My guess is that one of 2 things happens when Correa is called up and Lowrie is ready to go (both make the assumption that Villar is DFA'd)... 1. Lowrie becomes the starting 3B and Valbuena moves to the bench as a utility guy. He has major league experience at OF, 2B, SS, and 3B. I'd bet he picks up a 1B mit in the process, too. 2. Carter is made part of a trade package for starting pitching and Lowrie or Valbuena becomes the starting 1B with the other at 3B. Once Correa is up, he will play every day at SS, period.
The next game Valbuena plays at 1B will be the first game he has ever officially played at 1B in the minor or major leagues.
Well its a good thing first base is where you send guys that can't play defense or get old. I think he'll be okay. Field grounders, catch ball, he wouldn't be switching sports.
Right, there is no skill involved in scooping low throws, making the awkward throw to second base, dealing with pickoffs, etc. Not saying he can't do it, but again, having these guys switch to positions they have little or no experience at in the middle of a season isn't as easy as people think.
I'd be shocked if Lowrie wasn't the one to make the move in the case that Carter is moved. He has at least some experience there. Valbuena has proven to be flexible, too, in his career though. I'd be surprised if he hasn't at least worked out there in the past. That said, it's known as a very difficult transition, going from 3B to 1B.
If you can field third you can make scoops at third. Positioning yourself for pickoffs takes 3 sentences of coaching. First base is the easiest position on the diamond, it doesnt require any skills that a third basemen in the mlb doesnt have.
How often does a third baseman position himself for pickoff throws? How often does a third baseman have to keep one foot on the bag and stretch for low, high or wide throws? While it may be the "easiest" position, there is a different skill set involved. A third baseman is also playing opposite of what he is used to. If it's so easy, why hasn't Gattis played there this year? Wouldn't it have made sense (when Carter was slumping miserably), to give him a rest, let Gattis play first and DH one of the outfielders?
1B is not the easiest position to play. Typically, a NL team will put their worst fielder in LF. 1B has more responsibilities and more reads to make than a LF. Plus, as bobrek said, you're now looking in from the opposite side of the field.
Im probably biased because I played both in HS for one. But you are trying to argue positioning for pickoffs and stretching out as skills to learn. It shouldn't take more than a couple games. Stand here, and like this.. keep your foot on the side of the bag and make the catch, that is literally it. Gattis doesn't even belong on the diamond that's why.
If we package Carter, I expect Singleton to be the guy at 1st. But I do agree Correa is the everyday SS.
I am looking forward to Correa being called up as much as anyone. But is it possible that he gets held at AAA until he isn't struggling with a 241 batting avg.?
As long as he's hitting ball and hitting ball hard, Astros won't care to much that he's hit them at defenders so far in AAA.
His BABIP at Fresno is .254, which is low. He had a .447 BABIP at CC, which was unsustainably high, so the odds were heavy that he was headed for a slump of some kind even if he had stayed at CC. This slump is likely simple equalization.
To add, his K% is low for anyone and ISO is great for someone in likely a cold streak. His zone contact rate is same as it was in CC. I've not seen him in Fresno, but stats suggest he's same player as CC going through a cold streak when fly balls get caught on warning track and line drives are at people.
Hmm this is good info. I was curious if this were the case or if he simply wasn't hitting. I don't have the ability to watch Milb games so I was assuming he was struggling a bit.
While BABIP is generally a good indicator of luck on the major league level, this doesn't apply to the minor league level, where high babip usually just means you're too good of a hitter for that level. Even on the major league level, there are players who routinely outperforms normal BABIP. They are generally some of the best hitters in the game. The BABIP indicates Correa's current hitting level is likely at AAA. Amongst all the hype around him, we forget that the more natural progression is him playing AAA this year and start in the majors next year. If the Astros weren't playing so well, I bet most people wouldn't even be talking too much about bringing him up.
"natural" progression? A lot of players of Correa's ability/age spend very little time (if at all) at AAA. The original plan last year was half-year at AA, then possible further AA/AAA time this year with possible MLB promotion if things were going well. His injury derailed that. What was not expected was how much he would dominate AA... which basically accelerated his timetable back to his pre-injury one. (lastly, even though this is not a "great" reason, this team is still struggling to draw fans despite the great start... Correa won't "hurt" that one bit, especially amongst the Latino community, and especially if they market him appropriately).
