Houston Astros Prospect Preston Tucker hits two Homers in Futures Game

Tuesday night the San Antonio Missions and Corpus Christi Hooks played a regular season game at Minute Maid Park. The Texas League rivals proved that they were ready for American League baseball with a 15-14 Missions win that lasted 3 hours and 42 minutes. Preston Tucker was one of the standouts for the Astros Double-A affiliate.

Corpus Christi will be sending four players to the Texas League All-Star game on June 24. That game will be hosted by the Arkansas Travelers at Dickey-Stephens Park. Tucker will represent the club along with pitching standout Tommy Shirley and the Astros 2nd pick of the 2012 draft Nolan Fontana. Matt Duffy was also named to the squad but is currently playing for the AAA Oklahoma City team.

Preston Tucker entered the game with 15 home runs on the season. By the time the game was over, many fans were very excited about his display of power. His first at-bat was a solo home run that landed in the right-field bleachers. As someone who has likely been to Minute Maid Park too much this season, I am fairly confident that was 4th row in section 154.

The power surge continued with another solo shot in the 8th inning. His two home runs likely traveled well over 800 feet. The second home run was estimated at 460 feet and landed about 15 rows into the mezzanine, or second deck, at Minute Maid Park.

The two home runs put him into surprisingly good company. Last season George Springer had 19 home runs in 73 games of play as a member of the Hooks roster. Tucker currently leads all Texas League batters with his 17 home runs on the year. And perhaps the best part is that he has 9 games to catch up to Springer’s home run pace. Yep! That’s right. Tucker has hit his 17 home runs in just 64 games.

A product of the University of Florida baseball program, Tucker is just 23 years old. His birthday is coming up soon, July 6, so he will be 24. Tucker was a 7th round selection of the Houston Astros 2012 draft class.