Votto's injury could lead to changes for Reds, NL Central race

When I asked Reds first baseman Joey Votto about the posters that hung on his bedroom wall as a kid -- expecting the usual answer from a kid in the 1990s of Ken Griffey Jr. or, given his Canadian roots, Larry Walker -- Votto surprised me with his answer. "Ted Williams," he said.

I quickly realized I should not have been surprised. Few major leaguers are better students of hitting and history than Votto. During his five seasons in the minors, Votto carried with him Williams' 1971 opus, The Science of Hitting.

Now for the next month the Reds will have to make do without their own version of Williams, what with Votto being the linchpin of the franchise, a lefthanded metronome of consistency and one of the five most indispensable players in baseball.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/tom_verducci/07/17/joey-votto-cincinnati-reds/index.html#ixzz20tbZiv41