Ordinarily, I’m pretty skeptical about teams that give young players multiyear contracts worth hundreds of millions before they’ve proven themselves, especially when bigger markets are involved. Even in the case of veterans who finally cash in, I’m never surprised when the new bajillionaire flops in his first season or takes the foot off the pedal once he’s set for life. Often when a player signs the huge extension before he has to, we talk about them betting on themselves.

Pete Crow-Armstrong has lived up to the millions this season and I don’t see him taking the foot off the pedal anytime soon. He may fall short of all of our expectations, but it won’t be for lack of effort.

No franchise is immune to this situation. Consider your favorite team for a moment and consider the last five players they’ve bought out of their arb years. How many are still with the team and are any considered a value? This is much trickier than guessing which veterans will live up to or exceed the back of their baseball card once you fork over a ridiculous sum of do re mi. The problem with PCA’s situation is that Cubs management might get cocky and think they really know talent-when PCA might be the ultimate outlier.

Something to ponder, will Pete outhomer the Brewers this series?