Hooks' Tucker placed on seven-day DL

With the Major League Trade Deadline approaching, speculation follows any prospect who gets pulled from a game, especially when that prospect plays for a contender. Kyle Tucker left Saturday's game for an entirely different reason.
The Astros' No. 2 prospect was placed on the seven-day disabled list Tuesday, retroactive to Saturday, with back discomfort. The injury led to Tucker's removal from Double-A Corpus Christi's game in the fourth inning and his absence from Sunday's lineup.

"He is good. It is more of a precaution," Hooks manager Rodney Linares told the Corpus Christi Caller Times. "He hit a hard single to left field and kind of felt some discomfort in his back. We had just scored six runs in that inning and even though we didn't have another outfielder, we had J.D. [Davis] that fills in in the outfield and does a pretty good job. It was just a precaution to take him out."
The fifth overall pick in the 2015 Draft batted .288/.379/.554 with nine homers, 43 RBIs and 13 stolen bases in 48 games with Class A Advanced Buies Creek to force his way to Corpus Christi. Tucker has continued his assault on Minor League pitching with the Hooks, hitting for a higher average (.301) with one fewer homer in 36 contests while nearly matching his .932 OPS at a higher level of competition with a .908 mark.

After blasting nine homers in 117 games between Class A Quad Cities and Class A Advanced Lancaster in 2016, Tucker has almost doubled his output this year and was batting .415 during an 11-game hitting streak that included six multi-hit games.
Scouts project he'll lose a step on the basepaths and in the outfield as he fills out, possibly leading to a move away from center to a corner outfield spot, but Tucker -- MLB.com's No. 27 overall prospect -- maintains plus grades for his hit tool, power and throwing arm, which should be an asset if asked to transition to right field.