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Joey Votto has announced via his social media accounts that he will officially retire from the game of baseball, ending an outstanding 17-year career that gave the Cincinnati Reds one of their all-time great players. Which says a lot since the franchise is historic with tons of Hall of Fame players, which does beg the one question people ask about the now former first baseman.
Will Joey Votto be in the baseball Hall of Fame?
This has been debated about much on the internet and within the baseball community, but there is no doubt that Votto should be in the Hall of Fame with what he has done in his career. He would say on his Instagram page in a short video that “that's it, I'm done, I am officially retired from baseball.”
“Cincinnati, I’ve only played for you. I love you. Finally, to the MLB fans,” Votto said on social media about his retirement. “You energized me with your cheers, I loved the boos, the trash talk, the moments where I broke a road cities moment, or was humbled on stage. I’ll never forget, early in my career, my first time at Wrigley Field and the crowd standing and cheering toward my failure. I remember standing at the plate, smiling and thinking, this is my home, I belong here, I was myself in this sport. I was able to be my best self, I played this sport with every last ounce of my body, heart, and mind. Thank you for everything.”
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Joey Votto was elite in the statistics that aren't considered attractive
The biggest argument against Votto is that he doesn't have a huge amount of the attractive statistics which is home runs, RBIs, hits, and runs where he finished with 2,135 hits, 459 doubles, 356 home runs, 1,144 RBI, 1,171 runs and 64.5 WAR. Still great numbers, but for some people, they use this against the former Reds star.
However, it was the advanced analytics and the other crucial significant statistics that he excelled and could make the case that he is one of the best ever at these categories. Two of them was on-base percentage (OBP) where he has an all-time .409 and OBP which is OBS plus slugging percentage which he's at a .920, which is 53rd all time.
The former Reds star Joey Votto is arguably one of the best to get on base
Going back to OBS, he led the league in it seven times with only four players that have done it more which consist of the game's best players ever in Ted Williams (12), Barry Bonds (10), Babe Ruth (10) and Rogers Hornsby (9). This would basically say that Votto is one of the best ever to get on base.
Add an MVP award in 2010 and the fact that his basic hitting statistics compare to a bevy of other well-known players that are currently in the Hall of Fame with the one example being Kirby Puckett who had 2,304 hits, 414 doubles, 207 homers, 1,085 RBI and 1,071 runs.
There is also another statistic in JAWS which is according to Baseball Reference “a means to measure a player's Hall of Fame worthiness by comparing him to the players at his position who are already enshrined, using advanced metrics to account for the wide variations in offensive levels that have occurred throughout the game's history.”
For Votto, he ranks 12th in first baseman in the statistic where at No. 11 is Miguel Cabrera who is likely to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer. It remains to be seen if Votto will make it to the Hall of Fame, but whether it be first-ballot or not, he deserves to get in.
