When they signed Lowrie to a multi year deal, I'm pretty sure that was the intention all along. His arm is strong enough, although not great for the position. He doesn't have a lot of innings, but he was pretty good when he did play over there. Valbuena has also played 2nd a lot. Unless Valbuena has an excellent year I think he becomes a utility man once Correa gets called up 2 weeks into next season. Although trades are obviously a possibility.
But if he's really a star, they're going to need to buyout that extra year anyways... give him a huge contract well before arbitration/free agency like Trout or Stanton. Additionally, the Cubs don't have the attendance/revenue issues that the Astros do. You could get 9 softball beer-leaguers out there, and they'd still flock to Wrigley in droves. The Astros do need faces of the franchise to sell to this market... along with ultimate success.
Agreed. It will be next season. Another year to develop in the minors, and for his frame to fill out and come closer to his true pro power potential.
I think this is true if the Astros aren't contending for anything - there is no reason to bring someone up early just for the hell of it. But if they are in the hunt for the playoffs and he can help (either our SS sucks or 3B sucks and Lowrie could move there), then I think the team brings him up. The key question is whether they think he could have a qualitative impact on winning - ie, playoff contention vs non-playoffs. Going from 75 to 78 wins is pointless.
McCullers looks like he has improved greatly. Maybe it is just him getting out of Lancaster but man his stuff is electric.
His ERA and hits we're inflated greatly by Lancaster, they always are. But his walks weren't, he's still walking too many people. His stuff is great though.
There's no way fans will start flocking to the field just to watch Carlos Correa play. It will take winning and winning only for attendance to rise appreciably and to a sustainable level.
Kimbrel type potential? Yeesh. Let's pump the breaks. Kimbrel is one of the most dominant relievers of this generation. Nothing about McCullers's scouting reports indicate that he has any pitches that are at Kimbrel's level.
Agreed... you obviously didn't read my previous posts. Most of Houston doesn't know who Carlos Correa is (or half the other current Astros, for that matter). Even if they call him up now, they won't know who he is unless he starts to tear it up. The sooner he adjusts to the MLB level, the sooner he can tear it up and start building more anticipation for the future. In regards to advanced season ticket sales, it will take both winning... along with clearly marketable/recognizable/projectable stars to make that surge. And those two aspects are not at all mutually exclusive.
Clearly that's a best-case/hyperbole scenario, but it's been said that McCullers is one of maybe 10 guys in the minors with two 70 grade pitches. Kiley McDaniel, Fangraphs lead prospect writer (who i'm a huge fan off), put 65 future grades on both his fastball and curveball. He certainly has the pure stuff to be an elite closer.
Lowrie and/or Valbueana are great trade pieces to contenders later this year or in the offseason. Lowrie is tolerable at 3B, not ideal at all.
Lowrie's locked up for 2 more years, so I doubt he's the one to go in a mid-season trade. Valbuena seems like a likely candidate if Correa is indeed ready. And even then, this has a chance to be a season where the Astros are looking to add talent for a late-season playoff push, resulting in few subtractions at the major league level.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>A <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/source?src=hash">#source</a> tells me that Carlos Correa just hit a homer for Corpus</p>— Thickie Don (@AstrosCounty) <a href="https://twitter.com/AstrosCounty/status/590330270739353600">April 21, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Preston Tucker continues to tear the cover off the ball. He hit a 2-run single in the 1st for Fresno, which extended his hitting streak to 22 games dating back to last season. EDIT: He just smashed his 5th homer of the season.
Tucker, Correa and Fisher homering is awesome, but seeing Aaron West come back and put up a great (albeit short) performance at AA is pure gravy. 4.2 innings, 3 hits, 0 walks and 5 strikeouts!
Bc usually you only trade players in the final year of their contracts. jk, I was wondering the same thing, but just figured it was because Im naive with how baseball works.
