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

Shew continued to make drastic improvements to his game heading into 2018 and beyond, handling himself well as he moved into the higher ends of the St. Louis Cardinals’ minor league system.

He was promoted to Palm Beach to start 2018, and this is where he really showed how much he improved over the past season. Unlike his previous game in Palm Beach to start the previous season, Shew dominated hitters in High-A. He put up an impressive 2.11 ERA and 1.10  WHIP over 8 starts before being promoted the St. Louis Cardinals Double-A affiliate in Springfield.

He hit a bit of a wall there, but he was still unquestionably a serviceable player. He started 19 games and put up a 4.50 ERA and 1.40 WHIP, over 114 innings. Those numbers certainly leave something to be desired, but it’s also not something that proves Shew didn’t have the ability to be successful at that level at the time.

Once again though, an offseason of growth was all Shew needed to shift the narrative and take the next step as a ballplayer. He came into 2019 with 5 starts at Springfield, where he allowed just 6 runs and once again showed drastic improvements from the previous season.

Shew was promoted to Memphis on April 29, and was doing well there before being hit by a liner on May 12, which put him on the 7-day IL, where he currently is today. Before the injury, he was showing signs that he would be able to hang in Triple-A, currently having allowed just 2 runs over 14 innings. He brought his K/9 up to 9.6, his highest mark in a stint since his time with the State College Spikes in 2017, where he registered 10.1 K/9 over just 4 games.