BAR: Joey Votto's outstanding season

The Blog Above Replacement is Reds beat writer C. Trent Rosecrans' daily look at the Reds, their minor leagues and whatever else is on his mind.

Joey Votto could be having his best season ever.

That may be hard for some to believe, because the Reds are having a terrible season. But Votto is having an incredible season. Last night he hit his 24th home run of the season — and with 39 games to go, roughly a quarter of the season, he's on track to hit more than 30 home runs for the second time in his career.

And it's not just the power numbers, it's his all-around numbers. He's hitting .309/.446/.553, good for an OPS+ (on-base plus slugging, normalized for park and league factors) of 172, actually better than his MVP year of 2010 when he had an OPS+ of 171. It's better than any other of his seasons except 2012, when he was limited to 111 games.

In Votto's five years from 2009-2013 - his age 25-29 seasons - Votto averaged .318/.431/.548 with a 162 OPS+, and he's even better this year at 31.

With roughly a quarter of the season remaining, Votto has a bWAR of 5.7 (seventh in the National League) and an oWAR (offense only) of 5.3, the third-best mark in the National League.

At this point, he has a chance to top his bWAR of 6.9 in his MVP season of 2010.

Votto will finish in the top 10 in MVP balloting (full disclosure, I am not voting for MVP this year), and I think many around here will be surprised. What we're seeing is one of the best players in baseball having a great season for a bad team.

• Just looking around at some numbers, one thing I found interesting was that Votto continues to lay off pitches outside the zone, swinging at just 19.5 percent of pitches outside of the strike zone, his lowest percentage of his career. He's also swinging at 63.5 percent of pitches inside the zone, the second-lowest mark of his career.

MINOR-LEAGUE ROUNDUP

• Triple-A: Indianapolis 3, Louisville 2, 13 innings: Josh Smith threw eight innings, allowing two runs on three hits with nine strikeouts and three walks. Catcher Ramon Cabrera was 3-for-6 with two doubles. [Box]

• Double-A: Mississippi 9, Pensacola 4: Sal Romano's struggles in Double-A continued, as the right-hander allowed seven earned runs in just 2.1 innings. He's 0-3 with a 16.50 ERA in five starts for the Blue Wahoos. On the other hand, Phillip Ervin continues to hit in his call-up, going 2-for-3 with a double, two walks and an RBI. He's hitting .400/.526/.933 in his five games at Double-A. [Box]

• High-A: Clearwater 2, Daytona 0: Amir Garrett allowed two runs on five hits over six innings with six strikeouts and three walks. [Box]

• Low-A: Dayton 9, Great Lakes 6, 15 innings: After scoring just three runs each in the first 13 innings, both teams scored three in the 14th — and then the Dragons scored three more in the 15th. 3B Gavin LaValley was 3-for-8 with a home run and 3 RBI. RF Aristides Aquino was also 3-for-8 with 3 RBI. [Box]

• Rookie: Billings 6, Missoula 4: 1B Kevin Franklin was 2-for-3 with two doubles and three RBI. [Box]

THE ROTATION

1. Add ESPN.com's Christina Kahrl to the list of those demanding something be done to protect baseball fans at the park. I've written about this as well.

2. The Nationals were supposed to cruise to 100 wins this season. They haven't. Danny Knobler looks back at the last "super team" to actually follow through and win a World Series, the 2009 Yankees. [Bleacher Report]

3. Gregg Doyel at the Indianapolis Star with one of those stories that makes you want to try harder — the story of a sign guy who loves his job. Yet another fantastic piece by Doyel.

4. The New Yorker talks to Craig Finn at a Mets game.

5. Sadly, I didn't celebrate on Sunday like I should have for the 30th anniversary of the release of the modern-day (actually, I guess it's been 30 years, so it's not exactly "modern-day") classic, "Better Off Dead." [TampaBay.com]