St Louis Cardinals Minor League Lessons

The St Louis Cardinals have definitely started off the season hot. The same can’t necessarily be said for their Triple A affiliate, the Memphis Redbirds. The Redbirds have started off the season 8-12 and currently sit in last place in the Pacific Coast League American Southern. While the season is still young just a month in there are a few key things the Redbirds can work on.

Definitely starts with the bats. The highest average on the entire team is a .277 with Dean Anna. Dean has been pretty consistent most of the season with Xavier Scruggs close behind at .274. Anna and Scruggs have been the go to guys for consistency and more than these two guys are going to need to step up in May and in the future. Scruggs also needs to look to get his power hitting back. Scruggs started the season with 4 home runs early and since then he’s only hit one and has 5 home runs through the end of April. Point is the Redbirds need to wake up the bats.

While hitting is very important, pitching has got to step up for sure. Some of the ERA’s on the starting pitchers are horrible. Zach Petrick currently sits with an 0-3 record with an 8.66 ERA. John Gast holds a 1-2 record with 6.75 ERA. In the times Marco Gonzales has pitched he’s received a 4.50 ERA. The team has got to stop giving up runs. While it goes without saying you need run support to be a good pitcher you definitely have to possess good pitching to be a successful team.

Really it’s just an overall team effort that is needed to improve. No one specific area on the team is needed to improve, it’s everybody. Hitting needs to step up, bats need to come alive. Guys on the bump need to start showing out too, it’s an extremely important aspect of the game. If the Redbirds can improve on these two essential things, the sky is the limit.