Remember this? Bruce clinches the NL Central in 2010 with a walk off home run.

While Jay Bruce’s numbers (.256/.341/.474) were down slightly last year compared to 2010, he still had a good year. He had an absolutely absurd month of May, which I believe was the main reason for his All-Star nomination.

What I’m looking forward to is to see Bruce cut down on strikeouts. As John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer wrote, an outfield of Bruce, Stubbs and Heisey could easily combine for 500 strikeouts. Eesh, no thanks. If Bruce can cut down on his strikeouts, he can truly protect Votto. Only in May would pitchers think twice about pitching around Votto to get to Bruce. Defensively, Bruce is as good as they get in right field and still has an absolute cannon of an arm.