Astros: 3 improvements we need to see from Kyle Tucker

1. Stay on top of the ball

I feel like this is one of the first lessons imparted on every child that plays baseball—stay on top of the ball. When you start getting under the ball, bad things happen. And bad things are happening to Kyle Tucker for exactly that reason—he’s not staying on top of the ball.

Tucker is hitting fewer line drives than ever before. After averaging about 25% line drives throughout his time in the minors, he’s seen that percentage drop to just 16%.

Meanwhile, his pop-up percentage has swollen to where his line drives ought to be—23.5%. He’s hitting the ball softly 16.3% of the time, that’s highest on the Astros, and he isn’t getting hits from those softly hit balls either.

When Tucker starts squaring up good pitches to all fields, he will get to that place we all expect him to be at now. It’s just a matter of when he gets there. Because there are no “ifs” here.