26-year old lefty swinging 1B Joey Votto finished 22nd in the voting for the N.L. MVP Award. He played in 131 games for the Reds last season and he was 151 for 469 (.322 avg, .981 OPS) with 82 runs scored, 25 homers, 84 RBIs and 4 stolen bases. Votto has now played in 306 games in his three years with the Reds and he is 334 for 1,079 (.310 avg, .924 OPS) with 162 runs scored, 53 homers, 185 RBIs and 12 stolen bases. The Reds need to find out if they can depend on Votto who missed a few games due to depression last season. Votto has the talent to be the type of player the Reds can build the team around if they can trust him.

26-year old lefty swinging 1B Joey Votto has been outstanding this season for the Reds. He has played in 126 games for the Reds this season and he is 144 for 452 (.319 avg, .972 OPS) with 80 runs scored, 24 homers and 81 RBIs. The Reds do need Votto to stay focused next season as he missed a lot of games due to depression. The Reds want to build the team around Brandon Phillips and Joey Votto so they need him to play all year long in 2010.

The Reds are giving 24-year old righty swinging outfielder Drew Stubbs a long look and he’s making a good first impression for the team. Stubbs was the Reds’ #3 rated prospect coming into this season according to Baseball America. Stubbs has played in 32 games for the Reds this season and he is 36 for 136 (.265 avg, .793 OPS) with 20 runs scored, 8 homers, 15 RBIs and 7 stolen bases. He could easily win a job in the Reds’ outfield next season if he finishes the year strong.

28-year old righty swinging 2B Brandon Phillips was the best player again on the Reds this season. He has played in 136 games for the Reds this season and he is 142 for 515 (.276 avg, .784 OPS) with 69 runs scored, 20 homers, 89 RBIs and 24 stolen bases. This now makes three straight seasons that Phillips has been a 20/20 man (homers, steals) for the Reds and there’s no sign that he will be slowing down any time soon.

28-year old righty swinging outfielder Jonny Gomes had a good spring but the Reds still sent him to the minors to start the year. Instead of feeling bad for himself Gomes was focused to get back to the big leagues and that earned him a promotion. He’s never looked back taking advantage of his opportunity in Cincy. Gomes has played in 75 games for the Reds this season and he is 57 for 203 (.281 avg, .919 OPS) with 28 runs scored, 16 homers and 40 RBIs despite whiffing 69 times. Coming into this season Gomes had played in 415 games in his major league career going 297 for 1,264 (.235 avg, .784 OPS) with 186 runs scored, 66 homers, 184 RBIs and 30 stolen bases. It will be interesting to see if the Reds start giving Gomes more playing time as he has been one of the best hitters on the team this season.