=== You Won't Get Any Arguments About ... ? ===

... the fact that Correa has a shortstop's arm.  He set a Perfect Game record with a 97 MPH throw across the infield.  (MLB.com says that there is no doubt about his ability to stick at shortstop, but every scout who dislikes Cal Ripken-style deep shorstops is already warning that Correa profiles at third.)

... the fact that Correa's stock is sky-high after his home runs at the Excellence tournament in Puerto Rico.  If he goes 1-1 overall, few people will bust the Astros' chops about it.

... Correa's hitting upside.  He has supposedly gone 450+ already, turned around good velocity for homers, and is a big 6'4" guy with projectable power.

.... Correa's character.

You get arguments about just about everything else.  There are a lot of questions about Correa for a 1-1 draft pick.

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=== What's Fresh About 'Im? ===

Though you're not going to hear it from Dr. D, Correa's fans have no problem comparing him to Troy Tulowitzki and Evan Longoria.  They see him as having "awesome" power and some corners say that he has an unnatural ability to read breaking balls at such a young age.  

As a hitter, we heard these same things about Carlos Triunfel -- that it was like watching a 12-year-old downshift and merge expertly onto a freeway, "doing things he shouldn't be able to do at that age."  (It is not yet a given that Triunfel won't become an excellent MLB shortstop, by the way.)

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Correa not only has the 97-MPH shortstop's arm, but his fans give him credit for fish-in-water footwork and soft hands.  The videos look that way to Dr. D, too.  Here is a Perfect Game dude waxing ecstatic about Correa's defense.

It doesn't seem to me like you'd draft Correa unless you had zero problem with big Cal Ripken-style shortstops who play deep.  So far that hasn't been Jack Zduriencik, who has gone wayyyyyyy around the block to line up acrobatic Gold Glove shortstops like Jack Wilson and Brendan Ryan.

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It took Dr. D a while to understand Carlos Correa's swing; he doesn't have much wrist hinge, doesn't have a stride, just looks like he's using pure biceps to hit the ball.  This kind of video is supposed to be impressive, but to me it looks like Nick Franklin's RIGHT side swing.

But this kind of video made the situation more clear.  Correa is getting a certain amount of "stretch the rubber band" effect between front foot and rearward hand press, a la David Wright and Nick Franklin left handed.  You can see the throughspeed really well on that video.  Here's a capture of the "rubber band" thing:

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Quite a few times you see the Russ Branyan type "Back Leg Special" centifugality going on, like in this video.  Here's a capture from that:

lity, and (3) his physical power --- > in that context his lack of wrist hinge might even be an advantage.  One man's lack of wrist hinge is another man's "short path to the ball."

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NEXT

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