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Astros: 3 clear signs that Kyle Tucker has turned a corner
The Houston Astros needed Kyle Tucker to click in this lineup and right on cue, he has. Here are three clear signs that he’s here to stay.
With Yordan Alvarez out for the year and a spattering of other short-term injuries—Michael Brantley, George Springer, Alex Bregman—all coming and going, the Houston Astros needed to be able to rely on Kyle Tucker. It was hard enough fielding the likes of Mayfield and Toro, even Jones now, none of whom have found consistency.
But they needed Tucker to do his thing. Only he wasn’t. He was striking out way too much, popping up way too much, his swing looked over-elaborate and unnecessarily long and the worry was beginning to settle in—was he the real deal?
Chyeah. He is. And if you’re still feeling nagging concerns that it might just be a flash in the pan, I’m here to massage away those concerns with some stellar numbers that will make those concerns disappear.
If you can’t just see it with the naked eye, that is. It’s really obvious to just see that Kyle Tucker is a man reborn, but numbers always help the eyes see a bit clearer.
Let’s start with clear number No. 1.
3. Team Leader
Before we even get into the deep numbers, we just need to look at the basic numbers. Kyle Tucker is tied for the team lead in home runs with 5. He’s leading the team with 22 RBIs as of writing, he may get more before this article goes live.
He has the highest slugging percentage outside of Yordan Alvarez, the second-most stolen bases behind just Myles Straw. It’s an ongoing string of things he’s best at, or second-best at. Very quietly, Tucker has become the best hitter in this lineup. He’s rotating around the clean-up and No. 5 holes.
Basically, anything that you want a batter to excel at, Tucker is now excelling at so much that he’s taking over the top spot on the team left and right. You can’t just lead an offensive juggernaut like the Astros and not be here to stay.
But if you need more convincing, let’s move on to No. 2.
2. Tough Situation
It’s a short season, his first “full-year” with the club, surely those numbers can be misleading since they are inevitably a smaller sample size. Right? That explains it all away, Tucker is a fraud, he just takes advantage of the situation.
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Wrong.
Most hitters can learn to take advantage of a good situation, like being up 2-0, or facing a right-handed pitcher (as a lefty). But not Kyle Tucker.
Tucker thrives in tougher situations. For instance, he hits better on the road (.291) than he does at home (.209). He hits better down in the count (0-1 count, .314; 0-2 count, .304) then he does when he’s ahead in the count (1-0 count, .214; 2-0 count, .111).
And he hits left-handed pitchers (.314) better than right-handed pitchers (.221).
All this to say that Tucker is doing better in harder situations then he is when everyone else does better—in easier situations. What is the natural segue from there? That Tucker’s numbers will skew even more upwards when he starts leveling out those easier situations.
He’s not done improving yet, folks.
Finally, on to No. 1.
1. Plate Discipline
The big one. You can hit all you want, but if you swing wildly, as he had been doing, pitchers are always going to be able to exploit the holes in your swing. And early on, that’s exactly what was happening.
He was swinging at between 30-50% of pitches outside of the zone in the early parts of the season, but in his last six games, tracking back to the finale against Colorado, he hasn’t gone above 26%, with two games firmly at 0%.
In that time, he’s taken six of his ten walks on the season and suddenly, he’s looking like one of the most disciplined hitters on the team. His walk probability has gone from about 4-5% throughout the early parts of the season to about 38% in these last six games.
It’s a completely different approach. He’s seeing the ball differently, he’s not chasing, he’s containing his swing to only go after pitches he can do something with. And it’s all coming together to make him a fearsome hitter.