I am going counter to this Votto is a great player he deserves the $20+ mill. Nah. Votto had a couple of very good seasons. That doesn't necessarily translate into a Pujols type 10 year run. Votto was out a couple of months last season and when he came back he showed no ability to drive the ball hard. Ownership/WJ assumed he would come back from the injury and be the same as he was before. Dude's a head case at times. And when it starts happening he loses his focus on D. 10 errors at the halfway point. Almost as much as he had the previous two years combined. Hope he gets it back, but not counting on it.
The facts are he should be hitting second in the order. He is all about getting on base. He and Choo are within a half dozen of each other in combined hits, walks and HBP's. Votto is 4th in RBI's behind BP, JB and TF. TF has even had 40+ less AB's. We are past the half way point and he will have to turn 180 degrees to get anywhere near 100 RBI's. He has been hitting this way for nearly a full season worth of games over the last 2 seasons now. If he is going to be a contact, get on base type hitter at least let him move Choo into scoring position more for BP, JB and CH to knock in.
Now that Heisey is back and healthy he should be hitting 5th and Frazier 6th. Heisey is turning on the ball now - looks good. Frazier acts very confused. Fortunately he has been very good on D. The catcher is next and Cozart needs to be at the back of the order. He lunges at the ball and opens his shoulder which causes him to pull everything - even the outside junk. As a result he hits a lot of weak stuff to the left side and leads the team in DP's.
I'm OK with pitching except Broxton. If they get their heads out of their tails and start getting the job done as a unit that is.