{"id":952862,"date":"2026-07-22T23:50:29","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T23:50:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/952862\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T23:50:29","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T23:50:29","slug":"chicago-cubs-refined-approach-helping-drive-pete-crow-armstrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/952862\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Cubs: Refined approach helping drive Pete Crow-Armstrong"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this month, Pete Crow-Armstrong went through his typical pregame routine in the batting cage with Chicago Cubs assistant hitting coach John Mallee.<\/p>\n

The conversation during the work shifted to Crow-Armstrong\u2019s walks. Crow-Armstrong thought he could have a chance to reach 40 walks by the All-Star break. Mallee agreed that would be a great spot for the 24-year-old, whose career high of 29 walks in a season came last year. His strong first half saw him eclipse that 40-walk mark, and Crow-Armstrong\u2019s stellar plate discipline has continued into the second half.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m up there to do damage, I\u2019m up there to put good at-bats together and I\u2019m up there to play situational baseball,\u201d Crow-Armstrong told the Tribune recently. \u201cSo, if there\u2019s a time where a guy is 60% slider with a runner in scoring position to left-handed hitters, then I may go up there sit and slider. But that\u2019s about all I\u2019ll give the the other side with their scouting and advanced stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year really made me understand how the opposing side adjusts and ends up trying to attack you. You\u2019ve got your guys that want to just throw to all your weaknesses because they\u2019re pitchability guys and they just miss barrels, and you\u2019ve got your guys that are just going to attack you and compete, and so I might as well just take that mindset into every single pitcher.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Column: Chicago Cubs will be trade deadline buyers, but how aggressive will Jed Hoyer be?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Crow-Armstrong tied his season high with three walks Tuesday in the Cubs\u2019 blowout win against the Tigers,<\/a> giving him his 10th game with at least two walks. In his first two-plus seasons in the majors, he recorded two such games, both last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s having better at-bats and just being a better hitter, not better bat to ball \u2014 that\u2019s always been a good thing of mine,\u201d Crow-Armstrong said. \u201cI just didn\u2019t know how to utilize bat to ball. So now we are a little bit better, that\u2019s probably why the contact is higher.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of that adjustment stems from a better understanding how a pitcher wants to attack him and having more matchup history to rely on. Mallee credits Crow-Armstrong for not trying to hit every pitch in every location.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s narrowed it down to looking in certain locations for certain pitches and checking off if it isn\u2019t that pitch,\u201d Mallee told the Tribune. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what selective aggressive hitting is. You\u2019re ready to hit every pitch, but if it\u2019s not what you\u2019re looking for, the location you want, to try to take it even within the strike zone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crow-Armstrong\u2019s 52 walks in 441 plate appearances entering Wednesday\u2019s series finale versus the Tigers already exceeds his walk total from the previous two seasons (50 walks in 1,357 PAs). Since June 17, he has walked 28 times for a 22% walk rate that ranks second-highest in the majors behind the New York Mets\u2019 Juan Soto (23.1%).<\/p>\n

His improved plate approach, featuring a 7.3 BB% increase from last season, makes Crow-Armstrong\u2019s success feel more sustainable.<\/p>\n

\"ChicagoCubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong beats the throw to Cardinals second baseman JJ Wetherholt on a steal on July 5, 2026, at Wrigley Field. (Eileen T. Meslar\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fun to watch him go through a full at-bat and only get one or two pitches to hit and swing at those ones, and if he hits it forward, the at-bat ends or he fouls it off, he\u2019s still patient enough to work his walks and still be really aggressive,\u201d hitting coach Dustin Kelly told the Tribune. \u201cWhen you\u2019re feeling really comfortable and you feel like you can hit everything, sometimes that works against you, knowing, \u2018Oh, I\u2019m really hot, I\u2019m going to swing at everything and keep getting the results.\u2019 He\u2019s been able to just bottle that up and really hunt one pitch in one part of the zone, and then off of that has been a little bit smaller of swings, so he\u2019s not chasing on the slider down and away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond the impressive walks total, Crow-Armstrong isn\u2019t making life easy for left-handers.<\/p>\n

His production against lefties has been elite, particularly given the challenge of a left-on-left matchup. Following a triple and walk in the first inning Tuesday against Tigers left-hander Framber Valdez, Crow-Armstrong owns a .289\/.411\/.463 slash line with five home runs and a 142 OPS+ off lefties this season.<\/p>\n

Kelly said it\u2019s hard to point to one reason for Crow-Armstrong\u2019s success versus left-handers but noted an adjustment he made in May when facing Atlanta Braves lefty Chris Sale. Crow-Armstrong moved up on plate, which Kelly believes has helped with his decision-making whenever lefties on are the mound.<\/p>\n

\u201cShrinking the plate in a sense that you didn\u2019t have so far away to cover, and that just gave him a ton of confidence,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cHe\u2019s put together some great at-bats against lefties.\u201d<\/p>\n

An interaction earlier this year with president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer still stands out to Crow-Armstrong. As he recalls it, Hoyer essentially issued a challenge of, \u201cHey, the homers are cool, bro, but we need you on first base.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crow-Armstrong, the Cubs\u2019 lone All-Star this season<\/a>, isn\u2019t a numbers-based goal-setter. But he loved Hoyer\u2019s challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat stuck in my brain and ended up being a daily, \u2018Come on, man! Find a way to walk today, find a way to get on base,’\u201d Crow-Armstrong said. \u201cThe 0-for-3s with the walks, the 0-for-1 with three walks, those have been some of my favorite games I\u2019ve ever had in my career.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earlier this month, Pete Crow-Armstrong went through his typical pregame routine in the batting cage with Chicago Cubs…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":952863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,1271,290386,5386,1818,21891,264109,1277],"class_list":["post-952862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-dustin-kelly","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-jed-hoyer","tag-john-mallee","tag-pete-crow-armstrong"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116966316237986006","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952862","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=952862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/952863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=952862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=952862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=952862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}