photo: Randy Arozarena (Memphis Redbirds)
Memphis Redbirds press release
Memphis Redbirds outfielder Randy Arozarena and pitcher Dakota Hudson have been selected to participate in the 2018 SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game, which will be played on Sunday, July 15 at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., as part of MLB All-Star Week.
The game, now in its 20th year, will be televised on MLB Network and streamed live on MLB.com beginning at 3:00 p.m. (CT).
Hudson, who was voted a Pacific Coast League All-Star last week and is scheduled to be the game’s starting pitcher in the game on Wednesday, leads the PCL with 12 wins and is second with a 2.33 ERA. He also paces all PCL pitchers with 100.1 innings pitched this season, and he has allowed just one home run on the year. The 2016 Supplemental First-Round Draft Pick out of Mississippi State has won six-straight starts for the Redbirds and nine of his last 10. The No. 3 St. Louis Cardinals prospect according to MLB Pipeline will play on the U.S. Team in the game.
Arozarena, who will play for the World Team, is hitting .266 in 74 games with Memphis and Double-A Springfield this season. He has eight home runs and 33 RBI, and he has reached base at a .342 clip and swiped 14 bases across the two levels. MLB Pipeline’s No. 7 Cardinals prospect was signed by the Cardinals as a non-drafted free agent out of Havana, Cuba, on Aug. 1, 2016.
Redbirds MLB All-Star Futures Game Participants
- 1999: LHP Rick Ankiel (US), INF Adam Kennedy (US)
- 2001: OF Bill Ortega (World)
- 2002: RHP Jimmy Journell (US)
- 2004: RHP Brad Thompson (US)
- 2008: C Bryan Anderson (US), LHP Jaime Garcia (World), OF Colby Rasmus (US)
- 2009: INF Brett Wallace (US)
- 2013: OF Oscar Taveras (World), INF Kolten Wong (US)
- 2014: LHP Marco Gonzales (US)
- 2016: C Carson Kelly (US), RHP Alex Reyes (World)
- 2017: RHP Jack Flaherty (US)
- 2018: OF Randy Arozarena (World), RHP Dakota Hudson (US)
For more information on the Futures Game, visit www.allstargame.com.
Brian Walton’s take
Both are deserving selections, but I would have preferred Oscar Mercado ahead of Arozarena, because of a superior 2017 at Springfield and in 2018 to date.
Arozarena’s best work this season occurred both times he was sent down to Double-A, while Mercado, who is a Floridian, but whose family is from Colombia and has international experience representing that nation, has been much more consistent at the higher level.
Though obscured above, Arozarena’s slash line at Memphis-only this season is .232/.322/.341/.663. Mercado’s is .291/.365/.422/.787. Further, Mercado has 21 steals compared to 14 for Arozarena (across both stops) and the former is a plus defender in center.
Age-wise, the two outfielders are both 23, born just two months apart. One difference however, is that Mercado is on the Cardinals’ 40-man roster and Arozarena is not. Further, Mercado played in the 2017 Arizona Fall League. I expect we will see him in St. Louis at some point this season, perhaps making 2018 his last chance for the Futures Game.
In The Cardinal Nation’s June Top 50 Prospect List update, Mercado passed Arozarena for the first time, with the two ranked nos. 11 and 13, respectively. Hudson improved to fourth in the system in our assessment.
Their outfield teammate, Adolis Garcia, would have been my top pre-season World Team Cardinals candidate. However, the 25-year old Cuban is having an even worse 2018 at Memphis – .225/.258/.402/.660 – and has slid out of our top 10.
Update: Additional Friday news from Memphis
Big news! .@PatrickWisdom5 has been named one of the participants for the @TripleABaseball Home Run Derby! Congrats, Patrick! pic.twitter.com/fsiLCMSNAh
— Memphis Redbirds (@memphisredbirds) July 6, 2018
The Triple-A All-Star Game will be on Wednesday, July 11 in Columbus, Ohio, with the home run derby on Monday, July 9.
Monday’s events will be live streamed for free at https://www.milb.com/multimedia/vpp.jsp?content_id=2222654983&sid=t445 beginning at 5:30 p.m. (CT). The Skills Challenge will be first, followed by the Home Run Derby.
Wisdom will compete against A.J. Reed of Fresno and Zach Borenstein of Las Vegas from the PCL, and Chad Huffman of Toledo, Carlos Franco of Gwinnett, and Joey Meneses of Lehigh Valley representing the International League.
Wisdom, along with Memphis pitchers Dakota Hudson and Daniel Poncedeleon, are on the Pacific Coast League squad which will take on the best of the International League in Wednesday’s game.
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Brian Walton can be reached via email at brian@thecardinalnation.com. Follow Brian on Twitter.
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