CHICAGO \u2013 At one point, Kyle Tucker and Pete Crow-Armstrong looked like interesting candidates in this year\u2019s National League MVP race. The two All-Star outfielders may overlap for only one season at Wrigley Field, which should have added another sense of urgency for the Chicago Cubs, both in the last free-agent market and at this summer\u2019s trade deadline. Once those dynamic players cooled off and started to slump, the club looked stagnant.<\/p>\n
In the playoffs, everything starts over at zero. Chicago\u2019s chances of qualifying for the postseason are currently hovering around 99.9 percent, according to the online projection systems. The Cubs already built a resourceful pitching staff that has outperformed expectations with the help of an elite defensive unit.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, Tucker and Crow-Armstrong possess the rare talents that can change games in October and swing playoff series. The checklist for the rest of September includes making sure they are in strong physical condition and the right frame of mind \u2014 for Cubs manager Craig Counsell, that will involve some intuition.<\/p>\n
While Crow-Armstrong\u2019s mental reset on the bench has ended, Tucker remains sidelined with left calf tightness, and appears to be trending toward a stay on the 10-day injured list.<\/p>\n
\u201cKyle\u2019s not playing today,\u201d Counsell said before Friday afternoon\u2019s 11-5 win over the Washington Nationals. \u201cHe\u2019s improved, for sure, and we\u2019d like to give him the day to just move around. Really, we want to get him symptom-free. Wednesday was a good day, in terms of how he came into the park.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was very encouraged, and we were encouraged that if he had to absolutely play on Wednesday, he probably could have. But we\u2019re going to give him a day to do a little more running around and just see where we\u2019re at. But I\u2019m pretty optimistic that we should get him in the lineup by the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n
During Friday\u2019s postgame media briefing, Counsell sounded less optimistic, saying Tucker\u2019s day \u201cwasn\u2019t as positive as we had hoped, frankly. He didn\u2019t really make progress.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tucker had exited Tuesday night\u2019s 4-3 win over the Atlanta Braves after hitting a three-run homer, continuing his hot streak following the mental reset\/three-game benching that Counsell implemented in late August. The stakes are enormously high for Tucker, who\u2019s positioned to become the No. 1 player in the upcoming class of free agents.<\/p>\n
Getting out of that spiral might have been harder since Tucker jammed his right ring finger on a headfirst slide at the beginning of June. He was eventually diagnosed with a hairline fracture in his right hand, but he kept playing because the healing process had already begun and he could tolerate the issue.<\/p>\n
Given recent history, as well as the club\u2019s overwhelming playoff odds, Counsell still deferred when asked if there\u2019s an argument to be made for shutting down Tucker, backdating the roster move and putting him on the 10-day injured list.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, not right now,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cThere\u2019s not a reason to do it today.\u201d<\/p>\n
That thinking could also change tomorrow.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to take the information in front of us and make the best decision we can,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cWith all these decisions, you\u2019re not going to be perfect on \u2018em. You get all the information you can get, and you make a good decision. Today we thought the best thing was for him to spend more time in a controlled environment and not put him in a game, which is a little less controlled.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can do that by DH-ing him. There\u2019s less exposure with the DH than playing in the field. So you take all those things into consideration. Every time a player plays, there\u2019s some risk, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
How Counsell handled the previous Tucker situation was instructive. After promoting center fielder Kevin Alc\u00e1ntara from Triple-A Iowa, the Cubs kept Crow-Armstrong out of the starting lineups on Tuesday and Wednesday, hoping some downtime would make him feel refreshed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have data behind it,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cIt is one of those things where it is a gut feel, a gut decision, for sure. There\u2019s data in front of it that\u2019s suggesting maybe it\u2019s time to do it. You\u2019re just looking at the person and the player. You\u2019re talking to coaches and people down here. It\u2019s what the player needs. What\u2019s best for the player?<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, you\u2019re often doing it at maybe a lower point for the player, so you\u2019re likely to improve. But in my experience, it\u2019s been helpful for players.\u201d<\/p>\n
In taking a small step forward, Crow-Armstrong contributed two singles, two sacrifice flies and a stolen base in Friday\u2019s victory (which also saw the Gold Glove-caliber defender lose a flyball in the sun above Wrigley Field).<\/p>\n
Crow-Armstrong already has 28 home runs during his breakthrough season, but just one over the past six weeks. His August numbers (.160 batting average, .446 OPS) were disappointing. He understood why the manager wanted him to sit back and watch.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe break was good,\u201d Crow-Armstrong said. \u201cIt was smart and calculated. I just came in feeling good, ready to do the same grind I\u2019ve been doing. But it\u2019s just a good chance to slow down a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Photo: Geoff Stellfox \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2013 At one point, Kyle Tucker and Pete Crow-Armstrong looked like interesting candidates in this year\u2019s National…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":203594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[1271,1266,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-203593","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-chicago-cubs","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115154434665032600","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}