St. Louis Cardinals: AAA players making a splash for the future

The St. Louis Cardinals have announced that several of their AAA players have been selected for the AAA All-Star Game, Futures Game, and other shining accolades.

While the St. Louis Cardinals MLB team works hard to figure out its identity, the Memphis Redbirds are celebrating the selection of several of their players to appear in honorary games during the AAA season. Among these is the All-Star Game and the Futures Game. And more.

While the St. Louis Cardinals have only Yadier Molina in the top-five in All-Star voting at the MLB level, Memphis will be sending three names to the AAA All-Star Game, two names to the MLB Futures Game, and one name to the AAA Home Run Derby.

Perhaps the time has come for the organization to take a look at these names and consider supplanting the lesser-recognized names in St. Louis with the award-winning names in Memphis.

AAA All-Star Game

The Memphis Redbirds will be sending Dakota Hudson, Patrick Wisdom, and Daniel Poncedeleon to the All-Star Game. Wisdom and Poncedeleon have spent some time with the St. Louis Cardinals in their career and Hudson is surely going to see time but is not currently on the 40-man roster.

Despite not being on the 40-man roster, Hudson received the most votes of any AAA pitcher and will be the starter for the Pacific Coast League. The last Memphis Redbird to receive the starting gig during the All-Star game was Dan Haren in 2004.

Hudson has pitched in 100.1 innings this season for the Memphis Redbirds and has allowed only 95 hits and 26 earned runs. This awards him an impressive 2.33 ERA. All I can say is get this guy up to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Wisdom- who will be a free agent at the conclusion of the 2018 season- is having himself a historic year following what was a historic year for him in 2017. During the 2017 season, Wisdom appeared in the AAA All-Star Game and was the MVP of the PCL Championship.

Patrick is carrying a slash line of .298/.374/.496 with 12 home runs. Unfortunately for Wisdom, the St. Louis Cardinals are stocked full of infielders and thus he is stuck in the minors.

Poncedeleon is the hands-down favorite for comeback player of the year. Period. I won’t belabor the point of his comeback or rehash the frightening story, but this dude deserves every award possible. In 2016, Daniel was an All-Star in AA and was an All-Star in 2015 in single-A.

Daniel has pitched in 83 innings and has allowed 65 hits and 22 earned runs. This has his ERA at a 2.39.

If you are keeping score at home, the numbers above show two pitchers with ERAs in the 2.3X range. None of the St. Louis Cardinals can say that. Organization, take notice.

The AAA All-Star Game will be played on July 11 and will air on MLB Network.

AAA Home Run Derby

Patrick Wisdom will represent the Memphis Redbirds and the St. Louis Cardinals organization in the AAA Home Run Derby. The Home Run Derby will be played on Monday of this next week and isn’t scheduled to be broadcasted.

Wisdom will go head-to-head against two other participants from the PCL. These are AJ Reed (1B; Houston Astros organization) and Zach Borenstein (LF; New York Mets organization). For comparison sake, Reed is batting .267/.381/.541 and Borenstein is batting .251/.353/.492.

On the other side of the competition, should Wisdom advance to the finals, he would face one of the following three representatives from the International League:

• Chad Huffman (one-time Redbird; LF; Detroit Tigers organization) – .256/.365/.431
• Carlos Franco (3B; Atlanta Braves organization) – .248/.313/.419
• Joey Meneses (1B; Philadelphia Phillies organization) – .299/.342/.526

MLB Futures Game

In addition to starting the AAA All-Star Game, Hudson gets the honor of appearing in the MLB Futures Game. He will not be alone as he will be joined by Randy Arozarena. That said, these two teammates will appear on opposing teams in the Futures Game.

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Hudson will play on the US Team since he hails from Mississippi and Arozarena will appear on the World Team since he hails from the Cuba.

Arozarena started 2018 with the Springfield Cardinals but the St. Louis Cardinals’ front office noticed that he had earned the right to climb. Of course he did behind a .385/.418/.654 in AA. During his time in Memphis this season, he has posted a slash line of .234/.326/.346 in 62 games (188 at-bats).

The Futures Game is an opportunity for tomorrow’s stars to shine and certainly both of these names are bound to find playing time in the future and make their mark on whichever organization is lucky enough to have them at the time. Let us all hope that the St. Louis Cardinals will have these two then.

The St. Louis Cardinals organization has been known for its farm system and these appearances will help solidify this fact even more so in the history book. I can personally attest that these names are great representatives of the St. Louis Cardinals system.

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I urge you to catch the broadcast of the AAA All-Star Game and the Futures Game (Sunday, 7/15 at 3PM CT on MLB Network) to watch these proud young names for the Cardinals and Redbirds.