Welcome to the Blue, Rob Rasmussen - My Rasmussen Fantasy Card

Former UCLA pitcher and Polytechnic High School (Pasadena) grad Rob Rasmussen has just joined the Dodgers, and he couldn't be more thrilled.  Just check out what he wrote on twitter @RasmussenRob:

(twitter link)

So, who is he.  Well, to start check out this great video put together by MLB that is very informative.

Video Link:

Rasmussen is a small dude.  According to Baseball Reference he stands at 5' 9".  Other sites say he is a couple of inches taller.  Nevertheless, he'll never be mistaken for a Giant.  He is a lefty with a fastball that has good movement and off-speed stuff (slider).  As the video above says, he has had trouble with consistent control.

He was originally drafted by the Dodgers in the 7th round out of High School in 2007, but eventually chose to play for UCLA instead.  There he anchored a rotation that included Gerrit Cole and Trevor Bauer.  In 2010, Rasmussen went 11-3 with a 2.72 ERA, collecting 128 strikeouts in 109.1 innings. 

Via wikipedia:

According to the Under Armour 2010 Draft Scouting Report: "Rasmussen is a pretty advanced college lefty with an interesting combination of pitchability and stuff. He has four pitches he's around the plate with, though he does need to be a little more efficient with his pitches. He's a bit undersized, which might concern some, but he does a nice job mixing his pitches and keeping hitters guessing. If the spike in velocity he showed early in the spring is still around all season, he could sneak even further up Draft boards."

Sneak up, indeed.  Rasmussen entered the draft again and was selected by the Marlins in the 2nd round.  That year, the Marlins had him play in the Sally league where he pitched well.  Rasmussen got into 5 games in short relief, and gave up just 1 earned run.  In 2011, he played a full season in high-A and recorded 3.64 ERA with far too many walks given the number of strike outs.  This past season he was sent to Houston in the Carlos Lee trade and improved on his strike out to walk ratio, but also got knocked around a little bit more.  He finished the year with an accumulative ERA of 4.25.  Below are his minor league stats.

Via Baseball Reference.

BTW, the fantasy card above is a 2007 Topps Baseball card design and the photo was from UCLA.

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