Parades is a better player and certainly has a better health history than Correa at this point in their careers. Probably going forward also, this is why this off-season why I was against trading Parades. You can't depend on Correa. Plus Pena and Altuve each spend at least 20 days on the IL each year. Imagine where this team would be without Parades.
Agreed, but if they trade for an OF I'm hoping he can be an everyday OF and Wade can platoon with another OF.
The only way I agree Paredes is better than Correa is because he is healthy. WHEN HEALTHY Paredes can't carry Correa's jock. And I like Paredes. What blinds many fans is that Paredes has a ceiling that can get him to an All Star Game but thats about it. Correa could win an MVP any given year (age will probably keep that from happening but the talent is there he had 4.2 fWAR in about 1/2 a season in 2024) since start of 2025 as Astros: Isaac 176g: 123 wRC+, -8 OAA, 3.8 fWAR Carlos 83g: 122 wRC+, +3 OAA, 2.6 fWAR Paredes is a perfectly good 4th or 5th best player on a team. There is also a reason he has played for 4 different teams and still has a season of arbitration left.
Look yall, Brown, imai, Arrighetti, Lambert, Blanco in August and September could legitimately ne a very good rotation. Need them all to get/stay healthy but a very real world exists where those 5 guys will give you 2 dominant starts, 2 good ones and 1 average to poor start every time though the rotation. If that happens you should win 3 out of 5 most trips and 4 more often than 2. Do I love that as a playoff rotation? Not particularly, but it’s not bad at all for the regular season and the thing about the playoffs is you have to get in to make that happen. bullpen: Hader, king, Tang, Ullola, Blubaugh, burrows, Okert, whoever. that could be a team that reasonably expects everyone they hand the ball to to do their job. I see no reason to feel similarly confident about a my path forward for the offense to be good. If Altuve and Walker are good the offense can be decent/above average. If they aren’t it’s poor. And that might be generous.
The 1st number in those stats is what counts the most and Correa also isn't nearly the player he used to be. Still good but not a franchise type guy anymore.
Regarding the offense.... be ready for Lope 110 OPS+. He balled last season in his 40 games, then got injured. This year he started slow. It was below average production but not terrible. His BB/K has always been alarming, especially K rate, but since returning he's walking more and making much more contact. His hitting is looking *above* average and the defense is already there. Oh hitting-wise too.... CLUTCH. He basically just won 2 straight games against his former in his former ballpark. The Lope Show
Stros are tied with the NYY for the best record in the AL over the past 30 games (tied for 5th in MLB) at 18-12
Loperfido is a lot like Matthews in terms of value imho. Hes a luxury if he’s on your bench but he’s a bit stretched as an everyday player. He is a very good defensive LF (and can handle RF, CF, 1B, and even 2B) and has baserunning value, which gives him some good floor. But he swings and misses a lot even when he’s being patient (like he is this season). He has avg bat speed and exit velo but with a 110mph max exit velo he probabiy has potential to refine his swing and approach to get to more power. Without that he’s an average bat against RHP which has value but isn’t great; if he can get to more power he’d be a very good strong-side platoon LF which is a $15M-$20M/yr player.
Matthews hasn't shown production anywhere near Loperfido so far in their short careers. OPS+ 67 vs 94 -- Loperfido 121 sans rookie season Matthews has regressed since rookie.
Blanco, Javier and McCullers have a long way to go to earn my trust. They all flash but none of these three consistently get out of the 5th inning.
Matthews is an elite defensive player and an extremely good baserunner, so (like Loperfido) he has a lot of value as a bench player. Matthews has a higher avg exit velo and max exit velo than Loperfido and has actually lowered his swinging strike rate a lot compared to last season, but it is still very high. Matthews is seeing a lot more strikes than Loperfido so he’s walking less. He also is having tremendous bad batted ball luck. If I were judging who is more likely to have a 1+ fwar season in MLB, I’d pick Loperfido, but if I were predicting who is more likely to to have a 3+ fwar season, I would choose Matthews by a wide margin. They are very different players with similar overall values and similar median projections.
