Kevin O’Sullivan knew he was getting a natural hitter when he recruited Preston Tucker, but he never thought he would get this much in return.
“We knew he was going to be a good hitter; he’s always hit,” O’Sullivan said Saturday after Tucker broke Florida’s career RBI record. “But to be able to do what he did, I didn’t predict this.”
In fact, no one really predicted it.
Coming out of Tampa Plant High, Tucker was rated the 345th-best prospect in the class of 2008 by Perfect Game. When the 2008 MLB First-Year Player Draft rolled around, there were 50 rounds of selections, two supplementary rounds and 1,504 players picked.
Tucker wasn’t one of them.
That makes what he has done at Florida, and what he is in the process of doing, even more impressive.
Through his junior year, Tucker was already among Florida’s all-time best players at the plate — Brad Wilkerson, Matt LaPorta, Mark Ellis and David Eckstein. But when the slugger turned down a contract from the Colorado Rockies, who drafted him in the 16th round last June with the 498th overall pick, Tucker all but assured he would establish himself as the best hitter in school history, ahead of those four Florida greats, all of whom have had solid Major League careers.
By the time his senior campaign ends, Tucker will claim several of the Gators’ all-time offensive records. He already broke Wilkerson’s RBI total of 214, and will set that bar closer to 300 by year’s end. After averaging more than 85 hits during his first three seasons, Tucker is 51 shy of passing Ellis for the top spot and seven doubles from eclipsing Ellis’ mark of 61.
Tucker’s on an absurd tear to start the season, leading the Gators in hits (12), RBI (eight), home runs (five) and slugging percentage (.935). Three of his last four hits have been home runs, and although he’s unlikely to reach LaPorta’s record of 74, Tucker (who sits at 46 career round-trippers) will surely finish second on that list.
“He’s gone on tears like this,” O’Sullivan said. “You look up and it’s almost like you expect him to hit one (home run) a game.”
Since he first stepped on campus, Tucker has been in the heart of Florida’s lineup — 200 starts and counting, another record he will likely break by season’s end — punishing opposing pitchers with his career .587 slugging percentage.
Most impressive, perhaps, is that Tucker will have accomplished these feats while playing the final two years of his career with new bats designed to have less pop.
Now, he is on the verge of going from unheralded hitting prospect to the most prolific hitter and arguably the greatest player in Florida baseball’s 98-year history.
He’ll be able to cement that designation if he helps lead the Gators to their third straight trip to Omaha, Neb., and the school’s first College World Series title.
“(He’s) going to go down in the record books as one of the best players to play here,” O’Sullivan said before the season.
And no one saw it coming.
Not bad for some kid from Tampa who went undrafted out of high school.
Contact Tom Green at tgreen@alligator.org.
