28-year old lefty swinging 1B Joey Votto finished 6th in the voting for the N.L. MVP Award. Votto played in 161 games for the Reds last year and he was 185 of 599 (.309 avg, .947 OPS) with 101 runs scored, 29 homers, 103 RBIs and 8 stolen bases. He has now played in 617 games in his first five years in the majors and he is 696 for 2,225 (.309 avg, .947 OPS) with 369 runs scored, 119 homers, 401 RBIs and 36 stolen bases. Votto was the MVP of the N.L. in 2010 and he will be a threat to win another one for the foreseeable future.

35-year old righty swinging 3B Scott Rolen finished 14th in the voting for the N.L. MVP Award. Rolen played in 133 games for the Reds last season and he was 134 of 471 (.285 avg, .854 OPS) with 66 runs scored, 20 homers and 83 RBIs. Rolen has now played in 1,881 games in his 15 years in the majors and he is 1,944 of 6,852 (.284 avg, .867 OPS) with 1,154 runs scored, 303 homers, 1,212 RBIs and 115 stolen bases. Rolen proved that he still has something left in the gas tank last season and the Reds hope he has a couple of more years like that in him.

27-year old lefty swinging 1B Joey Votto has won the N.L. MVP Award. Votto earned the award by playing in 150 games in which he was 177 of 547 (.324 avg, 1.024 OPS) with 106 runs scored, 37 homers, 113 RBIs and 16 stolen bases. He has now played in 456 games in his first four years with the Reds and he is 511 of 1,626 (.314 avg, .958 OPS) with 268 runs scored, 90 homers, 298 RBIs and 28 stolen bases. As long as Votto can stay healthy and focused their is no reason to think he can’t win more MVP Awards because he’s that talented.

33-year old righty starting pitcher Bronson Arroyo finished in a tie for 12th in the voting for the N.L. Cy Young Award voting with Matt Cain of the Giants. Arroyo started 33 games for the Reds last season and he was 17-10 with a 3.88 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP. He has now pitched in 295 games (259 starts) in his 11 years in the majors and he is 103-93 with 1 save, a 4.19 ERA and a 1.31 WHIP. Arroyo is a workhorse pitcher at the top of the Reds’ rotation and as the team continues to get better so will his record because he pitches deep into games.

Dusty Baker finished 2nd to Bud Black of the Padres in the voting for the N.L. Manager of the Year Award, losing by only 1 point. Baker led the Reds to a 91-71 (56.2%) record during the regular season but they got swept by the Phillies in the first round of the playoffs. For some reason the Reds looked like the bad version of the Bad News Bears against the Phillies. Baker has now been a manager in the majors for 17 seasons and he has compiled a 1,405-1,284 (52.2%) record during the regular season and he is 17-22 (43.6%) in the post season. Baker did a great job of leading the Reds to a N.L. Central Championship last season but his work will be cut out for him to repeat that feat.