Tenth is the series. Today we look at the Cubs\u2019 young center fielder.<\/p>\n
Peter Henry Crow-Armstrong<\/a>, the first-round pick of the New York Mets in 2020, came on like gangbusters in the first half of 2025. His act flagged badly toward the end, but he turned in a marvelous season that raises expectations and anxieties about his 2026 campaign.<\/p>\n He needs to improve his in-zone contact some, stop swinging at so many bad pitches, and use his considerable bat speed and hand-eye coordination to make better-quality contact. Fans hope that he can learn a little more patience at the plate, and all of the above point to him not getting himself out. Travis Sawchik had a good piece about that<\/a>, also appearing in Cub Tracks.<\/p>\n The guy\u2019s already a star. Really, given the hype and the hope, he was a star before he got to the majors, and his skills and considerable charisma have served him well so far. He can do things nobody else can.<\/p>\n Some consistency would be infinitely desirable. Maybe a couple of Ian Happ specials rather than a whole second half? Hmm. A season of that and the same numbers or better, and we\u2019re talking about a superstar.<\/p>\n His stellar defense props up his WAR numbers. BBRef has him at 8.1 bWAR<\/a>, with PCA having amassed 6.0 of that total in 2025, and Fangraphs submits a 7.8 fWAR<\/a> lifetime total, with 5.4 coming last year, but it isn\u2019t all about his defense. PCA turned in a spectacular 2025. Most projections have him sacrificing some power and maintaining his RBI total, with the aggregate something like 25 HR\/85+ RBI in their sights.<\/p>\n Certainly we could all live with that, without the post All-Star Game dropoff.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve long thought that he was just tired, and could use a little more rest. Maybe Kevin Alc\u00e1ntara or Dylan Carlson, depending on who wins that competition, could spell Pete against tough lefties or once a week, and give him a breather, and the Cubs won\u2019t lose so much at the plate or defensively.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s hope for a happier ending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tenth is the series. Today we look at the Cubs\u2019 young center fielder. Peter Henry Crow-Armstrong, the first-round…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,138,24,70392,4245,161,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-556509","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-cubs","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-cubs","11":"tag-chicago-cubs-player-profiles","12":"tag-chicagocubs","13":"tag-cubs","14":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116019671790913690","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}