First baseman Joey Votto made an immediate impact with the Cincinnati Reds last September, hitting .321 in 24 games with four home runs and 17 runs batted in. (David Kohl/Associated Press)

When Joey Votto isn't working towards becoming the next great first baseman of the Cincinnati Reds, he enjoys reading about the legends of baseball.

Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams, the last man to post a .400 batting average in the major leagues, are among his favourites.

"I'm not going to lie. I love those guys and have total respect for them," the Toronto-born Votto told CBCSports.ca before his third spring training in Sarasota, Fla. "I look up to them.

"As a hitter we play a pretty futile side of the game. There is so much failure involved and you go to the plate every day knowing that 70 per cent of the time you're going to fail.

"Ted Williams and those great players took it up a notch. It just seemed like they had this dominant side to them that the pitchers feared. That's something that you rarely find nowadays."

Votto, 24, admits he hasn't reached that point of dominance yet, but a glance at last year's numbers suggests he's headed in the right direction.

One of the top prospects in baseball, Votto hit .321 and drove in 17 runs in 24 games last September for the Reds after being recalled from triple-A.

In his first major league start on Sept. 5 versus the New York Mets, Votto launched a 421-foot home run off left-hander John Maine. He wrapped up the season 25 days later with a double, a home run and five runs batted in against the Chicago Cubs.

Votto opened the 2007 campaign with the Louisville Bats of the International League and batted .294 with 22 homers, 92 RBI, 17 stolen bases and a .381 on-base percentage in 133 games. He also reached base safely in 42 consecutive contests from May 4 to June 20.

Over the years, Votto has emulated some of today's top hitters such as Albert Pujols, Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez. He would move like them and copy their batting stance with varying degrees of success.

'I respect the guys at the very top'

"We're in an era with some pretty special hitters," the 2007 International League rookie of the year and Bats most valuable player said. "I respect the guys at the very top level.

"Ted Williams said when he was younger he tried to hit like everybody and then he found his own thing, and I think that's what I'm trying to do as well."

Votto believes one of his best experiences in baseball occurred in 2003 in his first of two seasons at single-A Dayton. The-then 19-year-old was getting beat by pitchers five and six years his senior, who had more experience and guile.

To compensate, Votto made his swing more compact and cut down on unnecessary movement at the plate. The next season, he raised his average 70 points to .302, slugged 14 homers (up from one) and drove in 72 runs.

By 2006, Votto had become a 20-20 man (20 homers, 20 steals) and fashioned a .408 OBP. The six-foot-three, 220-pounder also saw a dramatic improvement in his defence that season.

However, Votto's fielding continues to draw criticism, despite the fact he went errorless in 24 games with Cincinnati split between left field and first base. He continued to work on his fielding this winter by taking groundballs daily.

Votto, who didn't commit an error in 24 games with Cincinnati last season, feels he has been unfairly criticized for his defensive play. (Al Behrman/Associated Press)

"I never felt that knock on me was very fair," said Votto, who was charged with 13 errors in 133 games at Louisville last season. "I'm not going to be as sure-handed as someone who's played the game for 10 or 15 years, but I hold my own."

Bats hitting coach Adrian "Smokey" Garrett told CBCSports.ca that while Votto needs to work on his positioning in the field, he wouldn't be a liability in Cincinnati.

This is the same coach that watched Votto struggle at the plate early last season, only to turn things around and beat up International League pitching.

"Around the middle of May, Joey was hitting under .200 and I didn't feel he was getting into a strong hitting position," said Garrett, the Florida Marlins' hitting co-ordinator from 1999-01. "He made a few adjustments and finished strong."

Driven to succeed

"He's a hard, hard worker," Garrett said. "It's like he settles for nothing but success and he's had it. If [the Reds] give him a chance he'll do a very good job."

Votto reminds Garrett of former major-league outfielder Preston Wilson, whom he coached at triple-A Charlotte in the late 1990s. Wilson went on to play with six teams in the majors, averaging .264 with 189 home runs and 668 RBI over 10 seasons.

"Preston had that same kind of desire, attitude and confidence that it takes to be a good major leaguer and certainly Joey has that," he said.

But a taste of the big leagues has left Votto hungry for more. So much so, he hired performance specialist Corey Stenstrup in the off-season from the International Performance Institute in Bradenton, Fla., where aspiring National Football League players prepare for the league's annual scouting combine.

"I told [Stenstrup] I wanted an NFL-style workout program. I think football players are the best athletes in the world. They're a combination of speed and power," said Votto, who signed a one-year contract with Cincinnati in January. "That's basically the same game any baseball player needs. We don't do a lot of long-distance running, we don't do a lot of cardio activity.

"It's basically a standstill game until you have to run a full sprint. That's what I've trained this off-season."

While Votto arrived at camp this week as the Reds' projected starting first baseman, he will have to earn the job over veteran Scott Hatteberg.

"I really like to go into the season with an open mind … but I do expect to be an every-day major leaguer," he said. "I'm very confident that I'm going to play well. And if I do play well it'll lead to good things."

The way it did for Mantle, Williams and other greats.