With the departures of Griffey Jr. and Adam Dunn, Jay Bruce and Joey Votto have been thrown to the dogs to produce and produce big time. They'll probably bat somewhere between 2 and 5 in the order which means they'll be depended on to drive in runs in a big way for this team to succeed. Votto was runner up to Geovanny Soto in ROY voting in 2008. He finished the season at .297/24/84. Votto is a .300 hitter and he should break the 30 homer plateau this season. After the All Star break, Votto broke out in a big way hitting .321 over the 2nd half slugging almost .600 and nearly a .400 OBP.
Bruce also finished high in the voting. He finished 08 at .254/21/52. Bruce needs to work on making better contact as he struck out 110 times in 413 at bats. Also, his expected speed didn't pan out as he recorded only 4 steals and got caught 6 times. Bruce struggled away from Great American only .221 on the road as compared to .287 at home. He'll also have to improve against hte lefties as he hit only .190. I've got a feeling, he'll break out big time in 09.
No comments:
Post a Comment