Astros: Comparing Carlos Correa to the Best Seasons of Houston SS

Comparing Carlos Correa‘s career start to the greatest offensive seasons in Astros history.

By any measure, the Astros’ Carlos Correa has had an incredible start to his career. Many polls rank him in the top five shortstops in the game after what amounts to a little over one season worth of games. How does that compare to the greatest offensive seasons for Astros shortstops in the 50+ year history?

When I first started watching baseball in the mid-1970’s, a shortstop was measured by defense first, defense second, and offense third, and things like sacrifice bunts were expected of the position. The expectations have changed.

I’m going to use primarily traditional offensive categories for this comparison. In each case, these will be the best offensive seasons in each decade by a Houston Astros shortstop through the traditional statistical measure. There is certainly room for debate, and I welcome your input.

Some of the numbers jump off of the page, like the 27 sacrifice hits and 47 stolen bases by Sonny Jackson in 1966. It turned out to be an anomaly as he never came close to those numbers ever again. Correa’s power numbers dwarf the others, while if you look at Thorn and remember that he played half of his games in the Astrodome (and was half the size of Correa), his numbers are quite impressive as well. Again, another abbreviated career.

Also again, this is not an exhaustive list of good Astros shortstops. Some, like Adam Everett, Craig Reynolds, and even Roger Metzger, played more consistently over a longer period. This is simply one man’s view of the top offensive seasons by Astros shortstops.

*** Stats from Baseball-Reference ***