The first week of the 2017 season, Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto was doing something weird.
Famous for his exceptional strike zone discipline and pickiness at the plate, the 33-year-old Votto was swinging at almost everything. His swing rate inside the strike zone was up nearly 30 points. His contact rate had skyrocketed as well. He offered at almost everything, and rarely missed.
He wasn’t trying to turn himself into the world’s least likely contact hitter. He was trying to tell opposing pitchers to stop testing him.
“I got a lot of pitches out over the plate,” Votto said.