Don’t feel good about this fantasy baseball rookie post at all, tee bee aitch. The Astros seem 100% in win now mode, or winnow mode if you’re talking about winnowing out rookies. Tyler White seemed all ready to go once he was called up this year, and saw playing time, but hopefully that is not portending anything for Kyle Tucker, because White took six years in the minors and was 27 years old. Let’s not forget other Astros rookies who seemed all but destined for playing time in the last two years. Two that come to mind: Derek Fisher and A.J. Reed. Through a personal connection (and most definitely not stalking), Rudy was at a holiday party with Jeff Luhnow and was told that Reed had the lead for the starting 1st base job — that was two years ago! Reed did himself no favors to get that starting job, but how quickly did the Astros just go right back to a Marwin/Gattis/Reddick platoon? Quicker than you can call that platoon, Marwin Gatdick, and wonder how he gets through TSA. “Excuse me, sir, are you planning on doing a stickup or do you Gatdick?” Unlike my Victor Robles fantasy, I don’t think I can just ignore the possibility that Tucker never sees real playing time this year. Wow, this is getting me so amped up in the reverse direction. Okay, before you abandon ship and go back to reading recaps of Young Sheldon, Marwin’s about to walk and there’s really no one worthwhile blocking Tucker, so &2b[1y29–Sorry, was crossing fingers. Anyway, what can we expect from Kyle Tucker for 2019 fantasy baseball?
In Triple-A, Kyle Tucker went 24/20 and .332/.400/.590. Triple-A said afterwards, “Hey, Tucker, you’re our daddy.” Which sounds like a compliment, but then Tucker leaves Triple-A for the majors and now has to provide alimony. In the PBS documentary about Ted Williams, Kyle Tucker stood in for Ted Williams. No presh. According to the director of the one hundred cuts Tucker took, he “smacked the shit out of the ball” ninety-eight times. Too bad, the director was Werner Herzog and Kyle Tucker was eaten by a bear. Werner Herzog’s narration, “The game of baseball echoes the loneliness of life when a baserunner is stranded on 2nd base and there’s no one to talk to, except your enemy and the arbiter of truth, the umpire.” Here’s Tucker’s swing (it’s a home run):
Meh. I guess it’s pretty. Looks kinda stiff to me and vulnerable to off-speed stuff, but I stopped being a scout when I quit chew and wearing a lanyard necklace holding my keys. “Yo, you a scout or a PE teacher? Because you can’t be anything else.” That’s me asking anyone I see with a lanyard necklace holding keys. If they have a whistle, forget it! Tucker has that early Hunter Pence-type gazelle speed without throwing like a d’oh. What, does every white guy look the same to me? Yes, actually, they do. I don’t see Tucker turning on the burners and putting up a 25+ steal season in the majors. Not sure I even believe 15+ steals, but he could see it (if he were on another team or Craig Counsell gets traded to the Astros). The best scenario to me looks like Alex Bregman (which is a damn good scenario), and the worst case scenario is the first seventy years of Aaron Hicks’ career before this past year. Think 17/15/.265 to 30/20/.305. Wide range of possibilities there, but, between the Astros needing to have their arms twisted to play rookies, Tucker’s outfield eligibility and lack of huge upside in any category for 2019, I’m likely not going to be owning him, at least out of drafts in March. For 2019, I’ll give him the projections of 42/12/48/.274/8 in 308 ABs, but there’s a wide range of possibilities here for his stats and playing time.
