DG’s 10@10: Look who’s No. 1
TOWER GROVE — When St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa pulled outfielder Colby Rasmus aside early in spring training to tell him to take the tilt out of his swing, La Russa stressed that Rasmus could make the major-league team just by “hitting hard groundballs.”
Turns out, Rasmus would get his first major-league hit by hitting a hard groundball.
Rasmus, the Cardinals’ No. 1 pick in 2005 and No. 1 prospect the past three years, made his major-league debut with a couple hits Tuesday night in the Cardinals’ victory against the Pittsburgh Pirates. His hardest hit of the evening was a line drive straight at the right field. But the rookie outfielder did reach base three times, doing exactly as La Russa told he could all those weeks ago. Three off the balls Rasmus put in play were groundballs to the right side. One skipped through for a seeing-eye single. He outraced another for an infield single. (”Usually I don’t get too many of those,” he quipped.) The other bounced to the second base for your textbook 4-3.
“It all made sense to me as soon as he said,” Rasmus said Tuesday night. “I started doing it … (and) I started putting good swings on it. I don’t look for those infield singles, but I’ll take it.”
Rasmus’ debut was noteworthy for more than just his couple hits and the fact that he was thrilled it came while his parents were still in town. It was an organizational milestone, too. Rasmus is the first first-round pick for the Cardinals to make his major-league debut with the Cardinals since J.D. Drew did in 1998.
Remember that night? Hint: 62. Yes, it was that long ago.
That’s where the 10@10 begins:
- Rasmus made his major-league debut in right field. There was considerable conversation — internally with the club, around the club — during spring training about what defensive alignment would be best for the Cardinals. Rasmus is a natural center fielder, considered by scouts at one point to be the finest in Class AA. Rick Ankiel, however, is the incumbent, the returning starter, and La Russa puts great value in that. Ankiel’s playing time is also likely going to be greater than Rasmus’. The counter argument is that with Skip Schumaker at second base and a cast of thousands at third base, the Cardinals could tighten up their defense by loading the outfield with range and gloves. A few internally believe the best defensive outfield the Cardinals could field would be Ryan Ludwick in left, Rasmus in center and Ankiel in right. (Given, that is, Schumaker is at second.) La Russa sees Ankiel’s experience in center at the big-league level as the tiebreaker with Rasmus. And then there is the bat consideration. Chris Duncan, who homered Tuesday for the first time since July, offers that. Add the outfield to the levers and dials La Russa will pull and spin during games this season.
Loading …- Duncan was the club’s first-round supplemental pick in 1999. The milestone mentioned above is purely first-rounders. The list of first-round picks the Cardinals have taken since Drew in 1998 who did not see the majors with the club is illustrious: RHP Chance Caple (30th overall, 1999); RHP Blake Williams (24th overall, 2000); OF Shaun Boyd (13th overall, 2000); RHP Justin Pope (28th overall, 2001); C Daric Barton (28th overall, 2003); RHP Chris Lambert (19th overall, 2004) … and then Rasmus at 28th overall in 2005. A few years ago, we took a look at the New York Yankee pitchers who the Cardinals drafted/coulda drafted, and a similar context is worthwhile here. The Cubs, since 1998, have had first-rounders RHP Mark Prior (2nd, 2001) and OF Corey Patterson (3rd, 1998) make the majors. The Cardinals point to how their success has meant lower picks than the surefire prospects that usually reach the majors. True. So, consider the first-rounders from two annual contenders to contribute in the majors since 1998. For the Yankees, check the link: RHP Phil Hughes (23rd, 2004) and RHP Ian Kennedy (21st, 2006). Neither stuck. For the Atlanta Braves: RHP Adam Wainwright (29th, 2000), OF Jeff Francouer (23rd, 2002) and RHP Joey Devine (27th, 2005). Wainwright made his major-league debut with the Cardinals. How does that count?
- Amazing leftover stat from Opening Day: Cardinals shortstop Khalil Greene was the first Cardinal shortstop to bat cleanup on Opening Day since Rogers Hornsby in 1919, according to the Cardinals media relationship staff’s research. Greene is only the third shortstop to hit cleanup on Opening Day in franchise history. Hornsby did it in 1919 and 1918, and Dave Brain did in 1905.
- The Twitter revolution is taking over, from THE_REAL_SHAQ to the real Miklasz to Real Madrid. A gem on the Twitter feed that ran on Opening Day is the Cardinals’ run on Fangraphs. Fangraphs charts the percentage chance of winning a game with each event. For example, this is what the Fangraphs “tweeted” after David Freese’s sacrifice fly: “ 93 % to Win, Bot 8, 2 Outs, 1__, David Freese hit a sacrifice fly to right . Chris Duncan scored.” And this after Jack Wilson’s three-run double: “ 8 % to Win, Top 9, 2 Outs, _2_, Jack Wilson doubled to left. Adam LaRoche scored. Eric Hinske scored. Brandon Moss scored.” Talk about whiplash. You can find that feed here at Cardinals_fg.
- Did you happen to see Jeff Suppan’s at-bat against the reigning Cy Young Award winner, Tim Lincecum? Suppan was Milwaukee’s Opening Day starter this season, and he helped put the Brewers ahead in the second inning. Suppan fouled off four consecutive pitches from Lincecum — a 93-mph fastball, a 93-mph fastball, an 84-mph filthy changeup and a 93-mph fastball. He didn’t bite on an 81-mph curve in the dirt. Then he fished after an 85-mph changeup and poked it down the third-base line. Lincecum pitched only three innings.
- If you haven’t already, check out Bill McClellan’s take on La Russa’s lack of sentimentality when it comes to filling out a lineup.
- Hall of Famer Rick Hummel detailed Schumaker’s debut at second base in this morning’s paper. Albert Pujols told a group of us after the game that he has no doubt that Schumaker will excel at second base this season. He gave two words as his reason: Jose. Oquendo. “I’m not concerned about Skip Schumaker,” Pujols said, “because we have one of the best coaches working with him. I can call him the best because I’ve seen guys that come through this organization with bad hands and leave here with Gold Glove hands. That’s what Jose Oquendo does for this ballclub.”
- Tonight’s starter for the Pittsburgh Pirates, lefty Zach Duke, struggled on the road last year. Not that that’s new. He went 1-6 with a 4.74 ERA in 16 games away from PNC Park. In the past three seasons, he’s 4-22 with a 5.06 ERA on the road in 44 games (43) starts. After feasting on Ian Snell on Tuesday, Pujols gets to snack on another favorite. He’s 10-for-22 with no strikeouts and one home runs against Duke. His line vs. the lefty: .455 average, .500 slugging, .727 slugging.
- And back to Rasmus. There are all kinds of pranks the ballplayers play on each other when it comes to career firsts. Veterans will sometimes sign a baseball or scrawl something, um, colorful on a ball and leave it at a rookie’s locker as if it’s the ball from the first hit, the first homer, the first win, the first whatever. Only later will they reveal that the real ball is really back with trainer Barry Weinberg, who specializes in a Calligraphy-like writing that he decorates memorable baseballs with. That prank is standard. On Tuesday, Joel Pineiro pulled off a doozy, for all the ballpark to see. To the audience it appeared that Pineiro caught the ball from Rasmus’ first base hit and flipped it into the crowd. It was all just sleight of hand. Pineiro had an extra ball in his pocket and as he caught Rasmus’ first base-hit ball, he pulled a switcheroo and flipped the unremarkable ball into the stands.
After the game, Rasmus insisted he didn’t notice and wasn’t worried about the location of the real ball. Teammates saw otherwise.
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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 was in a bar in a meeting — yes, really, we were meeting, really — but a couple of us were keeping one eye on the game and saw Pineiro’s prank. Cracked us up. It looked as if Rasmus was distracted for at least a moment, wondering about the ball.
Interesting fact about K. Greene batting cleanup. It was also interesting that he was even batting cleanup with Ludwick in the lineup.
Loving 10@10.
Lambert was an 04 draftee, Tyler Green was 30th in 05 behind Rasmus.
Really enjoy the 10@10, good stuff, thanks
taking rasmus out of center field is questionable enough but asking a plus power hitter with tremendous on-base skills to change his swing to become a ground ball hitter is one of the more idiotic things i’ve heard from tony. there is a good reason for dave duncan to prefer his pitchers to induce ground balls rather than line drives/fly balls (e.g. greater out % and 0% home runs). to encourage hitters with rasmus’ capabilities to do so playes right into the opposing teams’ hands and costs the cardinals runs and wins.
10@10 is money. nice work. really enjoy it.
I am really disappointed to see you encouraging people to read McClellan’s column about LaRussa. Without even touching on the issue of whether Tony is a good or bad manager, the argument for how poorly written McClellan’s article is could go on for pages. I think it is a terrible reflection on the Post Dispatch sports page to even reference it.
Ask Bill McClellan to share my letter to him with you, Mr. Goold. I am sure someone of your background and talent can appreciate the lazy, slanted, inaccurate writing of Mr. McClellan’s piece.
I’m guessing Tony’s plan will be to bat lefties against righties, and righties against lefties - he’ll try to fit someone in the leadoff slot, and keep anyone who is slumping out of the lineup.
I think keeping rasmus and freeze out of the lineup on opening day was to shield them from bad opening days. And as for Motte - he’s raw, he will probably be the closer every other day - if Perez had done well, he would have been a better choice - but he didn’t. I think Motte should get 3-6 chances to get straightened out, and if he doesn’t make progress at least they will have some things for him to work on in Triple A.
I agree, that McClellan column is nothing more than a bitter cub fan taking a cheap shot at TLR and somehow drawing a link between him and the sex club out of nowhere. Nobody care more about winning than TLR. and if you don’t think he does what he thinks is the best thing for the team, your out of your mind. all the guy does is talk about team history and share his love of the cardinals and their HOF players (except ozzie). we may not agree with his methods, but we are not going into the HOF and down in history as one of the best managers ever….he is.
“but asking a plus power hitter with tremendous on-base skills to change his swing to become a ground ball hitter is one of the more idiotic things i’ve heard from tony.”…….
—here’s the real scoop- who’s the idiot?
Rasmus got off to a slow start in Spring Training, but improved weekly after a conversation with manager Tony La
Russa in which the skipper told him not to try to hit the ball out of the park on every swing. He finished the
spring tied for third in the Grapefruit League with 18 runs scored, and fourth in doubles, with seven.
“When we talked about it, it all made sense,” Rasmus said. “I started doing it the last three or four weeks of
Spring Training and coming into today, that’s all I was trying to do. Get a good pitch to hit, and put a good
swing on it. I don’t really care where it goes, as long as I hit it hard and run as hard as I can.”
While my respect for Tony is very high, I find it hard to believe that his placement of Rasmus in right and Ankiel in center is a rational decision. Rasmus is the best center fielder on the team… period. Ankiel has the best right-field arm on the team - or on any other team … period. Tony’s decision could have already cost the Cards a run. Ankiel unleashed a “crowd-pleasing” thrown to third (as Hrabosky called it) that allowed a runner to go to second for no good reason. Had Rasmus been in center, the throw would have gone into second. But one day, not too distant, Rasmus will make a throw from right that won’t get the runner, and I (and lots of others) will be saying, “Ankiel would have cut him down.” I just can’t believe how irrational Tony can be on occasion.