It took about two weeks (for various reasons) to compile all the information about Jorge Soler and his 2013 Inception card. Here’s hoping I can get the 2014 Carlos Correa wrapped up much quicker! Thank you so much for everyone who read my first card profile and gave me feedback! Any sort of response is so motivating to come back and do it all over again!
For Week 2 of A Very Simple Idea, I wanted to go with a player that I am a big fan of: Carlos Correa. I recently acquired this card (for the second time) and was so happy to put it on my little display shelf! Correa is truly wonderful to watch play here in Houston, and it was great to add his Inception autograph to my small little collection!
The story of Correa’s career will not come as a surprise to many (one of the few drawbacks to covering guys who are big time stars already), but it’s always good to remember where a guy has come from. One of the best things I have read about Correa (over and over and over) is how hard he works, how seriously he takes the game, and how important it is for him to do things “the right way” as a professional. Pretty amazing for a guy who just turned 22 a few months ago!
Player History
So much has been written about Correa that it’s hard to not to plagiarize or just sum up what everyone else has already said. So mostly I want to write about what I remember from the time he was drafted, to his debut and (thus far) very short professional career.
Jayson Stark wrote a great profile on Correa during Spring Training last year for ESPN.com. In the article, he wrote that the numbers 1 and 3 are very important to Carlos. Stark quotes Correa as saying:
"Every time I walked to my locker, I see No. 1. Just to focus on what it takes to get there, to be one of the best guys out there. Every time I walk to my locker and look at my number, it reminded me of how hard I needed to work and all the effort that I had to put in to become one of the best players in the league.”
Of course this all begins with the fact that Correa was the first player taken overall in the 2012 draft, and the first Puerto Rican player to go first overall. Such was not lost on the “kid” when he walked the stage after hearing his name called with his home country's flag. Neither did Correa forget the hours of practice that he would do with his father growing up; the times his dad would spend an exhausting day at two jobs only to come home and help his boy practice. That’s the stuff of legends. Like Babe Ruth said in The Sandlot: Heroes get remembered, but legends never die.
Leading up to being drafted number one overall, Correa apparently blew away the Astros organization with his workout. Here are some quotes about Correa heading into and shortly after the draft:
- "His standout defensive tool is a laser gun of an arm."
- "Correa shows surprisingly nimble feet for an athlete his size "
- "He has three standout tools and two other average-or-better ones, and when you package that up in a shortstop with better than even odds of sticking at the position for the first decade of his big league career that’s exactly what the Astros may just have on their hands."
- "plus-plus arm strength; positive reports on glove, above-average tools across board defensively; very fluid defender; 6-3, 190 pounds; tons of projection; plus athlete; needs at bats; plus power upside; plus speed; crazy bat speed, no problem with velocity; good approach; R/R"
- "On defense, Correa has a good first step, which helps him overcome average speed, but he has excellent instincts"
The only real concern about Correa that I have read is that his body type is projected to become too big (in terms of muscle) for him to stay at shortstop long term. I know he has fought tremendously hard to keep his physique in top-notch shape so as to prevent that happening. It goes back to the fire he has to become and stay Number One.
In regards to his actual career statistics, here is how he breaks down. In the minors:
- Games: 273, 28 HR, 199 RBI, 54 SB, .313 BA, .392 OBP, 133 BBs, 464 POs, 43 Es
And in the majors:
- Games: 252, 42 HR (22, 20), 164 RBI, 27 SB, .276 BA, .354 OBP, 115 BBs, 314 POs, 27 Es
Note that in a roughly equal amount of games so far between the two, Correa has hit a significantly higher number of home runs (off of better pitching) but with fewer RBIs and a lower batting average.
Keep in mind, though, that Carlos only played 62 games during the 2014 season due to a sever ankle injury he sustained sliding into third base. From that time I remember the debate about Correa and Byron Buxton being very frustrating for us Astros fans. Buxton was tearing up the lower levels of the minors while Correa was not adjusting as quickly, and then he got injured. It was around this time that a friend of mine actually sent me Correa’s 2013 Inception card (I am looking to acquire one again if anyone knows of one available!) because he thought Correa was going to be a bust!
But of course, the very next year, Correa soared through the minors and made his debut against the Chicago White Sox, going 1-4 with an RBI. I actually remember this time because he was promoted to AAA just a couple of days before I saw the Astros AA affiliate (the Corpus Christie Hooks) play agains the Frisco Rough Riders. After the season he was having, I was really looking forward to seeing him play! But I guess he was good enough to move up…
On a side note, I picked him up in my fantasy league that year the day he was promoted and scored a major trade a week afterwards because he started off so hot. Helped me get to, but then lose, the championship game. Ok, digression over.
Most of the rest of the story is (current) history: AL Rookie of the Year, Rookie of the Month (June), Rookie of the Week twice. Pretty amazing stuff. But I will end this little blurb about his career with a quote from Carlos Beltran, who wrote to The Players Tribune recently on why he came back to the Astros for what might be his final season. This is what Beltran had to say about young Carlos Correa:
“Correa and I have talked a lot about leadership during the past two years, and he’s always asking for advice that will help him be a clubhouse leader even though he’s one of the younger players on the team. So this kid gets it, believe me. And he’s just soaking it all in.”
Can’t wait to see what he does this coming season!
Look of the Card:
This is my first profile of a 2014 Inception card, so let me start with the overall design. And to begin, I absolutely love the look! For the most part I hear people like 2014 over 2013, but to me they are both just excellent looking cards regardless.
The woodgrain back is definitely a departure from the cloud background, but continues to give a sort of ethereal feel; again very Field of Dreams-eque to me. And I will lose most of you for a second with this next comment, but I’m going to say it anyway. The overall “feel” of the card reminds of the video game Ico. Maybe you have heard of it, maybe you haven’t, but if you are curious what I mean, go check out some screen shots or video of the game play. That may be the most out-there comment I ever make on this blog. Maybe not though…
The concentric circles of light and color on the card provide absolutely amazing layering. The dark border, followed by the much lighter circle, ending with the white spot in the middle that the players body fades into is just straight up cool. And Correa signed right over that sport on my card, which looks about as perfect as can be in terms of positioning (I am making no claims on grading here, because that is beyond my scope of collecting).
On the 2014 set, the word Inception, the Bowman logo and the Player’s name are all in a silver color the complement that coloring of the card just perfectly.
The picture of Correa, to me, is a bit lacking. The best part is the way the orange jersey pops off the card. But the angle of the bat and his body torque just seem weak (especially compared to the beauty of his swing in real or the physical presence of Jorge Soler on his card like I discussed last week).
The look on his face is spot on, though. Serious. Calculating. It’s like he is watching the ball line past the second baseman and he is trying to figure out if he can stretch this single into a double.
Also a little disappointing is the actual signature, especially when compared to the 2013 version, but that's for another day. For the most part, we see the capital Cs for Carlos and Correa, and the cross looking thing in between I believe is the S at the end of Carlos. At first I thought it was a J for his middle name Javier, but after looking around and comparing signatures, it makes much more sense to me that it is the end of his first name. Overall, not my favorite signature, but honestly, who can complain when it's Carlos Correa?!?
To wrap up my comments on the card, I love how the final bullet point on the back side says: “Intelligent kid with all kinds of power, arm strength and intangibles.” How cool is that?
Card Value:
This card, like so many Inception, is an example of amazing fluidity on the market. There are currently no listings for this card on COMC.com, so most of the data is from ebay.
As of the time of research, the listings for 2014 Correa Inception (base) cards range from $45-$72.50 for the ungraded versions. This is interesting to me, because when Correa won rookie of the year, I traded for this card with someone on Twitter and the value we based the trade on was about $65-$70. And that was at what I would consider the peak for this card.
The actual sales on ebay speak to a slightly different level of demand for this card. A friend of mine in the collecting community pointed me to sortsof.com, which allows you to see what sellers accepted via the Best Offer function on ebay. Going back to October 22, of 2015 (covering 18 sales), the lowest accepted offer was for $17.50! Crazy! The highest sale was for $44. Note all of these sale prices are below the current lowest Buy It Now price on the site.
The average sale price has hovered right around $30 since October, which falls right into Real Time Pricing data on beckett.com which says the card sells from $20-$50.
I personally believe that Correa is going to have a bounce-back year after a slightly disappointing 2016 campaign. I am a big believer in the sophomore slump in all professional leagues, and now that he is through that we will see his stock soar. He is a fun player to watch and seemingly an amazing teammate destined to be a leader for many years to come (hopefully all with the Astros).
Thanks for sticking around again this week! Let me know what you think! All feedback is welcome. Any suggestions for what players you want to see profiled? And as always, any leads on more Inception that I can pick up are always welcome!
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