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Cole Tucker Hasn’t Lived Up To Being 1st Round Pick

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It’s no secret that Cole Tucker has been a major disappointment to Pirates fans since being called up to the Majors.

As Pirates fans, some of you are geared to the phrase “this year may be the year when *insert player turns it around.” You recently went through it with Gregory Polanco, and we know what happened there.

Tucker being a former first-round pick makes it all the more painful to see him struggle mightily at the plate. On May 12th, the Pirates optioned Tucker down to Triple-A to bat strictly from the left side and abandon switch-hitting altogether.

During his time at the Major League level, Tucker is batting a .211/.259/.314 slash line along with an OPS of .573. With the last option the Pirates used on Tucker, this truly marks the last chance for him to put it together.

Let’s revisit the aforementioned former first-round pick, shall we? As we all know, the draft process is a crapshoot in any professional league, and this rings true, especially for baseball. Since Tucker was drafted in 2014, let’s go back a full 10-years and look at other former first-round picks. 

2013, Pick Number 14- Reese Maguire, C
2012, Pick Number 8- Mark Appel, RHP
2011, Pick Number 1- Gerrit Cole, RHP
2010, Pick Number 2- Jameson Taillon, RHP
2009, Pick Number 4- Tony Sanchez, C
2008, Pick Number 2- Pedro Alvarez, 3B 
2007, Pick Number 4- Daniel Moskos, LHP
2006, Pick Number 4- Brad Lincoln 
2005, Pick Number 11- Andrew McCutchen, CF
2004, Pick Number 11- Neil Walker, C 

Glancing over the past 10-years, you can definitely see some major question marks, take 2009, for example, or even 2007. There are going to be a lot of people who start adding 2014 as a major head-scratcher. One pick later turned out to be three-time gold glover, Matt Chapman. This, of course, is hindsight being 20-20.

This is in no way exclaiming that Tucker is Sanchez bad, but what this is saying is that Tucker has become yet another disappointment so far in his four years in Pittsburgh.

Can Tucker turn it around? Only time will tell, but the leash is starting to cut off circulation quickly on Tucker’s time in Pittsburgh.           

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