Joey Votto is a 5 time All Star. He has won a gold glove award and an MVP award. His 162 game average statline looks like this: BA: .312, HR: 29, RBI: 95. He may be one of the most underrated players in baseball. He is also one of the most unique players in baseball. If you’ve never seen him deal with a heckler, you’re missing out:
Anyway, now that we know Joey Votto knows he’s probably better than you, let’s get into his swing and approach. First, a couple swing clips.
Front:
Side:
Votto goes with a leg kick, but it’s pretty much up and down. He doesn’t get much movement forward. His whole swing is pretty simple and very effective. He gets his barrel working behind the baseball, holds weight well in his back hip, nothing really too mind breaking. It’s just effective. We also know that Votto likes to choke up. He’ll do different amounts at different times, depending on the situation:
Please ignore everything the people in this video have to say that aren’t Joey Votto. Obviously, he may be exaggerating a bit here, but the general principle stands. The amount Votto chokes up is based upon how he’s feeling that day against the pitcher he is facing. So, he’s actively making adjustments. As hitters, we may not want to choke up. However, it’s important to find different ways to adjust based upon how you feel that day. For Votto, that means choking up. For you it might be something completely different, but it is up to you to figure out what that is.
Finally, I want to finish with this clip from Votto talking about his overall approach to hitting.
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard Votto talk about preparation. He takes it very seriously. He knows that if he’s prepared his body and swing for that day, he pretty much knows what he is going to get. The second part to that was when he was talking about how he breaks down his at bats. At the beginning of the at bat he is going to be looking for something he can drive. He has likely picked out a pitch or location for that days pitcher, based on the video he has watched, that he is trying to do damage on. If he doesn’t get that pitch and he gets deeper into the at bat, he will begin opening up his approach to allow more pitches to be hit. Eventually, if he gets to two strikes, he is going to put the ball in play HARD at all costs. I emphasize hard to make sure we are making a distinction. Hitting a dribbler to the pitcher isn’t satisfying. You still want to hit the ball with authority with two strikes, but there might be a little less on it because you have changed your approach to allow you to hit a wider variety of pitches.
This works for Votto because he has access to video and really any piece of equipment or technology he’d want. You may not be that blessed (if you’re reading this you probably aren’t) so you need to find different ways to prepare yourself for that day. Maybe it means being aware of the pitches you are hitting best during BP that day so you only look for those in games. Maybe you have a view different variations of your swing and you work through those each day to find what is working best. Whatever it is, I encourage you to experiment with different things until you find something that works for you.
That’s all for today. Today was the last installment of the daily hitter. I hope it was useful for you! If you happened to miss any of the daily hitters they can be found here.
Questions or comments? Leave them below or shoot me an email at brady@dacbaseball.com.