Pete Crow Armstrong, Joe Buck, Pardon My Book Is Out + Mt Rushmore Of Things Guys Keep For Too Long

The Cubs' Pete Crow-Armstrong hit a walk-off home run against the White Sox on Monday night, but the moment that best captures his season came earlier in the at-bat. He had made up his mind to swing at the first pitch two hours before the game, because he had been "scuffling for what felt like three months." Then in the ninth inning, he took a pitch. "My walk last night, 1-0 — I made up my mind that I was gonna take 1-0 because a lot of guys like to go strike the ball with me, they like to get me to chase 1-0," he explained. "So I was like, fucking I'll just, I'll show bunt, try and see if we can get the third baseman crash and open up the field a little bit, and then it ends up being 2-0, and then I'm not swinging 3-0 against a lefty." That patience — the willingness to not swing — is the skill he has added to his game this year, and it is what separates his current trajectory from last season, when he hit 31 home runs but felt his season was incomplete.

The New PCA: Plate Discipline and the Number Change