Fantasy alert: Houston calls up top prospect Carlos Correa

Hours after Jonathan Villar went 0-for-3 in a loss to the Blue Jays, committing an odd defensive miscue along the way, the Houston Astros decided to call up 20-year-old shortstop Carlos Correa, one of baseball's elite prospects.

As most of you already know, Correa has been an absolute monster in the high minors this season. He's slashed .335/.407/.600 across two levels with 10 homers, 18 steals and 129 total bases. The kid will join the Astros in Chicago on Monday, making his major league debut against Chris Sale, a match-up that presents the highest possible degree of difficulty. So that's fun.

[Yahoo Sports Fantasy Football is back: Sign up for a league today!]

Correa is long gone in pretty much all competitive fantasy formats, obviously. He's an every-tool, upper-tier prospect at a premium position, thoroughly hyped, and there was never much doubt about his timeline. But he remains unowned in 49 percent of Yahoo leagues as of this writing. If you're an owner in a shallow pool, make the add ... today. Now. Go. Do it. Correa isn't going to reinvent the game in year one, obviously, but his power/speed potential is significant. He should be fantasy relevant, immediately.

(OK, perhaps not against Sale. But soon after.)

We should note that Correa's production slipped from superhuman levels to merely very good when he made the jump from Double-A to Triple-A this season. So it would be an overstatement to say that he'd completely mastered PCL pitching. Still, he hit .276/.345/.449 over 24 games at Fresno, with 10 extra-base hits and three steals in four attempts. At his age, merely treading water at Triple-A is terrific.

Correa doesn't have much swing-and-miss in his game, which is nice to see. He walked nearly as often as he struck out at Fresno (12 BB, 14 Ks). There's little question that he's a substantial upgrade over guys like Villar and Marwin Gonzalez. Assuming all goes well for Correa in the big leagues — never a safe assumption with prospects, but please play along — then Jed Lowrie will likely shift to third upon returning from the DL, nudging Luis Valbuena into a part-time role.

If you need a five-category forecast for Correa's rest-of-season production, here's my best guess: 52 R, 11 HR, 48 RBIs, 13 SB, .270 AVG. That should play in most fantasy leagues. Feel free to file your own projection in comments.

---

Late update: Houston will also reportedly promote Vincent Velasquez, a Double-A right-hander with sparkling ratios and a scary K-rate (career 10.8 minor league K/9). Can't say the Astros haven't been aggressive in pursuit of a division flag. Velasquez will get the start against Chicago on Wednesday. Definitely worth a look.