St. Louis Cardinals: Anthony Shew’s journey has been about growth

As expected with a minor leaguer, Shew had a very inconsistent start to his career. But in this case, it wasn’t entirely his fault.

Shew was assigned to Johnson City for the 2016 season, and it was a bit of a bumpy ride out of the gate. He played 15 games, but was a starter in only 1 of those games. Shew did not adjust very well to being a full time reliever, and he finished that season off with some abysmal numbers: a 6.66 ERA, 1.95 WHIP, and a scary 15.1 H/9.

Fortunately (and somewhat obviously), this is the lowest point of Shew’s minor league journey so far. He had a stellar rebound in 2017, in part due to his return to starting games as opposed to relieving them. The other interesting thing is that despite how much Shew struggled over a pretty significant sample size, he was promoted all the way up to Palm Beach to start the season.

Unfortunately, he gave up 6 hits and 5 runs in 3 innings in his first game there, prompting a demotion to the State College Spikes, the short season Single-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. He made just 4 starts there, but for a more positive reason. He pitched to the tune of a 3.36 ERA, and although he allowed 6 runs in his final start, he made it deep into games and showed some encouraging signs.

He was then promoted to Peoria in mid July, where he spent the rest of 2017. Shew found success with the Chiefs, putting up a 2.95 ERA over 58 innings that included a 1.42 ERA over his final 5 starts of the season, capping off a surprisingly successful 2017.