Pete Crow-Armstrong, Kyle Tucker Are in Position to Define Their Cubs Legacy

As the Chicago Cubs prepare to head north to kick off the National League Division Series in Milwaukee, they can do so with the knowledge that a couple of their key hitters appear to (finally) be getting right at exactly the correct time. 

There was a point in the second half where things looked bleak for each of Pete Crow-Armstrong and Kyle Tucker. Despite the former's status at one point as a Most Valuable Player candidate and the latter spending much of the first half showcasing why he's a premier offensive talent, there wasn't much to speak of from either bat in the final stretch of the regular season. 

Crow-Armstrong turned in a .216/.262/.372 line in the second half, checking in with a wRC+ of only 72. August was a particularly brutal month for him, as that wRC+ figure came in at a mere 22 across 112 plate appearances. Tucker, meanwhile, went for a .231/.360/.378 line in half No. 2. Despite characteristically strong approach numbers that allowed him to remain a fixture on the basepaths, his power (and contributions in general) plummeted. He posted a wRC+ of 115 that represented a 30-point drop from his first half number. 

The respective reasoning behind their struggles is where the two differ. Crow-Armstrong was working through mechanical issues and what looked like some visible fatigue as the season wore on, while Tucker's hand fracture compounded with a September calf injury to pin down his ability create the same level of impact that we saw at the plate in the first half of the year. Regardless of the factors generating such intense struggles for two of the team's essential bats, it appears each is on his way to serving as a factor in the NLDS. 

As we approached the end of the regular season, there were at least signs that Crow-Armstrong was on his way back. He recorded at least one hit in five of his last six starts of the regular season, including back-to-back games with home runs in the final weekend. Even so, his postseason debut was a struggle. He went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts while whiffing seven times on nine swings. While the result in Game 2 might not have been terribly different (0-for-3 with two strikeouts), he at least cut the whiffs down a touch (five on nine swings) and saw 18 pitches across his three trips to the plate. 

But it's his 3-for-4 effort in Thursday's Game 3 that bodes particularly well for the start of the series against Milwaukee. Therein, he whiffed just thrice on 10 swings (another 18 pitches). His first notch on the stat sheet was a softer-hit single (86.4 MPH), but then he checked in with singles that came off the bat at 100.8 MPH and 109.4 MPH. It's the type of contact that can do wonders for a hitter in the confidence game. 

Tucker, on the other hand, started to show signs of bouncing back as early as in Game 2. He didn't have quite the same close to the regular season, as he only made three starts at a 1-for-12 output upon his activation from the injured list. So, it wasn't necessarily surprising to see him go 0-for-3 in Game 1. And while he recorded just one hit in four plate appearances in Game 2, he was able to produce a pair of hard hits in the effort (99.0 & 96.3 MPH). 

Like Crow-Armstrong, Tucker was able to put multiple hits on the board in Game 3, as he went 2-for-4 and came across the score one of the team's three runs. What's particularly encouraging about Tucker, though, is in his lack of swing-and-miss in the series at large. Not that it had been an issue for him during the regular season in the way it was for someone like Crow-Armstrong, but despite whiffing at three pitches on eight swings in Game 2, he bookended the series with a single whiff in each of Game 1 and Game 3. If he's on his way back to a level of strength more akin to the version we saw in the first half, then that near-absence of whiff is going to be a massive boon to the Cubs' lineup against the Brewers. 

Despite a lack of overall run production, there are a lot of things going right for this Cubs lineup at present. They're getting hits on the board and maintaining a regular presence on the basepaths. Hitters like Pete Crow-Armstrong and Kyle Tucker have their spot in the lineup on the strength of their ability to generate production with the guys around them getting on base. The value of these two appearing to be on a track toward getting back to the perception we had of their contributions for the bulk of the first half cannot be overstated.