Cubs takeaways: Pete Crow-Armstrong in pitchers’ heads, offense turns a corner and more (2024)

As the Cubs enjoy an off day in the nation’s capital, here are six takeaways while the team is in the midst of a 17-8 stretch, matching their best 25-game run of the season.

PCA in pitchers’ heads

Everyone knows Pete Crow-Armstrong is a menace on the basepaths. But watching Monday’s game in Pittsburgh, when the Cubs stole eight bases with Crow-Armstrong swiping three of them, it was hard not to notice how the speedster seems to constantly be on a pitcher’s mind once he reaches base.

“I definitely enjoy making my presence felt out there,” Crow-Armstrong said. “I think that’s part of the battle with taking the next base. It’s fun. It’s fun when you know that you’re on their mind. The job is making the next guy’s life a little easier. That’s what that does. That’s the best part about that.”

Crow-Armstrong is now 26-for-27 in stolen base attempts. His lone caught stealing was when he strayed a bit too far off third on a missed bunt attempt by Ian Happ and ended up getting tagged out in a rundown. But if he’s straight stealing a bag, good luck catching him.

Giving Napoli some love

It’s first-base coach Mike Napoli’s job to learn the tendencies of the opposing pitchers and catchers. Clearly, he did it well entering the Pirates series. But Napoli deserves credit for a team that’s been remarkably efficient this season with stolen bases.

“He talks to the whole team before every series about catchers’, pitchers’ and team tendencies,” Nico ho*rner said earlier this season. “But as specific things come up before a series or even during a game, he’s always communicating. Sometimes when I’m on first base he’ll notice something, whether it’s stealing a base or opportunities that are out there.”

Because the Cubs ran into a lot of outs on the bases early in the season, they took heat for being a bad base-running team. But their 84 percent success rate on steals is second in baseball. According to FanGraphs’ baserunning metric, they’re third in baseball at 11.7. They’re also tied for fifth at 81 with runners going first to third, despite having the second-fewest opportunities to do so among that group of teams.

Napoli gets a lot of love behind the scenes from Counsell, players and other coaches. He’s hard-working and wants to make the team better. David Ross noticed he may be well-suited for his current role and Napoli has dove head-first into it, studying video and searching for little aspects that can give his team the slightest edge.

Offense turning a corner?

Yes, the schedule has gotten easier. But the month of August has seen the Cubs’ offense transform into what many had hoped it would be coming into the season. Entering play on Thursday, they are tied with the New York Yankees for the second-highest wRC+ (123) this month.

Look at the August player leaderboards: Miguel Amaya (173, seventh) and Crow-Armstrong (168, ninth) are in the top 10 in wRC+. For monthly splits just for the Cubs, nine of the top 10 performances (minimum 20 plate appearances) have come in July or August, with six coming this month. If the minimum plate appearances are upped to 60, it would be four of the top six coming in August.

This month was supposed to be one where the Cubs could take advantage of the schedule. That they’re actually doing that, unlike what happened with their supposedly easy schedule in June, is why they’re hanging in the race by a thread.

Bullpen a little beat up

After a messy first few months, the Cubs’ bullpen turnaround has been a key to the team’s recent success. Since July 1, their relievers have a 2.67 ERA, over a half-run better than the second-place team.

One pitcher they hoped would impact the bullpen was Julian Merryweather. In his last outing, Merryweather’s fastball velocity was 93.7 mph. That’s down 3.1 clicks from his previous outing and nearly 4.5 from last season.

On Tuesday, the Cubs placed Merryweather on the injured list with right knee tendonitis.

“He dealt with this last year too,” Counsell said. “It comes and goes, that’s what makes it difficult. Some days he’s not affected by it, other days he is. It got to a point where you can’t not know whether it’ll affect you and have appearances like what happened on Sunday.”

Merryweather saw a doctor in Chicago and “nothing remarkable” was found during that appointment. He’ll do rehab to strengthen the knee and go from there.

But with Jorge López injuring his groin Monday night, suddenly the bullpen feels a little less intimidating. López has been utterly dominant with the Cubs, so his absence would hurt significantly. The Cubs aren’t sure whether he’ll need to go on the IL, but they’re trying to avoid it. At some point this weekend, a decision must be made.

If he’s unavailable, someone like Daniel Palencia, Nate Pearson or Keegan Thompson will have to step up. Counsell also said that Ben Brown remains shut down and it’s unlikely he will pitch again for the team this season. The Cubs can’t afford to have the bullpen take a step back in this final month as they try to get back in the race.

Cubs still fighting

Some may see players go on waivers and assume the Cubs are packing it in for the season. But that certainly isn’t on Counsell’s mind. When asked if he’d be monitoring innings loads for some of his starters, Counsell didn’t hesitate.

“We’re not in that mode,” he said. “Don’t want to be in that mode. Look, we’re going to be chasing. You just want to chase as long as you can and get it to that last week and still have a chance. That means we’re going to go hard.”

In 2018, 133 games into the season, Counsell’s Milwaukee Brewers were six games out of a playoff spot before catching the Cubs and then beating them to win the division in a Game 163. The next season, the Brewers were five games out of a wild card spot 139 games into the season. They ended up taking that final spot by three games.

Counsell’s teams have generally had strong Septembers. Last season, the Brewers were 17-11 in September after a 17-9 August.

Counsell was asked about Amaya’s hot stretch and what it could say about his future and he shared a quote from former Cubs assistant hitting coach, Andy Haines, who also spent time as Counsell’s hitting coach in Milwaukee and now holds that role for the Pirates. With broadcaster Jon “Boog” Sciambi in the scrum, Counsell asked him to share Haines’ philosophy.

“‘It takes a long time to have a good season and it takes a long time to have a bad season,’” Sciambi said.

“So that means that you’ve gotta give people the whole season,” Counsell added. “We evaluate them on the whole season. I think that’s the fairest way to do it. I think that’s why you keep going no matter what’s going on. Because you can change your season by working hard and looking for solutions.”

That applies to more than just Amaya, of course. It holds true for the bullpen. It holds true for Jameson Taillon last season and into this one. And perhaps it can hold true for the Cubs as a whole. They’ve still got another 28 games to try and show everyone that a poor May and June won’t define their season.

(Top photo: Charles LeClaire / USA Today)

Sahadev Sharma is a staff writer for The Athletic and covers the Chicago Cubs. Previously, Sahadev was a national baseball writer for Baseball Prospectus and ESPN Chicago. Follow Sahadev on Twitter @sahadevsharma