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While most Cincinnati Reds fans realize just how lucky they are to have first baseman Joey Votto on their side, there's one insane statistic which proves just how effective Votto has been since beginning his MLB career in the Queen City back in 2007.
Per CheapSeatAnalytics.com, "according to Fangraphs.com, Joey Votto has popped out to an infielder twelve times in his career."
Twelve times...
in 3,308 career at-bats.
Even stranger is that five of Votto's twelve career pop-ups happened in his first full season of play back in 2008 -- meaning that he has popped up in the infield just seven times since.
Frankbrank12 of Cheap Seat Analytics provides this list of rare baseball events which have occurred more often than a Votto pop-out since the conclusion of his first full season of play over a half-decade ago:
"– Triple Plays (17)
– No hitters (23)
– Hitting for the Cycle (26)
– The “Immaculate Inning” (11) – - Striking out the side on nine consecutive pitches."
So, while Joey Votto has come under recent fire for a drop in his power and production numbers -- it would serve us all a great deal to step back and marvel at one of the true "WTF" baseball players of the modern-era.