Rasmus, Barden picked for Olympics
DOWNTOWN — The Cardinals’ top prospect and one of the team’s top minor-league performers this season have been invited to represent the country at the Summer Games in Beijing next month. Outfielder Colby Rasmus and utility infielder Brian Barden were two of the 23 players named to Team USA on Wednesday.
Rasmus, unanimously considered the team’s top prospect, has been a favorite to play center field for Team USA since his star turn in Double-A last season and follow-up performance in the IBAF World Cup tournament in Taiwan last fall. Batting leadoff, Rasmus powered a U.S. team that included Evan Longoria – who had one of the big hits Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium. Rasmus had a hit in every game in the tournament, hit .382 and led the team in extra-base hits. Team USA won Gold.
Barden is a bit of a surprise pick, but by name only.
The Cardinals grabbed the infielder off waivers last season when they were scrambling for someone who could play shortstop and third base. Barden was available because Arizona couldn’t find a spot for him. At Oregon State, Barden won the college equivalent of the Gold Glove for his play at third base, but when he joined the Cardinals’ major-league team last fall he said he knew his bat was a better fit for the middle infield. His glove plays anywhere.
Barden, his complete stats available here, is hitting .303 with 20 doubles and a .371 on-base percentage for Triple-A Memphis. In all the plundering of the Memphis roster the Cardinals have done this season Barden is arguably the Redbirds’ best player yet to get a major-league promotion this summer.
The official announcement of the team is available here at USA Baseball’s official site.
The team begins play Aug. 13 against Korea. This will be Team USA’s first appearance in the Olympics since the Ben Sheets, Roy Oswalt and Ryan Franklin team won the Gold Medal in the Sidney Summer Games of 2000. The United States did not qualify for baseball in Athens 2004.
All minor-leaguers, those not on the 25-man active major-league roster, were eligible for selection. Any who are promoted between now and the Olympics would have to be replaced by Team USA. Only one college player was selected for the team — San Diego pitcher Stephen Strasburg, the phenom who struck out 23 players in a game and is the early favorite to be the No. 1 pick next June.
The Cardinals were one of eight major-league organizations that had two players named to the roster. Two other Olympians had Cardinal connections. Florida outfielder John Gall was the two-time player of the year within the Cardinals organization yet never could crack the major-league roster for an extended look. Detroit pitcher Blaine Neal was a non-roster invitee to spring training 2006.
The Cardinals had a handful of candidates for the team. Catcher Bryan Anderson, like Rasmus, was on the Gold Medal-winning World Cup team. Double-A pitcher Jess Todd pitched his way into the conversation by earning All-Star invites at two levels this summer.
Team USA has yet to fill one spot on its 24-man roster.
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Derrick Goold said he was going to Mizzou for capital-J journalism, but after growing up in the Time Zone Baseball Forgot he was really drawn to MU sitting between two major-league cities. Goold joined the Post-Dispatch in 2001 after working for The Times-Picayune and Rocky Mountain News, covering sports from LSU to NHL and every level of baseball in between. 
I didn’t realize that Tipsheet was imprisoned or persecuted. Do tell.
I wonder how much of a factor Brian Barden will play in the Cardinals future? DG, if I’m not mistaken Troy Glaus has an option next year on his contract, correct? If he decides not to come back then does Barden potentially play as a third baseman until the “Walrus” arrives.
DG, have you gotten to see how the Walrus has handled pro pitching yet? Just by looking at his stats he looks like he is doing well. He is hitting .324 with a OBP of .468. That is pretty impresive, but I will consider that it is a small sample size, he has just 47 plate appearances so far. Nice news for Raz and Barden……
Wow, do you guys need to hire a proofreader? There are two grammatical errors in the first sentence of this story alone! I’m afraid to read the rest of it.
EMC,
The rule of thumb here is “small sample size”. So far, so good. I watched a few clips of him play there at Quad Cities, and the swing comes as advertised. There’s no reason to question the numbers he’s put up this early, nor the expectations that he’ll be off to High-A before the season is over.
Kopper,
Please elaborate. A few times here with the blog an early rough-draft version of the entry goes out on the RSS feed and once last week a garbled first paragraph went up and out before I could rescue it. A similar thing happened a few times in spring training. Seat-of-the-pants blogging sometimes. And always working without a net.
So, in order to figure out how that happen — and stop it — what you’re talking about would be helpful. Because the version I’ve got here doesn’t match your comment …
dg
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Hey Derrick do you know when they are leaving? I’m hoping to see both this weekend in Oklahoma City. Thanks
The Redbirds are in Oklahoma City through the weekend. It appears, the Olympians first scheduled game is against Team Canada in North Carolina during the first week of August.
As a fellow blogger, I hate it when the grammar police come out waving their batons.
Completely unrelated, but any word on Carpenter’s simulated game last Monday?
Thanks for the Rasmus info, I’ll be following him.
I’m excited for both Barden and Rasmus.
What does this mean in terms of seeing Rasmus in September? I seem to recall seeing a comment saying that if he goes to the Olympics that he would not be called up this year because it wouldn’t be fair to people that are here playing for the club.