Joey Votto

Spring training is almost here and as we get closer to the 2011 baseball season kicking off, let's take a look at who the best hitters are.

For the last decade, Albert Pujols has arguably been the league's best and most complete hitter. Although not old by any means and coming off a terrific 2010 season, he is now 31 years old and perhaps he might not be the absolute best anymore.

Is that even possible? Who else would even match up to him? You'd have to take into account producing in all three major categories, such as batting average, home runs, and runs batted in.

When the Reds reached the postseason in 2010, it was as if a 15-year siege had come to an end in Cincinnati. At long last, an organization stuck in the trenches of the National League had crossed over the breach.   

 Joey Votto’s 2010 season will resonate in Reds lore as the end of an era of losing in Cincinnati, and potentially a signal of things to come for a young and talented core.

 However, it also begs the question: in a Cincinnati Reds organization with such a storied history, where does Votto’s impressive third season rank?

The Cincinnati Reds are going to have to trade Joey Votto in the next six months to two-and-a-half years.

People may think I'm crazy or that what I just said is blasphemous. I think it is reality.

Votto just won the NL MVP award. He just led the Reds to the playoffs for the first time since 1995. He has put up good numbers ever since he broke into the league.

Our 2011 fantasy baseball projections will be released one by one until the top 100 players have been revealed. These rankings consider past achievements, current performance and expected future results based on standard 5×5 H2H settings.

Joey Votto did work on NL pitching in 2010, setting career highs across the board with 106 runs, 37 HRs, 113 RBI, 16 steals and a whopping .324 batting average.

For 10 consecutive seasons, fantasy baseball has had Albert Pujols dominate the first base position like no one else. However over the last couple of years, 27-year-old Miguel Cabrera has earned himself "Pujols-lite" status as he has gained the reputation of a high-average hitter with 35-home run power.

Who was last season's surprise team? Some may say the Giants for winning the World Series, and some may say the Rangers for making it to the World Series.

But in my opinion, without question...the Cincinnati Reds were THE biggest surprise in baseball last season.

I have semi-randomly chosen to start with the Reds, and will write a piece about each of the thirty teams, talking about what they’ve done in the offseason up to this point and how that projects for the upcoming season. I know there are moves yet to be made, but with most of the impact moves in the books, I think enough has happened to be able to gauge expectations for the upcoming season. If they make any major moves in the coming days, I'll amend this article.

As we near Spring Training, it's about time to start making predictions and forming projections for each team. While there are still many free agents on the market, a sufficient amount have been signed in order to rank each team's offense. 

In ranking the league's best offenses, there are many aspects being taken into consideration.

The ability to get on base is essential. You can only have so many Mark Reynolds or Adam Dunn's on your team before you start to lose efficiency.

The Cincinnati Reds were able to sign the 2010 N.L. MVP Joey Votto to a three year $38M extension.

It allows both sides a chance to avoid the arbitration process and it gives fans peace of mind that Votto will be a Cincinnati Red for the near future.

Ok that's great, but what's going to happen in 2013?

That's the question that Reds nation is wondering about in wake of the new deal. We'll get to that in a bit, first let's try and figure out who got the better end of the deal.

In a year in which nine-figure deals became unsurprising to hear in breaking news columns and contract extensions were given out like they were samples of cheese at a grocery store, you would think the reigning National League Most Valuable Player award winner would receive more than $38 million over three years, wouldn't you?