St. Louis Cardinals: Memphis is off to its best start since 2001

Where the St. Louis Cardinals are struggling to find their winning ways, their AAA team in Memphis is off to a roaring start.

The Memphis Redbirds, the St. Louis Cardinals’ AAA-affiliate, is just six games into their young season and are doing nothing but winning. The St. Louis Cardinals, on the other hand, are eight games into their young season and winning seems a distant mirage.

What is happening?! Something needs to change! These are all statements that I have been known to voice across these past eight St. Louis Cardinals games.

Luckily for me (and for all other St. Louis Cardinals fans if they will take notice), the Memphis Redbirds AAA season kicked off shortly after the official opening day of the MLB season. Also serendipitous is the fact that the Redbirds seem to refuse to lose (this too seems lacking in the St. Louis squad).

Last night, Tuesday, April 11 was the home opener for the Memphis Redbirds. Going into this game, the baby birds brought a 4-1 record home to AutoZone Park having taken four of the first five games of the season facing New Orleans. MLB teams don’t play five-game contests so this is somewhat odd (but normal for minor league).

In their first five games, the Redbirds recorded first-inning runs in each of the four games that they concluded as the winners. In these games, the Redbirds posted fifty-one hits: twenty-seven singles, sixteen doubles, and eight home runs. The sixteen doubles leads the PCL division of MiLB. The St. Louis Cardinals cannot say the same.

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About last night… The Redbirds showed-up the St. Louis Cardinals in their contest last night in which they blasted four home runs in AutoZone Park while the Cardinals were seemingly unable to muster together any RBI (or enough to best the Nationals). Of these home runs, Carson Kelly belted two, Luke Voit belted one (his third-straight game to do so), and Harrison Bader knocked one himself.

Thanks to these four homers, the Memphis Redbirds now lead the PCL in number of home runs hit. Last season, Memphis did not record its twelfth home run until game number twenty-five, some fourteen games later than this season.

On the pitching front, Memphis looks good too. Daniel Poncedeleon appeared on the mound in the home opener and pitched 5.1 innings surrendering only two hits while striking out eight and allowing only one run.

As a team, the Redbirds hold the best pitching record at 5-1 with an ERA of 3.79 (ranked at five of the league). As a team, the Redbirds have struck out fifty-three batters which is the third highest amount in the PCL.

The six starters for Memphis- Luke Weaver, Tyler Lyons, Josh Zeid, Mike Mayers, Chris Ellis, and Poncedeleon- have ERAs ranging from 0.00 (Weaver and Lyons both on abbreviated starts) to 11.25 (Zeid). Poncedeleon’s 5.1 innings last night were the longest pitched of any of the starters this season.

For comparison, the St. Louis Cardinals are ranked dead-last (twenty-ninth) with a team ERA of 5.40.

Offensively speaking, Voit leads the team in batting average at .556 across eighteen at-bats. Tommy Pham as the greatest number of at-bats on the team at twenty-eight and commands a slash of .357/.379/.750. Paul DeJong and Bader have the next highest at-bat counts at twenty-two and command respective slashes of .364/.364/.500 and .227/.346/.591.

As a team, the Redbirds are ranked seventh overall with a team batting average of .276. For comparison sake, let’s take a look at the big birds. In eight games this season, the St. Louis Cardinals are ranked at number twenty-four with a team batting average of .218.

Next: Time to promote Tommy Pham

Can the Redbirds apply needed pressure to the St. Louis Cardinals? Should the organization consider promoting and demoting? Follow me on Twitter and let’s discuss!