Houston Astros: The Carlos Correa bandwagon fills up

“Astros rookie shortstop Carlos Correa has only been in the major leagues for 10 games, but you might as well go ahead and hitch yourself to his bandwagon now, because he is extremely good and a hell of a lot of fun to watch.”

These are the words of Deadspin writer Tom Ley, published on the site on Friday morning. Ley highlights Correa’s .349/.378/.628 stats, his three homers, notably his third singers against the Rockies where Correa took a ball that was practically on his knee and smashed it to left field.

Correa has, of course, at the time of writing at the end of the trip to Colorado, struck out eleven times in his ten games, but the seven RBI he has contributed to the team rather mediates that.

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That home run was the topic of an interesting article by Jeff Sullivan on FanGraphs. The breakdown of the play emphasizes the degree of difficulty and the ease with which Correa dispatched the pitch into the stands at Coors Field.

“Let’s Watch Carlos Correa Do Something Amazing” was in no way a misleading title.

Against Colorado, Correa became the second youngest player in 100 years to steal three bases in a game, being some 28 days older than Rickey Henderson was when he achieved the mark. This merited serious praise in the media. The ESPN article, linked here, talked about Correa’s membership of “an elite club”.

Ryan Dunsmore introduced his article on the feat on SB Nation with a photograph entitled “The legend of Correa grows”. The use of the word “legend” was significant as Correa has already drawn some very flattering comparisons to some of the baseball’s all-time greats.

Bleacher Report’s Danny Knobler wrote about the comparisons Correa has received in comparison to Derek Jeter, the recently retired Yankee great.

Knobler described Correa as “a super talent and a stellar citizen” in his article.  Knobler pointed out that, although the comparisons were unfair, Correa’s .324 average after seven games was ahead of Jeter’s .231 at the same point in his career.

Even prior to the series, Mike Petriello on MLB.com headlined his article on Correa as “Correa already among AL’s best shortstops“. Petriello cautioned readers with the comment that “all 20-year old big leaguers who aren’t Mike Trout run into rough patches”, and all Astros, indeed baseball fans, would be wise to heed that advice.

Nonetheless, the first glimpses we’ve had of Carlos Correa have left us with much to be excited about regarding the future of the Houston Astros. Of course, one of the leading sources for information on Correa is the Houston Chronicle and its ever-reliable team of Astros writers.

Jose de Jesus Ortiz wrote “Correa exudes a desire to be great on, off field” (you may need to search for the article on @OrtizKicks twitter feed if you are not a subscriber) over the weekend of the Mariners series, talking of the influence that Carlos Correa Sr. had on his young son, emphasizing the work ethic that he helped bestow on his son. In a powerful article, we learn a great deal about what makes Correa the player and the person he is, underlining Knobler’s “stellar citizen” comment.

In another article, David Barron talked of how Correa had enchanted Astros fans, mere days into his tenure in the big league.

If you, like so many others, have become a member of the Correa bandwagon, you might consider investing in it. Be warned, however, it can come at a hefty price tag: the jersey Correa wore for his first career home run sold on MLB Auctions for a cool $20k.

Next: Houston Astros Podcast - Carlos Correa The Seasoned Vet