It only took 47 plate appearances for Joey Votto to finally draw his first walk yesterday.  This puts the young first baseman on pace to draw nine walks in 2008, a sharp dropoff from his usual 70-80 (I realize "on pace" stats are a bit silly this early, but it's still a troubling trend).

What could be driving this trend?  These quotes from a March 9th Paul Daugherty article might shed some light on that (hat tip to Fire Joe Morgan for noticing this):

The other day, the Reds manager decided he wanted Joey Votto and Adam Dunn to swing their bats more. "I don't like called third strikes," Baker said..."(Votto) needs to swing more. I'd like to see him more aggressive."

Is this something that Baker instilled in Votto, or an idea that he came up with on his own?  Did he decide to start taking more cuts, or did Dusty decide to tinker with the kid's approach at the plate? 

For now, Votto's still retaining his solid batting average and power during this free-swinging binge (.300 average, 4 HR, .600 SLG).  History says that, if he doesn't refine his batting eye, that won't last.  Either way, this is an interesting plotline to keep an eye on.