Twitter Gets Its Wish Votto Batting Second

“No messages being sent. Just trying to be creative in what we’re doing. More than anything, just rolling out the same philosophy and going down the same road doesn’t resonate with me. I want us to perform better. I want us to core more runs. I’m willing to do what it takes to change the lineup and get us going.”

When the Reds posted its lineup early Saturday, I could hear the "twitteratzie" yell a collective, "It's about time."

It seams like every fan, whoever graced a couch, wanted the Reds to hit Votto in the second spot. Most of them have their playing days if any so far behind them, they can tell you they were all-stars without fear of a person checking the facts.

The Reds are batting Votto in the second spot today for the ninth time in his career and the first time since, August 8, 2008 against Houston.  I those days of course the fans were screaming, "What's he doing in the lineup? Why are we giving this game away?"

Billy Hamilton will lead off against Tampa Bay Rays' right-hander Alex Cobb.

Votto will bat second with Brandon Phillips, Jay Bruce, Todd Frazier, Ryan Ludwick, Brayan Pena, Zack Cozart and starting pitcher Alfredo Simon following in that order.

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This isn’t really a 10-game look, even though we started out the season 3-7," Bryan Price said. "We look at things over recent history as an organization and we’re just trying to get more guys on base in front of the middle of the lineup and try to create some newness to it. Maybe for no other reason than we need some newness. We’ve been at times a very productive offensive club, but we’ve gotten off to a slow start and I just don’t feel like a sit-on-my-hands-type of approach is the way to get these things turned around. I think we’ve got an outstanding group here, but we haven’t really hit on all cylinders yet, and I think we need to try something different.”

The Reds have been notorious "slow starters", a glaring example of which was the 4-8 start the 2012 team had.  That team won 97 games and then manager Dusty Baker stayed the course and brought the team in as Central Division Champions.

Price communicated the move to Votto before he made the decision.

Talked to Joey," Price said. "I don’t think anybody’s going to be too disgruntled going from second to third in the lineup. It’s a little different going the other way. Joey understands it. Joey and I had a great conversation in spring training. His willingness to do whatever is best for the club is outstanding. It’s a necessary part of what we’re trying to do here. Right now, we need to shake something up. We need to make some changes. We need to try to find a way to take a great group of baseball players and actually start to play to our ability. I don’t know if this is going to make a huge difference. I think it can. I’m optimistic about that.”

The move was not to send a message.

“No messages being sent," Price said. "Just trying to be creative in what we’re doing. More than anything, just rolling out the same philosophy and going down the same road doesn’t resonate with me. I want us to perform better. I want us to core more runs. I’m willing to do what it takes to change the lineup and get us going.”

It is somewhat.slike a slump busting method used by Davey Johnson, Billy Martin and others, just putting names in a hat and filling the lineup with a blind draw.