I’m certainly not pretentious enough to claim I was never concerned about Colby Rasmus. I was; although probably not for the reasons that others were. Colby Rasmus came into the season as the undisputed #1 prospect. He tore the cover off the ball in Spring Training for a line of .302/.464/.605 — only to be sent back to Memphis. That’s where the organization thought he should be and I 100% agreed with them. Colby’s hitting isn’t completely without holes and there was also the unfortunate logjam of outfielders. Memphis wasn’t an unreasonable place for Rasmus to begin the season.
Of course, everything kind of fell apart after that. . .
In April, Rasmus hit .210/.306/.371 and people started to get worried. The primary concern was that Rasmus wasn’t elevating the ball but still it was April — everyone slumps, right?
Then May came. .218/.314/.317 would be perfectly acceptable if Rasmus was one of the Cardinals middle infielders but panic was starting to settle into Cardinal Nation. Rumors were flying. The organization messed with his swing. He was disappointed at not making the major league team. Maybe he’s injured. Memphis wasn’t as fun in the clubhouse. He always starts slow. At times, some analysts would rather cavalierly mention that people should be worried about Rasmus (a Kevin Goldstein chat comes to mind). In honesty, this wasn’t just some slow start to be wished away. Rasmus was going through a very real and significant rough patch. The one thing we never heard, however, was that bad scouting reports were coming back.
It wasn’t like scouts were suddenly worried that Rasmus’ swing wasn’t going to translate to the majors. He was still one of the best centerfielders in the minors defensively. It’s easy to look at those slash lines and worry. It’s really easy. I’m sure in some corner of the internet someone was writing the obit for another top prospect and how unreliable prospects are as a general rule. Those things seem to have crumbled by the wayside though.
Rasmus is hitting .370/.460/.611 in the month of June. He has a .241 ISO (in a severe pitcher’s park) and is walking in over 14% of his plate appearances. The walks never actually went away during the slump, which should further illustrate one of the reasons why Rasmus won’t be a total drain on the offense when he goes through a cold patch. Perhaps most encouraging is that Rasmus is back to lacing line drives around the field.
The moral of this story is that talent doesn’t just disappear. We not only knew Rasmus had talent but we’d seen him translate that over the previous years into real results. Rasmus could go 0-for-the rest of the year and that still wouldn’t change my opinion of his long-term potential (warning: hyperbole). There comes a point where Rasmus has to be accepted as a player even with his flaws. He’s probably not going to hit for power to all fields; that’s okay. He’s got plus-plus power to right. He may strikeout more than some would like but he’s going to draw walks too.
Rasmus is today what he was 3 months ago: the Cardinals centerfielder of the future who projects as a perennial All-Star at a premium defensive position. He has the talent to become the best hitter not named Pujols on the St. Louis Cardinals. That may not happen this year or next year, but it will happen. Just got to be a little patient.
Future Redbirds 
Glad I can get back to agreeing with you.
Gladder to have Colby back to being Colby.
Amen, brother azru.
Agreed. I have lots of buddies in Memphis who attend regular Redbird games, and they’d all tell me the same thing: “Dude, do NOT worry about Rasmus. He’s hitting it hard. . .he just has no luck right now. That’ll change.”
Does anyone actually know what they were messing with with Rasmus a couple of months ago?
Were they just trying to change his approach (e.g. don’t try to pull everything but instead hit the ball where it’s pitched) or were they trying to change his mechanics?
I was under the impression that it was just an approach thing. Hitting it to all fields and the like.
Does anyone feel like they are watching Jim Edmunds the Sequel whe they watch Rasmus: streaky offensive, plus defensive centerfielders, who draw quite a few walks…
i don’t think he will strike out as much as edmonds….but i also do’t think he will hit as many homers as edmonds did in his really good summers
so yes and no…i see the comparison but its not exactly the same
I think we would be very blessed if he turns out to be another Jim Edmonds (I’m sure he won’t and I mean that in a good way.).
I admit that I was worried, but in a completely different way than even Az. I wasn’t worried so much in his production numbers simply because it was his first year in AAA at the age of 21. A lot can be said about AAA and the players in it, but there is a difference between AA and AAA, not as big as AAA to the majors, but yet a difference.
I was worried that a prolonged slump may have dent his attitude and/or confidence. I used to do charity work for Kurt Warner’s charity and got the opportunity to spend the day with Eric Dickerson (great guy). One of the questions I asked him was what is the reason some big time college stars don’t make it in the NFL or don’t achieve the same success. I totally expected him to say size or something and his answer kind of surprised me, he said confidence is number 1. He said that the great ones can have a couple bad games in a row or even start the season lower on the depth chart, but they have the confidence that if they keep working hard they will be the best.
I apologize for the long post, but my statement is simply Colby is proving something here that is very important to recognize. Colby dealt with not making the MLB team, dealth with greater competition and struggles at AAA, dealt with some lesser talented teammates get the call to MLB, and dealt with the pressure of being the #1 prospect arguably in all of baseball after Bruce, Hughes and Co got promoted. My long point is he got through all of this with his confidence in tact, something we all saw Ankiel unable to deal with after the wild pitching incident. Colby will be a superstar, but in time.