Cubs' Bryant calls Joey Votto 'the best player ever'

If the Joey Votto fan club is looking for a new president, consider this Kris Bryant's official application.

Despite their National League Central rivalry, it seems that there may be no greater admirer of Votto's than Bryant, who took some time to both talk hitting with the Cincinnati Reds first baseman this week, and publicly praise the Canadian star as one of the sport's modern-day greats.

"He's the best player ever," Bryant said Wednesday, according to Patrick Mooney of CSN Chicago. "He's my favorite player. I love watching him. I love talking to him, just picking his brain.

"He's a future Hall of Famer, that's for sure."

Votto's work in 2017 had been flying under the radar until recently, when he reached base at least twice in 20 consecutive games - a run that was snapped Wednesday when he reached base just once in the Reds' 7-6 loss to Bryant's Cubs, leaving him one game shy of tying Ted Williams' all-time record.

While Votto's patience and on-base skills have occasionally drawn the ire of some in Cincinnati, Bryant is taking a lot of inspiration from those skills and has applied them to his own game. The 25-year-old is getting on base at a higher clip in 2017 (.404) than during his MVP campaign a year ago (.385), and he's also cut his strikeout rate to a career-low 19 percent entering play Thursday - improvements he credits to studying Votto's work.

"My first year, I was kind of just up there swinging at everything," Bryant explained. "But I think there's ways to have a better approach up there. I feel like (Votto's) aggressive, but he's not going to swing at a pitch until he wants it. And he mentioned that to me, too, when I got to first (on Monday night). He said: 'Your approach looks a lot better this year.'

"He gets a lot of (heat) about his walks and working at-bats and some people want him to swing at more pitches. But, gosh, I mean, he does an unbelievable job. You know that he's going to give you a great at-bat every time he goes up there. It's definitely a guy that I look up to and I can learn from."