This Astros prospect is confusing all his teammates with spectacular card tricks

Prepare to be dazzled by the Amazing Heineman.

Catcher Tyler Heineman held court inside the Astros clubhouse at Osceola County Stadium on Sunday morning, showing a group of players some card tricks that left them scratching their heads. Later, he befuddled Double-A manager Rodney Linares with a card trick in which he made a card in Linares' back pocket appear in Heineman's hand. Linares was at a loss.

Not bad for a guy who picked up card tricks only four months ago.

"It's very entertaining because I like to see the reaction of everyone else," Heineman said. "I'm still new to this."

Heineman began dabbling with cards while playing winter ball in the Dominican Republican. He had a knack for it, and he later watched some DVDs and even took some private lessons from a man he met after he happened to wander into a magic shop.

"He ended up teaching me a lot of stuff," Heineman said. "He showed me a few tricks in there."

Did he look like this?

Very possibly.

Heineman maintains his future is baseball, but he loves being able to baffle his teammates with his sleight of hand.

"Definitely baseball is my main focus," he said. "It's just a fun side hobby that makes people feel good or feel a little bit stupid about themselves that they can't see it. Obviously, I know what I'm doing so it kind of eliminates the magic or the mystical aspect of it for me."

But how did he get so good so quickly?

"The man who mentored me asked the same question," he said. "I couldn't tell you. I think I just pick up things pretty easily and learn things pretty quickly because I put my mind to it. A lot of time when I'm not doing anything or watching TV, I'll practice with a deck of cards."

Brian McTaggart is a reporter for MLB.com and writes an MLBlog, Tag's Lines. Follow @brianmctaggart on Twitter and listen to his podcast.