Maybe it was having to pitch above sea level, or maybe he wasn’t as major-league made as he thought, but Jason Hirsh only started 29 games in the bigs. He does have the distinction, from 2005 and 2006, of being the first pitcher to ever win the Texas League (Class AA) pitcher of the year … and then the Pacific Coast League (Class AAA) pitcher of the year.
“I was just under the assumption,” he said playfully and sardonically by phone, “that I was the greatest minor league baseball player that’s ever lived.”
But he was notified that his uncommon accolades were matched by Dakota Hudson, the Cardinals farmhand with the searing right hand, who won the Class AA award in 2017 and the Class AAA award in 2018.