Colby Rasmus

Colby Rasmus
Toronto Blue Jays — No. 28
Outfielder
Born: August 11, 1986 (1986-08-11) (age 25) Columbus, Georgia
Bats: Left	Throws: Left
MLB debut
April 7, 2009 for the St. Louis Cardinals
Career statistics (through 2011 Season)
Batting average	.251
Hits	353
Home runs	53
Runs batted in	171
Teams
St. Louis Cardinals (2009–2011) Toronto Blue Jays (2011–present)

Medal record
Men’s baseball
Competitor for  United States
Baseball World Cup
Gold	2007 Tianmu	National team

Rasmus batting for the Swing of the Quad Cities, Single-A affiliates of the Cardinals on June 13, 2006.

Colby Ryan Rasmus (born August 11, 1986 in Columbus, Georgia) is an American professional baseball outfielder for the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball.

Early years

Rasmus played as pitcher and first baseman for Phenix City National Little League during the 1999 Little League World Series. Phenix City won the United States championship game^[1] before losing in the finals to Osaka, Japan 5-0.^[2] Rasmus finished the World Series with a batting average of .417 and a pitching record of 0-1 with 7 strikeouts.

Rasmus attended Russell County High School in Seale, Alabama. As a senior, he batted .484 with 24 home runs with 66 RBI and 69 runs scored in 39 games . His 24 home runs passed Bo Jackson for second all-time in the state for home runs in a season by a high school player. In a pre-draft workout, Rasmus was clocked at 95 mph (153 km/h) throwing from center field. He also ran 60 yards in 6.7 seconds. Rasmus helped lead Russell County to a national championship in 2005 as they finished the season ranked first in both the National High School Baseball Coaches Association poll and the USA TODAY Super 25 baseball rankings.^[3][4] Rasmus graduated from Russell County High School in 2005. He is the brother of Batavia Muckdogs center fielder Casey Rasmus^[5]

Professional career

Minor leagues (2005–2008)

Rasmus was drafted by the Cardinals with the 28th pick of the first round out of high school. The pick was sent to the Cardinals from the Boston Red Sox in compensation for the Red Sox signing Edgar Rentería in free agency. Rasmus received a $1,000,000 signing bonus from the Cardinals.

Rasmus ended his 2006 season, his second in professional baseball, on the High-A Palm Beach Cardinals team. Between Low-A Quad Cities and High-A Palm Beach, he combined for a .288 average, 16 home runs, 26 doubles, He won the Player of the Month Award in August, batting .365 with 12 home runs.

The Tulsa Drillers (AA) manager, Stu Cole, commented on Rasmus' high level of talent: "If there was a five-tool player in the league last year, Rasmus was the one. He brought everything to the table. And defensively he made more plays to save his team runs. If the ball was in the air there was a chance you were going to see something exciting.".^[6]

For the 2007 season, Rasmus was assigned to the Springfield Cardinals, AA affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. Later, he played in the Arizona Fall League during winter of 2007 for Team USA. He batted .286 over six games.^[7]

He was a non-roster invitee to the Cardinals in spring training, 2008 trying to claim a regular spot in the lineup after the Cardinals traded Jim Edmonds on December 15, 2007. On March 17, 2008, the Cardinals assigned Rasmus to the AAA Memphis Redbirds.

In 2008, Rasmus was selected to play baseball as a member of the US Olympic Team in the Beijing Olympics, but he was unable to attend due to injury.^{[citation needed]}

The minor league prowess made Rasmus a favorite of the Cardinals sabremetrically inclined blog, vivaelbirdos.com.

Rasmus with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2011.

Major leagues (2009–present)

St. Louis Cardinals

On January 23, 2009, the Cardinals gave out 20 non-roster invitations (including three free agents) to spring training, including their top minor-league players Rasmus, and Brett Wallace.^[8]

Rasmus was included in Baseball America's 2009 Top 100 Prospects list as the #3 prospect in all of MLB.^[9]

On April 3, 2009, Rasmus was named to the opening day roster of the St. Louis Cardinals.

He made his major-league debut on April 7 against Pittsburgh at Busch Stadium.^[10] He earned his first major league hit in his second career at-bat, on a single to right field off Pittsburgh's Ian Snell. He went 2-for-4 in the game, with two runs scored, including his first career run on a home run by Albert Pujols.

On May 2, he hit his first home run vs. the Washington Nationals while Pujols took a day off after playing in the team's first 24 games. The Cardinals lost the game, 6-1.^[11]

On June 19, he had his first four-hit game, in a 10-5 victory against the Kansas City Royals in which Pujols scored his 1000th career run.

On July 1, he hit his first career walk-off home run off Bob Howry, giving the Cardinals a 2-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants, leading all NL rookies with eight home runs and 29 RBIs. He was the first Cardinals rookie to hit a game-winning home run since Andy Van Slyke in August, 1983.

On September 5, 2010, it was reported that Rasmus requested a trade from General Manager John Mozeliak because of a shortage of playing time, and a strained relationship with manager Tony La Russa. Rasmus attempted to downplay the rumor^[12] and Mozeliak indicated he would not trade Rasmus.^[13]

Rasmus hit his first career grand slam against the Cincinnati Reds' Bronson Arroyo. He hit his second grand slam against the San Francisco Giants.

Toronto Blue Jays

On July 27, 2011, Rasmus was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays along with P. J. Walters, Brian Tallet and Trever Miller for Edwin Jackson, Octavio Dotel, Marc Rzepczynski and Corey Patterson.^[14][15]

Personal

He has three brothers: Cory, Casey and Cyle. Rasmus resides in Ontario, Canada with his daughter Rylee and fiance Megan.

References

1. ^ Phenix City Upsets Tom's River to Reach LLWS Finals, sportsillustrated.cnn.com; retrieved March 2008
2. ^ Osaka Wins Little League Title Game, nytimes.com; retrieved March 2008
3. ^ 2005 High School Team of the Year, baseballamerica.com; retrieved March 2008
4. ^ 2005 Final Baseball Super 25, usatoday.com; retrieved March 2008
5. ^ Cards draft Colby Rasmus' brother, Casey, foxsportsmidwest.com; retrieved July 2011
6. ^ Derrick Gould (2007-12-26). "Future is now for Rasmus". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/cardinals/story/AB887BEF50332B74862573BD00147FB8?OpenDocument. 
7. ^ Arizona Fall League 2007 - Colby Rasmus, MLB.com; Retrieved March 2008
8. ^ "Cards offer 20 non-roster invites: Rasmus and Wallace among those to attend big-league camp". MLB.com. January 23, 2009. http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090123&content_id=3768070&vkey=news_stl&fext=.jsp&c_id=stl. Retrieved January 26, 2009. 
9. ^ Top 100 Prospects
10. ^ "Boxscore:Pittsburgh vs. St. Louis April 7, 2009". mlb.com. April 7, 2009. http://mlb.mlb.com/news/boxscore.jsp?gid=2009_04_07_pitmlb_slnmlb_1. Retrieved 2009-04-08. 
11. ^ "Error dooms Pujols-less Cards vs. Nats: Pineiro allows homer after Duncan's miscue extends fifth". MLB.com. 2009-05-02. http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090502&content_id=4526172&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=stl. 
12. ^ http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100905&content_id=14320700&vkey=news_stl&fext=.jsp&c_id=stl
13. ^ http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100916&content_id=14743330&notebook_id=14745936
14. ^ "Cardinals deal Rasmus to Jays in three-team mega-deal". Sporting News. http://aol.sportingnews.com/mlb/story/2011-07-27/colby-rasmus-trade-edwin-jackson-st-louis-cardinals-chicago-white-sox-detroit-ti. Retrieved 27 July 2011. 
15. ^ Frenette, Brad. "Blue Jays acquire top prospect Colby Rasmus in three-team deal". Vancouver Sun. http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Blue+Jays+acquire+prospect+Colby+Rasmus+three+team+deal/5167407/story.html. Retrieved 27 July 2011. 

External links

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• Colby Rasmus page at stlcardinals.scout.com

Persondata
Name	Rasmus, Colby
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	August 11, 1986
Place of birth	Columbus, Georgia
Date of death
Place of death