Chicago Cubs: PCA named Player of the Week, shares Counsell motivational advice

The Chicago Cubs may be going through an extended rough patch that has seen them fall from first place in the NL Central Division to fourth place, but there are still some silver linings. Pete Crow-Armstrong has become one of them.

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The Cubs’ 24-year-old center fielder was just named NL Player of the Week after his recent MVP-level stretch of games.

Over the course of the last week, “PCA” is 11-for-25 with 4 home runs, 6 RBIs, plus a walk-off. Actually, over the last month or so, the young talent has become one of the team’s most impactful bats, although the stats on paper didn’t initially reflect how well his at-bats have been going. He is currently on a 12-game hitting streak.

PCA’s stellar run at the plate

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Michael Cerami of Bleacher Nation recently crunched the numbers, showing just how good Crow-Armstrong has been:

“During that 12-game stretch, he’s slashing a ridiculous .392/.456/.745 (236 wRC+), with three doubles, five homers, two stolen bases, and just a 24.6% strikeout rate.

He’s also tearing the COVER off the ball with a 94.4 MPH average exit velocity, a 24.3% barrel rate, and a 59.5% hard-hit rate.

But you should know by now that this isn’t merely some tiny sample spark. He may have won the award for this week, but you can go back OVER 200 PAs now to April 14 and find a bona-fide superstar.

.278/.373/.506 (149 wRC+, 20th in MLB)
10 HRs, 10 SBs
9.6 BB%, 23.4 K%
91.9 MPH EV (25th in MLB)
14.4 Barrel% (24th in MLB)
52.3 Hard% (17th in MLB)”

As Cerami also pointed out, he’s currently second in fWAR among pure position players with 2.9, behind only Bobby Witt Jr.’s 3.1.

PCA will now bring his red-hot bat into the light air of the Colorado Rockies’ Coors Field for a three-game series, which has become a must-win set of games for a Cubs team that hasn’t actually won a series in quite a while.

Counsell’s words of wisdom

Crow-Armstrong, who signed a six-year, $115 million contract extension with the Cubs at the start of the season, recently brought up a bit of motivational wisdom shared with him by manager Craig Counsell, amid the team’s ugly, extended slump.

“(Counsell) made an interesting point to me the other day,” he told reporters. “He said, ‘It kind of feels like it’s a bunch of have to, and we have to get the job done, and we have to pick it up, turn it around, win these games — it’s like, you can’t forget that we get to do this.’”

The words highlighted the fact that Crow-Armstrong, and everyone else at the major league level, is privileged to be in a spot where such pressure is heaped on his shoulders. It served as a reminder that the joy of playing the game shouldn’t ever be eclipsed by the work necessary to succeed.

Right now, PCA is putting everything together to wring maximum joy and success from his efforts.

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