From Under The Wings Of Votto Comes A Jay Bird

This video says all that needs to be said on how Cincinnati feels about Jay Bruce.

For Cincinnati Reds RF Jay Bruce, it must be tough having to follow 1B Joey Votto in the lineup night in and night out. Votto is a stud, and the reigning NL MVP.

Actually, it's probably really easy. With Votto on base nearly half the time Jay comes up to bat --Votto's OBP is .444-- there has been many opportunities to drive in runs. And the Reds cleanup hitter has cashed in that lottery ticket many a time this season. He is 3rd in the NL with 17 homers, and 9th with 48 RBI --both stats lead the team--, and he's been a major reason Votto has scored 50 runs already, which places him sixth in the NL.

CF Drew Stubbs is just ahead of him with 52, good enough for fourth in the league. Bruce himself has crossed the plate 46 times, as he rounds out the top 10 list in that category.

I have been following Bruce's career with great intrigue since he went 3-3 with a double, 2 RBI, 2 runs, and 2 walks in his major league debut on May 27, 2008. And I believe he will be among the best players in the game for years to come. He owns a career .261 BA, and may never clear .300 over an entire season. But since the start of the 2010 campaign, he's batting .2807 (above league average) with 42 HR and 118 RBI. Mr. Bruce is on pace to hit 39 over the wall this year and drive in 110, and this will likely be the norm for him. He's going to hit anywhere between .270 and .290, and be a run producing machine. So long as his lineup neighbor is in The Queen City, anyway.

He goes through hot and cold streaks, as most hitters do, and going into play on May 19, he had a .243 BA with 8 HR and 24 RBI. That afternoon against the Pittsburgh Pirates, he went 3-4 with two bombs, and that sent him on a three week tear in which he hit safely in 21 of 23 games, batting .365 with 9 HR and 24 RBI during that time. His overall .342 BA in the month of May to go along with 12 HR and 33 RBI earned him Player of the Month honors in the National League. Bruce is the first Reds player to snag the award since Adam Dunn did it in July of the 2005 season, and his RBI total for the month were the most for the Reds since OF Greg Vaughn knocked in 37 in September of 1999.

By June 11, he had risen his batting average to .295, and all seemed well. Except that over the next five games, he endured the longest hitting drought of his young career, going 0-17 with 7 strikeouts, 4 walks, and only scoring one run. His overall batting average for June is .238, not exactly the way you want to follow up a Player of the Month performance. Still though, he's at .280 on the year, and with the great Joey Votto by his side, he will continue to get opportunities to right himself.

If he has an area he needs to work on, it's in the swing-and-miss department. He's struck out 68 times this season --a 147 pace-- and only walked 30 times. Working with hitting coach Brook Jacoby every day, they'll work on cutting down the strikeouts and help him become a more selective hitter at the plate. And if and when that happens, he may become MVP material, just as Votto has become.

In the field, he isn't very flashy. He doesn't make ridiculous catches that top Baseball Tonight's Web Gems. But he's consistently solid. In his 71 games this year, he's made just three fielding errors, and he's been getting better over his time in the outfield. In 2008, between left, center, and right field, he made 11 errors. In the two plus seasons since then, he's had a total of just eight.

So what are we talking about here? Does anyone believe he will become the Reds next Frank Robinson? As it happens, both Robinson and Bruce were born in Beaumont, Texas. Robinson is second on the Reds all time HR list, with 324, and 9th all time with 586. Any question as to who's first on that list? I think not (it's Johnny Bench, in case you don't know). I'm not saying he will hit 600 home runs over the length of his career, but he will probably wind up near the top of Cincinnati's list.

That remains to be seen, as he is just 24 years young. He has a lot of work to do, even more room to grow, and the will to do it all. Here's to hoping he can help bring back the return of The Big Red Machine.