 47 times to just 32 strikeouts that's just one piece of the puzzle but it definitely helped him reach the 400 mark that ratio was aided by batos exaggerated choking up on the bat which he has done for most of his career in two strike counts and it gets him out of some tense situations even if he doesn't always come away with a hit to raise his batting average since 2010 he has a 560 on-base percentage and plate appearances that reach full count the best in baseball so photo clearly has some skills what happens when he puts the ball in play you might be surprised [Music] Joey Votto who wasn't an all-star that year started his 2016 second half with a 17 game hit streak eight of which were multi-hit games in that stretch from July 15th to August 3rd he hit 500 he got a hit in 50% of hit bats and reached base safely in over 60% of plate appearances is that good vatos assault on the second half of 2016 was driven by some massive games four for five versus Milwaukee on July 16th four for four versus st. Louis on August 2nd for her 5 vs. Milwaukee on August 13th four for five at Pittsburgh on September 10th and finally four for four versus Pittsburgh on September 18th see a pattern he saved his best for divisional opponents being 419 and racking up 60 7 hits in just 41 second-half games against his rivals photos one of the best hitters of his generation but he doesn't take a home run centric approach still he managed to hit 15 homers in that stretch which certainly aided his average that's 15 hits where he doesn't have to worry about babbit flunk speaking of babbit pluck he had it a 418 babbit for the half how much of an outlier was this if it was over a full season it'd be unheard of but when you lower the possible sample size you'll see that JD Martinez had the exact same batting average on balls in play during 2016 second half one might fear for vatos ability to generate a good Babbitt because he's a left-handed hitter who isn't quick to first base but rest easy that he's not a shift victim fado isn't particularly pull happy he uses all fields another thing that aids this quest for a higher batting average on Boston play line drives from 2015 to 2017 Fattah was 12 out of 232 batters and line drive rate line drives have by far the best chance of becoming hits Votto also managed to solve the fly ball home problem homers are free hits but fly balls have bad batting average the solution hit homers when you hit fly balls and that three-year stretch over 20% of autos fly balls left the yard compared to a league average of just 12.7% the end result makes Votto a surprise Babbitt King rockin the second-highest Babbitt among active players with at least 3000 plate appearances as well as the third highest Babbitt among post integration hitters with at least 5,000 plate appearances all of this is to say that Joey Votto's patience helps in more ways than one when he makes contact good things happen so with the magic numbers of 32 strikeouts on 15 home runs and 262 at-bats as well as a 418 Babbitt he did it those ingredients add up to a 400 batting average but he actually hit 408 with the help of five sec flies that weren't counted as it bats it was only half the season but for a significant stretch of baseball he truly was Ted Williams at the all-star break he was the 30th best hitter in the National League by WRC Plus by the end yet ascended to the number one spot you can probably guess why I chose to do this topic we're staring down the barrel of a previously unheard-of 60 game regular season what can we learn from batos 2016 [Music] did you ever hear the tragedy of Billy grab Barca wits the lucky Billy grab our coats was an oft injured infielder who played for five teams in his seven-year career the only year he was a full-time starter was 1970 and for the first half of that season he was incredible slashing 341 445 498 and 83 games his batting average suddenly placed him in the company of Hall of Famers Tony Perez Berto Clemente to Frank Robinson he even made the National League all-star team for half a season he was a superstar and for the rest of his career not so much what gives it was driven by Babbitt pluck his batting average on balls in play was 470 compared to 276 for the rest of his career if you look at the highest babbit's anyone has managed in half a season since 1947 Prados 2016 second half is high but it's only 29 his second half of 2015 is third Ichiro 2004 finishes runner-up to old Billy Babbitt that was when each row no joke hit 429 in the second half while pursuing George Sisler single-season hit record in fact each row and 1983 Rod Carew are the only hitters in the top ten who managed to hit 400 over their respective halves it just goes to show that Votto skill was more necessary than his luck although both were needed in 2020 players will have to run the gauntlet for just 60 games compared to the usual 162 this gives fans an opportunity to see something that's otherwise impossible given the direction the game has taken a 400 hitter the chances are still remarkably slim but Cody Ballinger is a candidate as he hit 400 through his team's first 49 games last year the last player to carry a 400 average through the first 60 games of a season Chipper Jones in 2008 Mike Trout is also a candidate because he's basically a right-handed Votto with more homers and strikeouts but my actual pick goes to Christian Yelich I can combine Christian Yelich his second half of 2015 and first half of 2019 magic numbers to get him to a 398 batting average that's pretty darn close I also wouldn't forget that Vlad Guerrero jr. hit 402 in 61 games at the double-a level again the chances are still quite slim but we could see someone at least flirt with 400 it would be the first serious chase since Toni Quinn's pursuit of the mark was shut down by the strike in 1994 the game doesn't have any obvious Tony Gwynn or Ichiro types at the moment so it's Ted Williams and by proxy Joey Votto who seemingly provided the blueprint for a modern 400 hitter 2020s batting champion will likely take advantage of the leaked skyrocketing home run rate but the greatest enemy is still strikeouts and if someone pulls off the feat in a shortened 60 game season does count like it would over the full 162 no of course not but it would be fun let's have some perspective here nothing is guaranteed this season if kovat has some bad luck in the second half I can only hope the league will have the wisdom to end it prematurely and even if it is completed the results will be scrutinized but we'll also get to see numbers we otherwise wouldn't see it might not even be a chase for 400 it could be a starting pitcher finishing with an e ra under 1 like Jack Flaherty did in the second half of 2019 or it could be a team pursuing the all-time best winning percentage I think that's a good thing it'll give us something memorable these are not normal times if we're going to against all logic play baseball in this country let's get weird [Music] this episode of Baseball bits was brought to you by tops MLB bunt tops MLB bunt is a baseball card app that allows you to rip open packs featuring your favorite players as well as trade with baseball fans around the world the app gives out constant freebies you can spin the wheel multiple times a day to win guaranteed prizes finish a collection and you'll also unlock a special reward card Tops is currently running a limited time red white and blue card set to commemorate in a pendens day so definitely don't miss out on these special cards you can install tops and lb bunt using my link in the description take care [Music]

Channel: Foolish Baseball

Views: 549,901

Rating: 4.9421892 out of 5

Keywords: joey votto, .400, .400 baseball, .400 batting average, .400 batting average seasons, joey votto 2016, joey votto 2016 highlights, BABIP, ted williams, ted williams joey votto, hanser alberto, nelson cruz, yoan moncada, ted williams 1941, tony gwynn 1994, mlb 2020 season, mlb 60 game schedule, cody bellinger, cody bellinger .400, christian yelich, mike trout, Billy Grabarkewitz, .400 average, hitting .400 baseball

Id: hQT6z7gMiFc

Length: 14min 30sec (870 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 11 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/MC620]

he also walked on three balls once and no one noticed til afterwards.

i wonder if there are any other batters with a 1 in the BB column on the 2-2 row of the “count balls-strikes” batting splits on bbref.

[u/stupidnatsfan]

I love his conclusion about a potential .400 hitter or any other historic stat that could happen this season — obviously it won’t be the same, but let’s embrace it and welcome the weird shit baseball is gonna be full of this season

[u/ohfrost]

/r/JoeyVottoEnthusiasts

[u/Serah_Null]

My favourite part was the 3 minutes of Votto walk highlights

[u/hrabal41]

The foolish baseball catalog is amazing

[u/TrophyGoat]

This is probably his best video in a while and one of his best period. It is the right mixture of hopeful and cautious. It also highlights one of my favorite things about baseball: trade offs. You can't be everything at once, at least not for a very long stretch. You have to make some decisions. What kind of player are you? And what areas are you willing to sacrifice for the areas you want to improve?

[u/brobafett1980]

Just isn't Saturday morning without some Foolish Baseball.

[u/bwells626]

"the solution is to hit homers when you hit fly balls"

ahh, just do that, no problemo

[u/dgn55]

I am here for all the Joey Votto content. All of it. Love when he gets the attention he deserves