The Reds are in town for three games with the Phillies this week and in the middle of both lineups, you'll find a hitter with a whole lot of power and an even better ability to control at-bats.

Joey Votto is your favorite hitter's favorite hitter. Since 2009, he's hit .315 with a .435 on-base percentage and 30 homers per 162 games. To put that in perspective, nobody who's been in the majors that long is within even 30 points of his OBP.

Which brings us to Rhys Hoskins, the current MLB leader in batting average (.440) and on-base percentage (.559). Hoskins, like Votto, has had tremendous success from his very first month in the majors.

And like Votto, he's showing in Year 2 that it was no fluke.

Votto, admittedly, hasn't seen a ton of Hoskins, but there are few players better prepared to give the Phillies' best hitter some advice.

"The season's longer and there's more stress in Year 2," Votto said prior to Monday's series opener. "Travel, the media obligations, the attention in general, it's just different in that respect.

"Pitchers are better, scouting reports are better, adjustments are made quicker, and that was however long ago I started — 10, 11, 12 years ago. Now it's much quicker because of all the data that's available.

"I think command was probably a bit better then so scouting reports were more easily executed. Today, it's probably more of an athletic game, more physically skilled, more power with hitting and pitching. I could be wrong, I'm probably wrong, whatever."

Hoskins, like Votto, isn't seeing a ton of pitches to hit. Hoskins is a known threat at this point, so opposing pitchers are more prone to attempting to make him chase. If Hoskins walks, well then his opponent lives to fight another day against a lesser hitter behind him.

That's where Hoskins' plate selection comes into play. It's not common for a power hitter to have an equal walk-to-strikeout ratio, but right now Hoskins does (7-7).

"I see a lot of the same characteristics (between Votto and Hoskins)," Phillies manager Gabe Kapler said. "The ability to make a decision early about whether a pitch is a ball or a strike, the ability to drive the ball the other way.

"Joey Votto is one of the most dominant hitters and as good an at-bat as anybody in the last 10 years. I'm sure that if you ask Rhys, that would be something that he'd say he aspires to be."

Hoskins, as hot a start as he's off to, is a long way from that. Votto does this every year no matter how uncompetitive the Reds are. He's finished in the top-7 in MVP voting in six of the last eight years.

He got to this point by constantly honing his craft and finding new areas to improve. Kind of like how Hoskins has focused on becoming a better defensive leftfielder and an even smarter, instinctive baserunner.

"To be successful in this game you have to be an incredibly well-rounded player in every aspect of the game. That was probably the biggest thing that I had to change, that I had to improve on," Votto said.

"Any sort of weakness you have becomes exposed and repeatedly becomes exposed. If you can't shore that up, then it'll never stop."