Jed Hoyer talks Pete Crow-Armstrong, Kyle Tucker in wide-ranging comments

Heading into the season, few had the Chicago Cubs heading into the back half of May in first place in the National League Central, tied for the second-most wins in the Senior Circuit - especially after dropping both games in the Tokyo Series to the Dodgers to open the year.

But that's where we are. The Cubs are looking for a series sweep of the crosstown rival White Sox on Sunday - which would mark their first sweep of a 3+ game series since taking all three games against the Athletics in Sacramento to close out March and open April. A big reason why? The somewhat surprising superstar-level play from Pete Crow-Armstrong and MVP-level numbers from fellow outfielder Kyle Tucker.

The Tucker trade looks better with each passing day, even with the three-time All-Star struggling (by his own lofty standards) in May. Still, his 'down' month has culminated in an OPS of .840, well above league averag. Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer has been impressed with one key element of Tucker's game, in particular - his consistency:

“What impresses me is just the day-to-day at-bat quality,” Hoyer told Marquee Sports Network this weekend. “In this game, you’re going to go up and down. You’re going to go in and out of light slumps and you’ll get hot. But just the quality of the at-bat every day — he sees pitches, he swings at the right pitches, he wants to play every single day, he’s an excellent baserunner.

Tucker's Baseball Savant page makes it clear: he's a truly elite offensive player - and if not for the ongoing breakout from his fellow outfielder in PCA, we'd likely be talking a lot more about what he's done this year (1.6 bWAR, 150 OPS+, top 5 percent in both walk and strikeout rate).

Cubs' Pete Crow-Armstrong is playing like an NL MVP candidate

As for Crow-Armstrong, what can I say that hasn't been said a thousand times over by this point? After clubbing his three-run shot as part of a six-run bottom of the second Friday afternoon, he headed back out to center to start the third to a raucous standing ovation from the bleacher faithful, chanting P-C-A, P-C-A!

You don't see players getting receptions like that in the third inning of a ballgame. What he's done this year has been special, to say the least, and his emergence as a superstar has transformed the Cubs' lineup. He's looked like a five-tool player, capable of changing the game with his legs, glove or bat - all in multiple ways.

“There are few things in our sport more fun to watch than a guy that’s a top-of-the-scale athlete play baseball,” Hoyer said. “I think about when you’re young and you watch the Rickey Hendersons and the Eric Davises — the guys that can really run and have power. That’s what he’s turning into right in front of our eyes.”

This Cubs team will go as far as their loaded outfield carries them. The pitching staff has managed to weather several huge losses, especially in the rotation, in the season's first two months - and that task has been made much easier given the lineup's ability to hang a crooked number on any pitcher on any given day. Crow-Armstrong and Tucker have been at the very front of that barrage and there's no reason to think that's about to change anytime soon.