With Pete Crow-Armstrong Remaking History, It's June 1998 All Over Again

[Matthew Trueblood]

Image courtesy of © David Banks-Imagn Images

Pete Crow-Armstrong had one of the best offensive performances in recent Cubs history Monday night. He hit for the cycle, with a leadoff home run, a third-inning triple, a fifth-inning double and a seventh-inning single. He also delivered a sacrifice fly on a hard-hit liner in the eighth. His moment of triumph was slightly marred when, immediately after accomplishing the cycle in the bottom of the seventh, he was picked off first base, but his RBI in the eighth set up a two-run, walkoff rally in the ninth. 

In the process, Crow-Armstrong became just the second Cubs batter in the Statcast Era to hit five balls with an exit velocity of at least 98 miles per hour in one game, joining Willson Contreras in a meaningless contest at the end of 2021. He delivered the first cycle by a Cubs batter playing in a full-time big-league stadium since 1993. He also made a highlight-reel defensive play. Normally, we'd call this The PCA Game, or something similarly majestic (if unimaginative). 

Here's the problem: If you mention The PCA Game to someone in the next few weeks, they won't know which you mean. Was it Monday's cycle? Or was it nine days earlier, when he also had four hits—two of them game-tying homers—in what became a walkoff win over the Giants? What about June 4, when he had a stolen base, a home run in the sixth inning, and the walkoff hit himself in the bottom of the 9th? Or how about May 30, when his four hits included a 444-foot homer and he made a sliding catch in the gap to seal the win—all on national TV, against the Cardinals in St. Louis? Suddenly, Crow-Armstrong is taking over games so frequently that what would be once-in-a-career heroics for some players feel routine.

We've been readying you for this and walking you through it since before the baseball gods laid their wreath on Crow-Armstrong's head. When he signed a long-term extension with the team at the beginning of the season, I wrote about his development into a power hitter by lifting the ball to the pull field in such an excellent and reliable way. I also asked, as he started to show signs of improved plate discipline, how much less he really needed to swing in order to ascend to superstardom. In mid-April, I documented his surging bat speed (but also the temporary problems it caused). 

If there was intrigue in April, there was outright chaos in May. I wrote about Crow-Armstrong's real chance to lay claim to the greatest defensive season of all time, but also how he began to play out of control when the Cubs started struggling, and about how uncomfortably Crow-Armstrong-centric the team has become of late. After he used a day off between series on May 21 to lock in some changes to his setup and his plan, though, he exploded. He simply exploded, into an elite offensive player who can't help but take up most of the oxygen around a team, even if that player weren't also an elite defender with a big personality.

All of this should sound familiar, whether you're old enough to actually remember it or not. The famous number attached to Sammy Sosa's 1998 power binge is the 20 home runs he hit in June, but his hot streak didn't wait until the calendar flipped. Through May 21, Sosa was having a strong season, with a .929 OPS. However, starting May 22, he went completely nuclear. He batted .321/.349/.879 from May 22 through the end of June, before "cooling" to a .986 OPS for the balance of the season. That stretch during which he went from an All-Star to a superstar lasted about six full weeks.

We're not even that far along with Crow-Armstrong, but he's almost exactly that hot, since the same square on a different calendar. Since May 22, he's come to the plate 106 times. He's batting .380/.443/.761, with eight homers. Juan Soto he ain't, but he's even drawing walks at a decent clip. He's not going to hit 20 homers this month, but in his whole nutty hot streak, Sosa only had 28 extra-base hits. It's just that 25 of them cleared the fence. With half of June left, Crow-Armstrong has 17 extra-base hits in his own personal crucible of brilliance.

It's fair to remain concerned about the erraticism of his play, fueled as it seems to be by the intensity of his personality. However, at the plate, Crow-Armstrong has become a lethal tactician, cool and locked-in. He's swinging ferociously, and finding the barrel efficiently. He's still making plays in the outfield and on the bases.

Sosa holds the Cubs record for games in a season in which a batter delivered at least 2.00 runs more than an average hitter would in the same number of plate appearances—not with his 1998 campaign, but with his 2001 one, in which he did that 24 times. It's rare, to be worth two full runs on your own. In the last two decades, the most such games by any Cub was Anthony Rizzo's 17 in 2017. Crow-Armstrong now has six such games, though, with five of them coming in the last 24 days. He's taking over games at a rate no one born since 1990 can ever remember a Cubs hitter matching. Enjoy the show.

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[Patrick88]

Cubs fans will hate me for this, but it needs to be said.  The Cubs should see what prospect package they could get back for PCA.  This organization desperately needs a rebuild, and a PCA trade could jump start one.  If the Cubs keep him, then it’s Sammy Sosa on a mediocre team all over again.  Do Cubs fans want to do that again, or do they want sustained success?  I’ll take the latter.

[Jason Ross]

2 minutes ago, Patrick88 said:

Cubs fans will hate me for this, but it needs to be said.  The Cubs should see what prospect package they could get back for PCA.  This organization desperately needs a rebuild, and a PCA trade could jump start one.  If the Cubs keep him, then it’s Sammy Sosa on a mediocre team all over again.  Do Cubs fans want to do that again, or do they want sustained success?  I’ll take the latter.

The Cubs are a year removed from being one game away from an NLCS, have tons of young talent and even with a rough time are on an 84 win pace. 

They do not "need to rebuild" nor do they need to trade the player they just locked up beyond FA to do that. I wouldn't disagree that they may need to look inward on how they rank what's important, how they evaluate some things, etc. There's always room for personal improvement! But get out of here with "a desperate rebuild". That's hyperbolic to the extreme.

[Patrick88]

They do not have anything in the farm system though.  You can keep PCA, but like I said it will look like Sammy in the 90’s, or Ryne in the 80’s.  Trade him and get some prospects.  

[mul21]

26 minutes ago, Patrick88 said:

They do not have anything in the farm system though.  You can keep PCA, but like I said it will look like Sammy in the 90’s, or Ryne in the 80’s.  Trade him and get some prospects.  

You have no idea what you're talking about.

[cl smooth]

43 minutes ago, Patrick88 said:

They do not have anything in the farm system though.  You can keep PCA, but like I said it will look like Sammy in the 90’s, or Ryne in the 80’s.  Trade him and get some prospects.  

step away from your keyboard.