Cubs go to extreme lengths to stop Joey Votto, but he comes out on top
Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto is so good he can’t be stopped by conventional defensive alignments. After Monday’s game against the Chicago Cubs, even unconventional methods to neutralize the All-Star proved futile.
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Votto is in the midst of quite the season. Over 519 plate appearances, the 33-year-old is hitting .317/.447/.603, with 31 home runs. The Cubs are no stranger to Votto’s excellence. Over his career, Votto has hit .307/.419/.558 against them.
Cubs manager Joe Maddon is well aware of that, and is sick of Votto constantly beating his team. So, when Votto stepped to the plate with the bases empty in the fifth inning of Monday night’s game, Maddon decided to drastically shake things up to stop the first baseman.
Maddon shifted his defense … only not in the way we’ve come to expect in recent years. Maddon shifted his defense so dramatically that the Cubs used four outfielders to try and stop Votto.
You can clearly see four players standing in the outfield there. The three normal outfielders: Kyle Schwarber, Jon Jay and Jason Heyward, were joined by Kris Bryant to complete the quartet.
It was an odd strategy, though it carried some merit. Votto’s fly ball percentage is up over 10 percent from last year. At 39.8 percent, it’s the highest fly ball rate of Votto’s career.
Compared to every other major leaguer, though, it’s not all that extreme. Votto rates 54th in the majors in fly ball rate. He’s far off the lead, where Joey Gallo dominates with a 57.8 percent fly ball rate.
It may not have been perfect reasoning, but there was logic in Maddon’s decision.
As usual, logic rarely matters in baseball. On the fifth pitch of the at-bat, Votto slapped a hard ground ball past first base and into the outfield. Of course Votto hit a ground ball, and of course he managed to pick up an extra-base hit despite the shift.
The Cubs did wind up getting the last laugh, winning the contest 15-5. But they still couldn’t figure out a way to stop Votto. He went 3-for-5 in the loss.
After this didn’t work, we’re curious to see what Maddon will come up with next. Will everyone but the catcher play on the first base side of the infield? Will Jay sit on Heyward’s shoulders to create a super tall right fielder? Will the Cubs use a defensive alignment that somehow involves no catcher?
It all sounds crazy, we know. But nothing is too drastic when it comes to stopping Joey Votto.
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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
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