Baseball fans fascinated by Zack Greinke and Joey Votto’s mind games during at-bats: "Two of the most fascinating players in the sport"
Baseball fans are fascinated by a story from Rustin Dodd of The Athletic that delved into the head games played by pitcher Zack Greinke and slugger Joey Votto whenever the two faced one another.
Zack Greinke and Joey Votto are known as two great characters of the game, but they are also two more the more technically talented players of the recent MLB era.
The careers of both players are winding down, but there were some great matchups between the two back in the day.
Zack Greinke once threw Joey Votto nothing but hanging sliders because he believed Votto recognized spin better than anyone in baseball—and he knew Votto would expect the pitch to break out of the zone.
Votto on Greinke: "I f— with this guy.”
Ten stories that explain why… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… https://t.co/cgDEc4ZvLb
One story about the duo involved a game in which Zack Greinke was pitching for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Joey Votto was with his life-long club, the Cincinnati Reds.
Greinke and his catcher at the time, Jeff Mathis, recognized that Votto had one of the best eyes in the game and always managed to hit Greinke well.
So, rather than pitch his usual repertoire to Votto, he began to throw hanging sliders. Greinke's reasoning was that Votto would be waiting for the pitch to break rather than swinging away at a meatball.
The strategy worked. Geinke threw three hanging sliders in the strike zone, and Votto watched them all – striking out with the bat on his shoulder.
@rustindodd @jayhaykid This is the art of baseball.
@rustindodd Two of the most fascinating players in the sport. Love this.
@rustindodd This is such a good story.
Zack Greinke is currently in his 20th MLB season and ranks as one of the game's most interesting personalities. He has won one Cy Young Award, six Gold Gloves and two Silver Sluggers and has been named to six All-Star Games.
He is pitching back with the Kansas City Royals, where his big league career began in 2004. He has 224 wins, and is the current active MLB leader with 147 losses.
This season, he is 1-6 with a 4.59 ERA for the Royals. Kansas City sports the second-worst record in the majors this season at 18-44.
@rustindodd @DJE1979 I’m trying to imagine Zack’s HOF induction speech.
@rustindodd Greinke could have a career 16 ERA and I would still vote him into the HoF just for shit like this lol
@rustindodd @AndyWilhoit2 Greinke needs a book and a 8 episode film series
Of course, for every good story, there have to the those that will try to buzzkill it. Whether its that Greinke didn't throw that many sliders, or that Joey Votto couldn't recognize spin rates.
@rustindodd Great story. Too bad it's not true. Here's every slider that Grienke threw to Votto. Only two sliders and both put into play. baseballsavant.mlb.com/statcast_searc…
@rustindodd If Votto was the best at recognizing spin you think he’d know the slider was going to be hanging. I don’t understand the story unless Votto was only going to swing at a fastball.
One thing is for certain: People love Greinke.
@rustindodd https://t.co/hXHXRYrO3u
@rustindodd Greinke is a national treasure
Zack Greinke and Joey Votto came into the league within three seasons of one another
Votto has yet to play this season due to injury. If/when Votto takes the field, he will be in his 17th season, all with the Reds, after beginning his MLB career in 2007.