Astros: Carlos Correa’s stats are better than Alex Rodriguez’s debut

The Houston Astros star shortstop is off to a great start to his career on offense and defense. Some already consider him one of the top shortstops in the game, even after playing 49 games. No matter who Jeff Luhnow drafts from here on out, his best accomplishment will be drafting Correa. I recently interviewed one of the scouts responsible for finding Correa, his name is Joey Sola, and you can read it here: Houston Astros: Scouting Carlos Correa with Joey Sola (Interview).

Correa knew what he wanted to do at an early age; he wanted to play baseball and be the best player out there. I interviewed Correa when he was still at Corpus Christi; you can read it here. Keeping up with the Houston Astros Carlos Correa. His favorite player is Derek Jeter, who he idolized as a player and a person. Ironically, last night Correa made a Jeter-like play at shortstop.

Even though Correa wants to be like Jeter, he also met his other idol at shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, who gave him an autographed bat with a personal message to wish him good luck. However, the player he is often compared to is a young Alex Rodriguez. While most people might look down at Rodriguez, his early years when he wasn’t cheating, he was phenomenal. Correa and Rodriguez both had the same skill set and body type, but Correa appears to be more athletic than Rodriguez was at the time.

We will look a little deeper into what Rodriguez did in his first full season, but for now, let’s look at the comparisons of the two plus Mike Trout. Why Trout, because many feel that Correa has Trout like potential impact for the Houston Astros. Take a look at the Tweet below by Brian McTaggart.

As you can see, Correa has gotten off to a better starts than one of the best players in today’s game. Trout debuted with the Angels at the age of 19 in 2011 but proved that he was not quite ready for the first 40 games that season. He was then sent back to the minor leagues, and people probably thought that there was another bust of a prospect. He came back in 2012, he hit .320/ 30 HR/ 83 RBI/ 49 SB. While I think Correa will steal a fair share of bases, I am not sure that he will quite approach Trout’s stolen base ability. However, 25-30 steals are a reasonable number for Correa.

Rodriguez debuted at the age of 18 in 1994 but was not the immediate star only playing 17 games and 48 games in 1995, before breaking out in 1996 finishing second in the AL for MVP. In 1996, Rodriguez batted .358/ 36 HR/ 123 RBI/ 15 SB. Correa has already bested these two in his first 49 games. He shows no sign of slowing down either. Let’s assume that Correa had played all season with the Astros, what would his projected numbers that he is on pace for.

On pace for a full season in 2015: .292/ 42 HR/ 112 RBI/ 20 SB. (Old fashioned calculations)

While he won’t reach those numbers in 2015, could he reach that is 2016 and beyond? The future is bright with Correa.

Next: Astros Struggle Against Rangers: Why We Can’t Beat Them Right Now