A new face will be patrolling the outfield for the St. Louis Cardnials this year.
Birds fans are all too familiar with the name—Colby Rasmus.
High hopes have surrounded him ever since he was taken in the draft out of Russell County Alabama.
29 home runs in AA Springfield shot those already high expectations up a bit further.
An injury-filled and troubled 2008 tempered those expectations a bit. Casual fans still see him as an elite prospect, and some of the die-hard fans are on the fence.
Scouts have not backed off of their original assessment of Rasmus, saying that his struggles were entirely due to a hip injury.
The Cardnials have decided to push him to a corner outfield spot for this year, and I think that is a great move. Added body weight slows you down; just ask Andruw Jones. Rasmus has bulked up considerably from his minor league days, which is probably the best course of action, seeing as how his offensive skill set matches up with a power hitter, rather than a balanced Grady Sizemore type.
This spring, Rasmus has still struck out a ton, leading the team with 25 over 26 games. However, added patience is also there. I saw many long counts and more walks than I expected.
In this appearance versus the Florida Marlins, he managed to go deep versus a very good major league pitcher in Josh Johnson. Later, he added another RBI on a sacrifice fly, but the strike outs were still a problem, as he went down twice in four at-bats.
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