What a difference a year makes.
As July, 2008 opened, St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Colby Rasmus was toiling for the Memphis Redbirds, looking forward to playing both in the Futures Game and the Summer Olympics.
Then in the first game of the month, on July 1, Rasmus was sidelined by a groin strain. After missing the Futures Game, he returned for just five contests later in the month before suffering another injury, a sprain of the MCL in his left knee. That nixed his Olympic plans and ended his Triple-A season.
On this July 1, Rasmus celebrated his ascension to the Cardinals starting lineup by slamming a walk-off home run to defeat the San Francisco Giants Wednesday evening. He collected three more hits on Thursday and Friday before going deep again on Saturday, a blast estimated to have traveled over 450 feet.
On Sunday, batting second, Rasmus was on base three times with a walk and two more hits, including another home run, a two-run shot. The first inning homer was his third long ball in the club’s five July games. During this time, the 22-year-old is 8-for-17, .471.
The man considered the first-half leader for the National League Rookie of the Year Award now has ten home runs in 2009. That already places him in the top ten in club history for a Cardinals player in his first season.
With just under half the season remaining, Rasmus is on a pace to hit 20 home runs. That would put him second among all Cardinals ever for home runs by a first-year player.
Of course, Albert Pujols is first with 27 in his rookie 2001 season, a campaign during which he earned the ROY Award, but consider the lofty company Rasmus is joining…
Cardinals home runs by first-year players
| Rank | Player | HR | Year | Age |
| 1 | Albert Pujols | 37 | 2001 | 21 |
| 2 | Ray Jablonski | 21 | 1953 | 26 |
| 3 | Johnny Mize | 19 | 1936 | 23 |
| 4 | Ken Boyer | 18 | 1955 | 24 |
| T5 | Bill Virdon | 17 | 1955 | 24 |
| T5 | George Watkins | 17 | 1930 | 30 |
| 7 | Rip Repulski | 15 | 1953 | 24 |
| 8 | Wally Moon | 12 | 1954 | 24 |
| 9 | Joe Cunningham | 11 | 1954 | 22 |
| T10 | Don Padgett | 10 | 1937 | 25 |
| T10 | Colby Rasmus | 10 | 2009 | 22 |
| T12 | Joe Mather | 8 | 2008 | 25 |
| T12 | Andy Van Slyke | 8 | 1983 | 22 |
| T12 | Leon Durham | 8 | 1980 | 22 |
| T12 | Fred Whitfield | 8 | 1962 | 24 |
| T12 | Enos Slaughter | 8 | 1938 | 22 |
| 17 | Lou Klein | 7 | 1943 | 24 |
| T18 | Gene Oliver | 6 | 1959 | 24 |
| T18 | Tommy Glaviano | 6 | 1949 | 25 |
| T18 | Stu Martin | 6 | 1936 | 23 |
| T18 | Terry Moore | 6 | 1935 | 23 |
Thanks to Tom Orf for the player list.
The first round 22 year old left swinging CF van Slyke had a few over 300 at bats in 1983. Rasmus is already ahead on HRs. Herzog gave a green light for aggressive baserunning, so van Slyke stole 21 bases. No stealing for Rasmus batting in front of Pujols.
Mather fares well in the table above. Joe’s slugging percentage last year was .474, while Rasmus is now at .486, both fine numbers for rookies. Recovering power after hamate injuries can be difficult and timeconsuming. We shall hope for Mather’s eventual full recovery, since he was poised to establish himself as a ML hitter, before misfortune.
van Slyke spent just a few months at AAA, earning promotion since batting .362. I would guess Louisville was a more offensively kind ballpark than is Memphis nowadays, the most ungenerous park within the Pacific Coast League. Its worth keeping in mind Rasmus averaged .251 last year with Memphis, because this may suggest guys like Jon Jay and Shane Robinson may not be too far away. Its also terrific Brett Wallace is just a year removed from college and has a batting average near .300 at Memphis.
In the table above, there was a burst of rookie slugging success in the mid-1950s. 1953 yielded rookie skis, Jablonski and Rip Repulski. 1954 yielded rookies Moon and Cunningham. 1955 yielded Boyer and Virdon.
Given the epic contributions of Stanislaw Musial, it makes sense the Cards recruited some other players of Polish heritage. Repulski hailed from Minnesota. Jablonski was from Chicago, a metropolitan area that may have more folks of Polish heritage than anywhere outside Warsaw; I have heard this claim. (Two decades later, Chicago yielded Greg Luzinski, LF/1B with the Phillies and White Sox.)
One important factor in the table above is rookie year at bats. Pujols broke camp with the Cards in 2001, with a regular job. Rasmus was on the team from onset of 2009. Some very fine players may not appear in the table because there were not as many at bats available for them during their rookie seasons.
It’s hard to believe that, other than Albert Pujols, the Cardinals have not had a rookie with double figures in my lifetime, until now (I was born in 1955). Just imagine what Rasmus can do once he learns to hit with some authority against LH pitching. That should be his all-consuming goal this winter–to improve his ability to hit against lefties. That is really the only thing standing between him and stardom at this point.
Welcome, revpauld! I agree 100%.
Rasmus goes deep again on Tuesday!
Looked like he hit a curveball early in count – the kid is in a nice streak right now – 3 HRs in 3 straight games
Where to post this? Why not under a left swinging CF topic? A minor league player who I like is Swinson, at Johnson City. He was signed out of high school in 2008. He is kind of a Darryl Jones like gamble, fast, left swinging CF, a project. He was overmatched last summer in the Gulf Coast League. But he has improved. He got challenged to play at Johnson City against mostly older lads and is hitting .320, with a strong OPS, some steals. Swinson is working to put himself in position to qualify for a roster slot next summer at Quad Cities. He has nice potential. While I am a fan of Big Matt Adams, of course, who could not be, Swinson is one of the better prospects at JC.