{"id":31991,"date":"2020-05-29T12:54:23","date_gmt":"2020-05-29T16:54:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/?p=31991"},"modified":"2020-05-29T12:54:23","modified_gmt":"2020-05-29T16:54:23","slug":"carson-tucker-2020-mlb-draft-profile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2020\/05\/29\/carson-tucker-2020-mlb-draft-profile\/","title":{"rendered":"Carson Tucker 2020 MLB Draft Profile"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With the exception of<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/2020\/05\/18\/ed-howard-2020-mlb-draft-profile\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> <strong>Ed Howard<\/strong><\/a>, this year&#8217;s prep shortstop class is quite weak. However, one prospect that has shot up MLB Draft boards after an impressive early-season performance is shortstop <strong>Carson Tucker<\/strong>. Tucker, who attended Mountain Pointe High School in Phoenix, Arizona, is listed as the 52nd-best prospect according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/prospects\/draft\/carson-tucker-691020\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">MLB.com <\/a>and is projected by some Mock Drafts to be a late first round pick.<\/p>\n<h3>Strengths<\/h3>\n<p>Tucker isn&#8217;t exceptional at any\u00a0<em>one\u00a0<\/em>thing on the diamond, but his game is balanced across the board. His assistant coach at Mountain Pointe High School <a href=\"https:\/\/arizonasports.com\/story\/1916526\/texas-baseball-commit-tucker-has-hopes-for-mountain-pointe-beyond\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">referred to<\/a> him as a \u201cjack of all trades.\u201d The 18-year-old is listed at 6&#8217;2&#8243; 180 lbs. and has all the physical characteristics to play at the major league level.<\/p>\n<p>At the plate, Tucker bats with an open stance from the right side. He features excellent plate discipline and vision, as he struck out just 18 times in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.maxpreps.com\/athlete\/carson-tucker\/cBSBEpjpME-3eqfpq3iHSA\/baseball\/stats.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">340 recorded plate appearances<\/a> over his high school career. Scouts are also impressed with his bat speed and ability to drive the ball to all parts of the field. At the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.perfectgame.org\/Players\/Playerprofile.aspx?ID=381034\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Perfect Game National Showcase<\/a> in 2019, he posted a bat speed of <span id=\"ContentPlaceHolder1_lblMaxBarrelSpeed\">64.994<\/span> mph, exceeding the class average of 63.95 mph. In that same event, his max acceleration at the plate was <span id=\"ContentPlaceHolder1_lblMaxAcceleration\">32.479<\/span> g\u2019s, placing him in the 65.76 percentile.<\/p>\n<p>Over the offseason, Tucker continued to get stronger and work on his swing mechanics. Before the 2020 high school season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Tucker was seeing the fruits of his labor. As a result, he showcased an upsurge in bat speed and an increase in power.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zPSM12eS_GE\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In the field, Tucker uses his athleticism, balance, and reliable hands to make difficult plays look easy. His arm strength is considered average, which makes some scouts wonder if he&#8217;ll move elsewhere on the diamond. However, he should develop enough arm strength to stick at the shortstop position.<\/p>\n<h3>Weaknesses<\/h3>\n<p>Currently, Tucker&#8217;s biggest weakness is his lack of power. As a result, his power swing received a below-average scouting grade of 40\/80 on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/prospects\/draft\/carson-tucker-691020\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> MLB.com<\/a>. But considering that he is only 18 years old, this shouldn&#8217;t be a long-term concern. He should continue to develop more power as he fills out his athletic body and gets into professional training.<\/p>\n<p>Another concern for teams is Tucker&#8217;s verbal commitment to the Texas Longhorns. He&#8217;s been committed to the Longhorns since 2018, so there&#8217;s a chance that he honors that commitment. Tucker&#8217;s brother, Cole, was selected with the 24th overall pick in the 2014 MLB Draft, so Tucker and his family are familiar with the Draft process.<\/p>\n<h3>MLB Comp<\/h3>\n<p>A good comparison for Tucker is <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/oakland-athletics\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oakland Athletics<\/a> shortstop <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/semiema01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Marcus Semien<\/a><\/strong>. Their frames are similar, with Semien being listed at 6&#8217;0&#8243; 195 lbs, and Tucker being listed at 6&#8217;2&#8243; 180 lbs. Both players have similar swings and do a good job of making contact. Tucker edges Semien in the field, but both players can provide some spectacular defensive plays.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s impossible to know what the future holds for Tucker, but he has the potential to be a star for whichever team that selects him in June.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"9Xq8N6_YQXVY2lBg6PS4QQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1208472476\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'9Xq8N6_YQXVY2lBg6PS4QQ',sig:'gdYwve6qkWs0e0INBws2fcpH4h8CD1ISseFhya5S4cc=',w:'594px',h:'418px',items:'1208472476',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the exception of Ed Howard, this year&#8217;s prep shortstop class is quite weak. However, one prospect that has shot up MLB Draft boards after an impressive early-season performance is shortstop Carson Tucker. Tucker, who attended Mountain Pointe High School in Phoenix, Arizona, is listed as the 52nd-best prospect according to MLB.com and is projected [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2924,"featured_media":32122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3678],"class_list":["post-31991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-carson-tucker"],"modified_by":"Aaron Cornett","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2924"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}