Chicago Cubs Minor League Recap: Pete Crow-Armstrong and Owen Caissie dominate

Hitters of the Week

Pete Crow-Armstrong

OF

.308/.357/.654 1 HR, 2 3B, 2 2B, 7 R, 4 RBI, 3/3 SB

If you’re shocked to see the Cubs’ number one prospect on this list then you haven’t been paying attention. 

Did he struggle in his cup of coffee appearance with the major league squad at the end of last season? Sure. Could he have done more with his opportunity in spring training this year? Also, sure. 

It seems like Cubs fans have some level of prospect fatigue when it comes to Crow-Armstrong. He’s been too good for too long and fans don’t realize just how good he is and have moved on to loving other prospects with “louder tools”. 

The thing that people don’t seem to realize is that Crow-Armstrong’s tools are like a heavy metal concert. If you like Owen Caissie’s power, then you should know that Crow-Armstrong has more homers, more extra-base hits and a higher slugging percentage through the first week at AAA than Caissie has, while also playing Gold Glove-caliber defense at a premium position and stealing three bases in his three attempts. 

Pete Crow-Armstrong is a star, and if he could play third base he’d be a star in the majors right now. 

 Owen Caissie

OF

.391/.481/.522 3 2B, 2 R, 5 RBI

Owen Caissie absolutely lit up spring training and he hasn’t slowed down since arriving in Iowa for his first stint against AAA pitching in his career.

If you were to look at the slash line for Caissie and Crow-Armstrong it would be reasonable to think that they should be flipped. Caissie is not necessarily known for his ability to hit for average due to his high strikeout totals and Crow-Armstrong isn’t considered the stronger of the two prospects, but for this week both have excelled across the board.

Caissie has big, in-game power already. He's progressed through the system at basically one level at a time but it’s reasonable to expect that trajectory to change this season. He’s simply too good of a hitter to keep stashed away in AAA all year when the major league team may be in need of a power boost later this season.

If Caissie continues to mash to this extent we could see a similar situation occur with him and Crow-Armstrong as the one that happened last season with Matt Mervis and Christopher Morel getting called up within a few days of each other in May after obliterating AAA pitching.