DOWNTOWN — The St. Louis Cardinals top prospect Colby Rasmus resisted the team’s request that he go play winter ball, make up for the at-bats he lost to injury last season and regain some momentum for the 2009 spring training. He said he needed a break.

On Sunday, he showed what he did with that time away.

A significantly bulked-up Rasmus arrived at the 13th annual Winter Warm-up on Sunday, explaining his winter was spent with the weights, doing workouts and packing onto a frame he felt wasn’t in the best shape entering spring training last season.

“I’m was going to get in the gym, get after it, and bust it,” Rasmus said. “See how good of shape I can get my body in. … The time off was good. Cleared my head.”

Rasmus, 22, had a difficult year in his Class AAA debut. A slow start triggered by a change in his approach at the plate eroded rapidly once injuries took hold. He missed the last month of the season with a knee injury and then was reluctant to accept any invitations to head to a fall or winter league. He wanted to get away from baseball, get away from what he viewed as a frustrated year and reset for another run at the majors. In recent weeks, Cardinals management — including GM John Mozeliak and manager Tony La Russa – have raved about Rasmus’ raw talent and said he’ll get ample opportunity to be in the outfield … as a regular … sometime in 2009. And that could be sometime soon.

His work this winter will only reaffirm their expectations.

Rasmus returned to the cages within the past couple weeks, whacking at baseballs on tees. He’ll advance to live pitching eventually, but he said he already feels more explosive, more power at the plate. That was always the expectation from scouts, who saw him as a young, toolsy high school outfielder who even as he was leading the Texas League in home runs was bound to fill out as he grew-up.

Outfielder Ryan Ludwick had just come in the media room before Rasmus and talked about how he had worked on getting stronger. (”I’d like to hit 50,” Ludwick said, semi-joking.) So he had set the bar for questions about weight-lifting and strength-training long before Rasmus started offering details of his winter weight regimen.

Bench-pressed on the topic by one reporter on how much Rasmus was hefting:

“As much as I can.”

-30-