Azubuike24
Entering tonight's win over the Mets, Joey Votto has played in 385 career major league games. He has had 1370 at-bats. Taking his career numbers starting in his rookie season of 2008 (and including a September call-up in 2007), Votto has posted career stat lines of the following:
.311 AVG
.395 OBP
SLG .548
.943 OPS
If these numbers qualified (it takes 3000 official plate appearances, Votto has 1568 as of right now), he would rank in the following place for the 4 categories:
AVG (12th) - Ahead of Robinson Cano, David Wright, Chipper Jones, Alex Rodriguez, Carl Crawford, Lance Berkman, Chase Utley and more
OBP (11th) - Ahead of Kevin Youkalis, David Wright, Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Matt Holliday, Hanley Ramirez, Miguel Cabrera, Vladimir Guerrero, Prince Fielder, Mark Teixeira, Chase Utley, David Ortiz, Ryan Howard and more
SLG (9th) - Ahead of Matt Holliday, Prince Fielder, Chipper Jones, Mark Teixeira, Hanley Ramirez, Chase Utley, David Wright, Justin Morneau, Adrian Gonzalez and more
OPS (8th) - Ahead of Chipper Jones, Miguel Cabrera, Matt Holliday, Prince Fielder, Hanley Ramirez, David Wright, Chase Utley, Joe Mauer, Adrian Gonzalez, Justin Morneau and more
The only 2 players consistently ahead of Votto in every category are Manny Ramirez and Albert Pujols. That's why it's such a travesty. Votto has been this good since the day he came up. He isn't just having a great first half. He's not emerging in his 3rd season. He's always been this good, and that's something that most people don't realize and that hardly anyone has matched to start their career.