Correa sacrifices sleep to watch, meet Stephen Curry

For the first time in his career, Carlos Correa is entering a spring camp knowing he'll be a mainstay on a big-league roster, and he's taking advantage of it.

The reigning National League Rookie of the Year traveled to Orlando on Thursday night to watch Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors take on the Magic, losing out on some valuable sleep for a chance to meet one of the NBA's most talented players.

"He's a really humble, down-to-earth guy," Correa told MLB.com's Brian McTaggart on Saturday. "It was fun to talk to him, to get to know him after that great game he had. He was calm and had great composure. It was unbelievable. It was maybe five minutes, but it was a great five minutes.

"It was unbelievable. You cannot believe what he can do. That half-court shot he made was incredible. You go out there and you go out of your way to watch a basketball game and you've got to be here at 6 a.m., but it's worth it. When a guy plays like that, it's worth watching basketball and going out of your way to watch a game when you have to be at the ballpark so early the next day. It was fun to watch him play and meet him."

Correa likely wasn't at his best Friday morning due to his limited amount of shut-eye, but it's fair to assume the Houston Astros shortstop earned some leeway after his breakout rookie campaign last year, when he hit .279/.345/.512 with 22 homers and 68 RBIs in 99 games.