If you have a few moments to spare, I'd really appreciate you taking this super-quick survey... I'm putting together a new piece for CTH and wanted to test a hypothesis. Thanks!
Altuve has been the better player and may still be. However, I think Correa makes a crazy jump in production and battles Trout for Best Player in the Game. Edit: Thread title and poll question are slightly different and I would answer the two questions differently.
Like he’s on the right track but the jury’s still out if he’s the best player on the team and he is great but he’s no Altuve? Yeah I feel the same way.
FWIW Correa's OPS was only slightly lower than Altuve's last year. If he stayed healthy he was on pace for about 35 HR, 120 RBI, 115 Runs and a bWAR close to 9. He could have ended up with a superior year to Altuve and won MVP last season, he was right there with him before the injury. Honestly I would be surprised if he's not the best player on the team this year, but he hasn't been as good as Altuve yet, which is kind of a silly high standard for a 22 year old. Still that may only be because of health. Hard to realistically expect a guy to get much better than he was last season.
Astros 81-39 with him last year... 20-22 without him. He's only 22... I think he gets unfairly criticized here because people already believe he's a Yankee in waiting. Like I've said before, the Correa brand will be in full effect well before he hits free agency. If he ends up turning into the best player in baseball... it will be as an Astro before anybody else.
I can’t say he’s better than the MVP but I expect that he will be sooner rather than later. Probably finishes this season in discussion as one of the 2 or 3 best players in the game. I’m not sure where that translates in the poll. Correa had a slow start last year and even after battling into MVP contention I had people tell me they were unsure about him. Very weird. I feel like he’s surpassed any expectation you could reasonably have of him at this point and he’s just scratching the surface.
*raises hand* I b****ed about him early last season because he was infuriating me (especially that 1st series in Cleveland), watching fastballs go by with men on base. He fixed that as the season went on and became the guy he is and will be. And lo-and-behold, when he was asked this offseason what he needs to work on, he says "fastballs down the middle." I'm sure there was a good bit of sarcasm in that answer, but still.
If Correa can stay healthy and put up a full year of what he did last year, he'll be in consideration for MVP. He's 23 and should be ready to put up 35+ homers this year.
I think he is the best player on the team. Really hate the wording of the options, particularly #2. He's no Altuve implies he is not close, when he obviously is.
I refuse to be a participant in CTH, I'm not sure if it's contagious. I believe he's the best player on the team, he just doesn't have as many intangibles as Altuve
Considering most hall of famers his age are entering their rookie campaigns or are still a year away, I’d say he’s well ahead of the curve thus far and I expect he finishes top 5 in MVP voting this season, as he would have last season had he not missed 42 games (Astros were 2 under .500 in that stretch but 40+ wins over .500 when he was healthy)