Jul. 18—As awards and recognition began to pour in during one of the best stretches of his baseball career, Nick Dunn had a predictably measured view of his immediate future.
The 2015 Shikellamy graduate, who counts staying “as level-headed and even-keeled as possible” among his best playing traits, spent virtually no time thinking about a potential promotion from Double-A ball.
“There’s a lot of things that factor in, so many things that are out of your control,” he said three weeks ago. “The longer you’re in the game, the more you realize there’s more things out of your control than are actually in your control.
“All you can do is be prepared and show up every day ready to go.”
Well, Dunn and his Springfield Cardinals teammates were prepared to begin a six-game homestand against the Arkansas Travelers today when he received word that he’ll be expected to show up 835 miles away to join his new team.
Dunn was called up to the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds on Monday, a promotion that follows a 21/2-year stint in Springfield for the 26-year-old second baseman.
“I wasn’t really sure if any moves would be made anytime soon,” he said Monday, “but I was just really happy to finally get the call and the opportunity.”
Juniel Querecuto, 30, who has played second base most often for Memphis this season, was placed on the Temporarily Inactive list (a minimum three-day absence) in a corresponding roster move.
Memphis begins a six-game series in Charlotte, NC, today.
Dunn wore out Texas League pitching this season, particularly in the last six weeks when his batting average spiked from .259 to a career-best .332. His average hovered firmly above .300 since June 18, but he closed the month hitting .313.
In his last eight Double-A games — a sequence that began July 5 and included a four-day hiatus that coincided with the Major League Baseball All-Star break — Dunn hit .514 (18-for-35) with three home runs, three doubles and 12 RBIs. He had three or more hits in five of those games, capped by a 4-for-6 effort Sunday at Wichita.
At the time of Monday’s promotion, Dunn ranked third in the Texas League in batting (.332) and on-base percentage (.420). His OPS ranked sixth (.903), as did his hit total (88), while he was seventh in runs scored (53). His seven homers matched a career-high set last season in 134 more at-bats.
The body of work resulted in Dunn being named the St. Louis Cardinals organization’s Minor League Player of the Month for June. That award was soon followed by Dunn earning the Texas League Player of the Week for July 3-9. That week, he torched Amarillo for a .545 average (12-for-22) with three homers, seven RBIs, four walks and six runs in his six games. He slammed two-run homers on back-to-back days during the series.
Dunn was also TheCardinalNation.com’s Player of the Day across the St. Louis organization several times recently.
Dunn appeared in 280 games for Springfield over the last three years, batting .283 with eight more walks (140) than strikeouts (132), a trend going back to his high school days.
Many of the Valley’s best ballplayers over the last three decades ascended as high as Double-A, including Bobby Felmy of Shikellamy, Ryan Keefer of Southern Columbia, Dominic Rich of Line Mountain, David Shinskie of Mount Carmel, and Matt Wright of West Snyder.
The last area native to play Triple-A ball was left-hander Steve Kline, a Lewisburg graduate, who at age 35 spent his last pro season with the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs in 2008. Kline’s only Triple-A season ahead of an 11- year big league career was 1998 with the Ottawa Lynx.
Jason Buursma, a Seattle native, was drafted out of Bucknell in 2008 by St. Louis. He pitched the final year of his pro career for Memphis in 2011.