Chicago Cubs: What the heck happened to PCA?

The Chicago Cubs are now 7.5 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central Division. Are people still keeping track of the divisional standings?

Unless something crazy-magical happens over the final stretch of the season, the Cubs will have to settle for a Wild Card seat and hope for the best. The way things have been going, though, it might be a rough ride to even a Wild Card spot.

This has been a .500 team for quite awhile now and the occasional hint of a turnaround in recent days/weeks has usually been followed by a return to poor form. Since about the middle of June, Chicago has gone from en elite machine en route to a deep postseason run to a team hoping to not be pushed out of the playoff picture entirely.

Chicago Cubs’ offensive woes are cause of team slump

The culprit for this prodigious fall from grace is the flat-lining offense. And as the Cubs’ collective slump advances, it actually seems to be getting worse.

This month of August, specifically, has been horrible for what the team considered its core of offensive threats. Michael Busch, Seiya Suzuki, Kyle Tucker, and Pete Crow-Armstrong– often the team’s front-4 hitters in the lineup– are hitting a collective .156 with 3 home runs and 11 RBIs through August 13.

If not for the surge of rookie third baseman Matt Shaw and a taxed pitching staff that has mostly held its ground, things would be looking even uglier than they are right now.

PCA in the spotlight

One of the more frustrating fails this month is Crow-Armstrong, who is hitting .073 in August with no home runs and no RBIs.

PCA’s struggles are especially noticeable when juxtaposed with the “MVP” hyperbole surrounding him throughout the first part of the season.

The tumble off the pedestal has pushed media into asking “what’s happening” questions and forced “PCA” into a bit of baseball introspection.

“There’s nothing glaring,” Crow-Armstrong told Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic when asked about any possible changes to his approach. “On the inside, I think it’s been harder for a little longer than just a week. But that’s also because of my standards and expectations. I’m not chasing all that much. It’s just results-based. It’s a result-oriented game, obviously.”

Manager Craig Counsell hasn’t really addressed the young talent’s recent slump, but he did offer a blanket response to the team’s overall offensive doldrums, which leaned slightly into his usual “we’re good, we’re just having bad luck” reasoning.

“The name of the game is to square the ball up and get on base and create rallies,” Counsell said. “You got to do it in all sorts of situations and all times of the year. And we’re just in a little rut right now where we’re not doing it.”

But Counsell’s quote was from more than a week ago. The “rut” is still ongoing and he’s now leaning heavier into the “we’re good, we’re just having bad luck” routine.

No room for normal growing pains

There’s nothing wildly unusual about a young player going into an extended slump. It can’t be forgotten that, even with all the accolades, PCA is 23. Having the rest of the offense around him slump simultaneously– in the heat of a pennant race– is surely not helping him work through his own issues.

So, at this point, what can one do but grasp at Counsell’s narrative and hope that Crow-Armstrong (and almost every other hitter) starts getting better results from what they’re doing?

On the record, the young star is understanding of his lack of results, but not necessarily OK with it.

“Nothing is really wrong,” Crow-Armstrong affirmed. “I just suck at hitting baseballs sometimes right now. That’s OK. It doesn’t feel OK when I’m on the field and want to help my team win. You’d like to be the kick-starter or game-changer.”

Whatever the case, PCA needs to be present and fully actualized for the Cubs to have the best possible chance at a postseason run. No more MVP or extension talk, he has to hit and run and return to his role as a big play-maker.

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