Joseph Votto

Joseph Daniel Votto, also known as Joey, is a professional baseball player from the USA who plays as a first baseman. Joey was a student at the Richview Collegiate Institute, and played in the high school games before being drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in the 2002 MLB Amateur Draft as 44th overall. He had a sedate start at the rookie level affiliates of the Reds for the first couple of seasons and then, in 2004, was suddenly a top prospect.

Joey had 26 doubles and 14 homers with a .302 batting average with the A-league's Dayton Dragons. He was promoted to the Advanced A-League with the Potomac Nationals and had 5 more homers for a season tally of 19. In 2005, he played for the Sarasota Reds and saw a sharp dip in form. Although he had 19 homers to his name, he also had 122 strikeouts and his average was .256. However, he came back with a bang in 2006 and hit 22 home runs with the Chattanooga Lookouts at an average of .319, with 24 steals. He also had 46 doubles and led the Southern League with his batting average as well as total bases and was third in terms of homers and RBIs. He was part of the All-Stars Futures game on the World Team and was also named to the Mid-Season and Post-Season Southern League All-Star teams. He was voted as a minor league All-Star by Baseball America and the icing on the cake was the Southern League's MVP award.

He was called up to the Cincinnati Reds for the 2007 spring training session and although he made the 40-man roster, he was sent to play with the Louisville Bats. In September, the Cincinnati Reds gave him his MLB debut against the New York Mets. At just his second at-bat, he hit his first homer in the major league. He went 2 for 4 with a home run and 5 RBI in that, the final game of the season.

2008 began with Joey sharing time on the First Base with Scott Hatteberg but soon, by April, Joey was the undisputed starter. His high point of the season came when he hit 3 home runs in a single game against the Chicago Cubs and broke the Cincinnati Reds' record for most RBIs in a rookie season with 84.