Daily, heck even hourly, people can be heard saying that Joey Votto is "not playing like a guy making 20 million a year". Well, first off that statement makes zero sense because Votto is not getting paid 20 million a year, in fact he's not even close. This may be why this senseless argument is so annoying, quite often people debate Votto with misled facts and outrageous standards.
Typically, when asked what fans think Votto's stat line should be to back up his contract, fans will respond with something along the lines of, "I want the guy that earned the big money. He should be hitting 30 homers, driving in 100 runs and batting .300 for that kind of money."
The total number of times since 2010 in which a National League player has hit 30 homers, drove in 100 runs and batted .300?
7. The answer is 7, and one of those guys is Joey Votto. Let's put that in perspective and assume that each team has on average, completely a guess on this number but seems logical, 17 position players play per year throughout the season. There are 15 National League baseball teams. So, if we do some quick math that is 255 position players each season and since we looked back since 2010 that means that we looked at 4 seasons which would give us a grand total of 1,020 position players who have played in the NL since 2010. This 1,020 position players are not all unique but each season the same player is counted as 1 per season. This tells us that out of the 1,020 opportunities to hit .300 with 30 HR and 100 RBI it has been accomplished .007 percent of the time.
For those of us that are not good at math or understanding what this means, it means that to expect that stat line is not only expecting a lot from a player, it's expecting something that nearly never happens.
The next argument is that guys making money similar to Joey Votto produce at a higher level. This again is untrue. Let's take a look at the stat lines of guys that Joey Votto should be compared to considering his quality of play.
Joey Votto: .280 Batting Average .438 OBP 4 Home Runs 10 Runs Batted In 12 Million Salary
Andrew McCutchen: .286 BA .408 OBP 4 HR 14 RBI 7.25 Million Salary
Robinson Cano: .296 BA .346 OBP 1 HR 12 RBI 24 Million Salary
Miguel Cabrera: .277 BA .320 OBP 2 HR 15 RBI 22 Million Salary
Joe Mauer: .276 BA .388 OBP 1 HR 6 RBI 23 Million Salary
Prince Fielder: .206 BA .331 OBP 2 HR 9 RBI 24 Million Salary
Buster Posey: .264 BA .350 OBP 6 HR 13 RBI 12.5 Million Salary
Albert Pujols: .279 BA .341OBP 9 HR 23 RBI 23 Million Salary
Where does Votto rank amongst these 8 players?
Salary: 7th
Batting Average: 3rd
On Base Percentage: 1st
Home Runs: 3rd
Runs Batted In: 6th
Your move Mr. Votto is a terrible player guy.
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