Joey Votto is not your average baseball player. Granted, that may be obvious from the numbers he’s put up for the last two years playing for the Cincinnati Reds, but I don’t mean that.

Whenever I read an interview with him, I come away marveling at the amount of thought Votto seems to put into his answers. Sports athletes are rarely known for their intellect because that’s not what they’re paid for. For brains, you watch Jeopardy! But the sports arena is for feats of athletic prowess.

Still, Votto displays his thoughtfulness whenever he appears in the media more so than your average player.

For example, yesterday Cincinnati Enquirer Reds beat reporter John Fay talked to Votto, and Votto first talked about how he didn’t think pitchers pitched around him.

Votto doesn’t expect a change this year: “I don’t imagine it. I’ll assume guys will go after me, and I’m going to be ready for it. The ultimate guy that got pitched around was Barry Bonds. He said he assumed every pitch was going to be a strike, every pitch was going to be coming after him. That’s the approach you have to take. That’s probably the most difficult thing about our job. From Day 1 to hopefully the last out of the World Series, you have to be ready.”

That sounds like an excellent approach. One pitch at a time, and never expect them to give you anything. With Votto’s intensity, I’d love to see him be able to show just what he learned from last year’s postseason appearance.

Votto expects to improve this year, which is kind of a scary proposition.

“I’d like to be more efficient. I’d still like to be a better teammate. I’d like to be a better defensive player. As far as a hitter, I’d like to be more efficient. I feel like I wasted a lot of at-bats last year.”

He got on base 42% of the time, and he felt he wasted “a lot” of at-bats. Just let that sink in for a minute.

Since having such an excellent 2010 season, getting voted onto the All Star team (Vote Votto!), and winning the National League Most Valuable Player award, Votto’s prestige has grown. He’s on the national radar now. Given his issues following his father’s death, there’s understandable concern about how he might handle that pressure. Votto mentioned how he felt about that attention.

“It’s paced itself really well. It’s not like it was dumped on me. A guy like Aroldis Chapman or Jay Bruce or even Homer Bailey at the beginning, it’s dumped on them. I’ve earned it. It’s taken it’s time. I’ll adjust to it fine. I don’t see a huge leap. Halfway through the season, people were chanting MVP. That’s a huge compliment. I feel like I had enough time to de-sensitize myself to that.”

That actually assuages some of my concerns. Votto’s a big, strong baseball player. And I think he might just be big enough and strong enough to handle all the additional pressure that winning and succeeding brings. And doggone it, people like him.

Desperate to keep the streak of days with posts alive, I came in from a birthday party at Dave and Buster’s and checked out the Reds.com page for a tidbit I could write a few lines about before collapsing into blissful sleep. And much to my joy, there was this announcement:

Major League Baseball is casting for an innovative new experience, which will require one lucky fan to eat, sleep, and live baseball for an entire season.

It sounds good at first, but as you get down to the “Responsibilities” you discover that you have to go, say, and even live where MLB tells you for an entire baseball season. You’d be required to watch every single regular season and postseason game in 2011, and given that one of the Qualifications is “Strong organizational skills with the ability to give attention to multiple things at the same time,” I get the feeling you may have to watch several of them simultaneously.

But maybe after you finish living on nothing but Groupons for a year, you’d be ready for the high life of baseball sensory overload. There probably won’t be much time for Dave and Buster’s, though.

Speaking as a person of the Midwestern persuasion, I’m super-psyched to see that more of the spring training games in the far away land of Arizona will be available to me thanks to the magic of satellites and the MLB network. I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether that’s black magic or not.

According to MLB:

With players reporting to the Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues this week, MLB Network is announcing its plans to air 83 games as part of its 2011 Spring Training coverage. The game schedule begins on Saturday, February 26, with the Phillies visiting the Yankees live from George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Fla., at 1 p.m. ET.

That’s the first paragraph of the story, and it actually went on for a couple more sentences after that. Does no one know how to write a proper lead?

Anyway…

You can see the full schedule of games to be televised on MLBNetwork.com. Some I found interesting include:

• Tues., Mar. 1 3:00 p.m. Cincinnati Reds (ss)** L.A. Angels of Anaheim
• Mon., Mar. 7 9:30 p.m. (s) Milwaukee Brewers Cincinnati Reds
• Sat., Mar. 26 11:00 p.m. (s) Cincinnati Reds San Francisco Giants (ss)
• Mon., Mar. 28 4:00 p.m. Cincinnati Reds Chicago White Sox

Today at the Cincinnati Reds spring training facility in Goodyear, Arizona, it was all about Aroldis Chapman.

First, John Fay interviewed pitching coach Bryan Price about things Chapman needs to work on and his future role.

“First and foremost, especially with young guys, it’s going to be about command and commanding the count. Where he would be vulnerable is if he sets a precedent of being behind in the count and guys are comfortable enough to lay off some pitches. You don’t want to get to two strikes with this guys, he has a lot of ways to put you away.”

“He has to continue to work on the slider and make it a higher-percentage strike pitch as well as finish pitch.”

Price again reiterated the Reds position that Chapman’s eventual roster spot will be as a starter, but that it’s best to introduce him to the majors via lower pressure relief situations. I like how the Reds have been handling Chapman. Letting someone break into the big leagues in a relief role allows the club to better control the pressure and the number of innings, not to mention it allows the pitcher to focus on perfecting a couple pitches instead of the arsenal a starter needs. I do look forward to seeing what Chapman can do as a starter in another year or two, though.

Dusty Baker also spoke about Chapman and his role with the Reds this year.

“One thing I want squash right now is closer-situation controversy. I know everyone want’s to be in a hurry to rush him in there. But we’ve got to get him acclimated to what he’s doing first. (Francisco) Cordero, even though it’s been exciting at times, he’s still second at least our leagues in saves the last two years. That’s something that most people overlook.”

Are there lots of people clamoring for that? I know Cordero was frustrating as hell last year, and it was nice to have Chapman available to bail him out on occasion, but I don’t think it would be wise to throw Chapman into the pressure-cooker of the 9th inning.

Lastly, John Fay interviewed Chapman via interpreter. He’s happy in his relief role and has a lot of desire to improve. Given his flashes of success last year, I’d like to see him improve, too.

Chapman also talked about the intense expectations that he feels from the crowd whenever he takes the mound.

“I really feel good when I see those things the fans want me to do,” he said. “But, really, the truth is that particular moment I don’t think about those things. I just do what I have to do. I think about my job. . . At that moment, I just want to pitch.”

That’s probably wise. Otherwise, those 105 mile-per-hour fastballs might be flying over the fences, or leaving mighty painful bruises.

Today was the first workout for all of the Cincinnati Reds pitchers and catchers. And as evidence, John Fay has a picture of them stretching.

Fay also had the chance to talk to Reds manager Dusty Baker about the starting rotation. Unlike in years past, there won’t be a huge audition for roles.

Dusty Baker said the Reds will only get “seven or eight” pitchers ready as starters.

“That’s early,” Baker said. “Then you start cutting back once you decide. Health is a big issue here. You hope it doesn’t come into play, but it usually does. The better shape they’re in less chance for injury.”

It sure is nice to have the days of the open casting call for the pitching staff be over. Those seven or eight pitchers Baker mentioned have to be Bronson Arroyo, Edinson Volquez, Johnny Cueto, Homer Bailey, Travis Wood, Mike Leake, Sam LeCure, and Matt Maloney. Any combination of those five is better than what the Reds have sent out for so long. It’s so nice to have the opposite problem for a change.

In addition, Baker also mentioned Dontrelle Willis, who has looked good in early workouts so far. I’m not sure where the Dontrelle Train will lead, but if he could find an unopened bottle or two of that awesome-sauce he had earlier in his career, the Reds pitching glut problem would continue to be a happy problem.