After hearing about the trade that was made yesterday I wanted to take a look at some offensive numbers from both Lowrie and Carter and get a better idea of what Houston is getting with the addition of Carter and the subtraction of Lowrie.
I used the stats from 2012 because last year was the highest number of plate appearances that both players have had with their respective former clubs. I established a hit rate, walk rate, home run rate, and k rate for each player and figured an offensive output for a full season of playing every day with a minimum of 3 ab's per game.
Keep in mind that neither player has played a full season in the major leagues.
If Chris Carter homers at the pace he did last season, every 13.67 ab, he could out homer Jed Lowrie (hr/21.25 ab's) by 15 homers a season.
If Carter's K rate holds steady (K/2.62 ab) the Astros would be adding potentially 100+ strike outs. Almost exactly twice the amount of Lowrie. (K/5.23 ab).
Chris Carter had an OBP .019 points higher than Lowrie last season and walked every 6.66 abs, compared to Lowrie, who walked every 9 ab's. This equals roughly 20 more walks a season by Carter.
From this fairly raw data we can get a ballpark idea of the production Houston is getting with Carter compared to Lowrie.
Houston' fans can expect more power from Carter than Lowrie and a few more walks. However, with that Houston is getting a player who strikes out at a rate twice as often as Jed Lowrie.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
