Colby-Rasmus
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| 2008 pre-season interview |
| Q: OK Colby. A lot of people are wanting to know if you’re going to be at the Winter Warmup. Yeah, I’ll be there. I fly out on the 17th. Q: What’s your current weight? 195 Q: I talked with your dad a little bit earlier and he said you got down close to 180 with that infection last year. How long did it take you to get that weight back? It didn’t take too long, once I got back and got on a good routine, eating-wise, lifting weights, and stuff like that. Q: When did you feel like you were 100% …once you got sick which was what, the end of May … the first part of June, right? Right. When did you feel 100% again? Did you ever fell that way again during the season? In August I felt good. I called my dad, I remember, at the end of July, and I said I’m going to turn it around in August. I think it was July 31st when I talked to him and the next day, I think I was three for four. And from then on, I just really got back in the groove and just pushed everything aside and focused on what I had to do. Q: How did this sinus infection come into play in the first place? What happened? I don’t really know. One day, I just really didn’t feel real well, and I didn’t really do anything about it. I didn’t go to the doctor or anything because I figured it was something small. And by the time it got going real good, it was too late. I saw the doctor and I had to take some medicine, you know, I had to take a Z-Pak a couple times to get it to go away. Just with everything that was going on at the time. Everybody was talking about, you know, that I might get pulled up. Once I was going good, I was fine. And then when I started struggling, I started think about things too much and just tried to put a little too much pressure on myself instead of playing the normal baseball that I play. Q: So you lost how many pounds? At that time, I lost ten, within a week and a half. Q: So, you were weak and tired. Did that affect your mechanics? Yeah, it hurt me pretty much all the way around. I probably should have sat out a couple games but I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to stay in there and fight it back. Going from .300 to .240 in a week and a half, two weeks, you know, something’s not right. I’ve never done anything like that before. Q: You came back pretty good once you got going in August. You had what, 12 homers and batted .365 or something like that. What do you attribute that to? Was it something you saw, was it mechanics, did you get some strength back. Why did you have this just torrid August? Most of the stuff I learned early in the year, being in Double A the whole year, I just kind of put it all together, and the I finally got that strength back and quit putting so much pressure on myself and just went out there and started having fun cause, I mean, that’s when I play the best. I put that pressure on myself. I usually don’t that’ s why I usually play pretty well. When I was struggling and I got sick, I let it hit me a little harder than I should. Q: So is that the first time something of that nature hit you that hard, as far as a slump, and struggling? I felt terrible. I mean, I couldn’t dig myself out of it. I tried way too hard. It was a rough time. I think it made me a better player in the end. Q: I was about to ask you if, in the big picture of things, did you felt that it was a good thing to go through, and why is that? Yeah, going through it wasn’t fun at all. But once I got out of it and realized what happened, I realized how I could fix it and make that adjustment quicker which helped me a lot because I never really struggled like that, and been that down about myself. I talked to D-May about it the whole time – Derrick May is my hitting coach – he was like, “It’s gonna happen. It was probably a better thing to happen to you now instead of getting to the big leagues and have it happen.” Q: You and I talked last year [previous year] and you talked about your experience at single-A and all the travel that was involved in single-A. So moving up to Double-A, I’m sure you learned a lot of things, so what’s #1 thing that you feel like you learned from that experience? I learned a lot of things, a lot of good stuff. (Long pause contemplating). Q: Is there a mental part of the game, is the game more mental than physical when you come right down to it? You went through this month or two where you struggled, obviously you lost this weight but, you know, what I feel like I’m hearing from you is that really, it was more of a struggle in your mind than it was with your body because you recovered physically, it seems, but you were still struggling with some mental things. I don’t want to put words in your mouth… Well, the thing was, I got two sinus infections in that time, so I never really recovered. It was mostly physical. I let it get me a little too down than it should have. The main thing was being able to go out there every day and put my “A” game out there. That the main thing to me, being able to go out there and play your “A” game every day. Playing so many games, not many people realize that you’ve got so many things going on. You’ve got signing and that kind of stuff. You’ve got so much going on that. Just keeping focused on what you have to do and not listening to everything people have to say, you know, just staying focused. Q: Did you talk to your dad a lot during that time? [Colby’s dad, Tony Rasmus, was his high school baseball coach and 2005 National High School Coach of the Year] Yeah, I usually talk to him every day. (Jokes with dad sitting just off camera) When I do good, he’ll talk to me. (All laugh) Q: I think when we spoke last year Baseball America had written something to the effect that you struggle against lefties, but we looked at the stats and they really didn’t reflect that. How do you feel about hitting against left-handed pitchers at this point? Comparing now to my first year…my first year, I struggled against lefties. Coming out of high school I struggled against lefties. They don’t bother me that much [now]. I feel good against lefties. I usually like getting lefties in there so when they bring in a lefty, I don’t worry about it. I just see it and hit it like normal. Q: Has there been any emphasis in the last year of trying to hit to other fields? I imagine there’s always been a degree of that but is that something [now] there a lot of emphasis on – going with the pitch, hitting to the opposite field? One of the things I struggled with early on … (Colby’s cell phone rings…he turns it off and says.“My bad” as we all chuckle). I feel like I’ve gotten a lot better at it. Toward the end of the year, I hit two home runs to left field and was hitting a lot of balls to left. Early on, I could hit some balls to left field but I couldn’t do it consistently. So D-May work a lot with me on that and finally, I put some things together. You always try to get up there and try to hit the home run, and do the best you can, but the key to being a great hitter is hitting the ball the other way. You’ve got to do it to be good, and I finally figured out how to do it on a consistent basis. I started doing that at the end [of the season]. I hit those two home runs and started hitting a lot of balls to left field. I hit a lot of balls to left field in Taiwan so I feel great about going the other way with the ball. I’ve been working on it. It’s one of the main things I work on, just keep it consistent every day. Q: A lot has happened over the last week, and over the last month. Jim Edmonds gets traded. How has that impacted you? How do you feel about all that’s gone on in the past couple of weeks (reader should be aware that this interview took place on December 31st)? It’s been big. I try not to focus on those things. I just try to focus on what I have to do, really, just try to get myself ready to go and try to make the team. But I mean, no one wanted to see Edmonds go. I didn’t. I’ve liked the Cardinals for a while now and watching him out there in centerfield. I just want to be able, you know, if I do half as good as he did, I’ll be alright. Q: Not a lot of people know that you and Edmonds have the same agent so that’s sort of a curious thing. Was there foreknowledge on your part that this trade was going to happen? Did you know this was going to happen before it did? No, I didn’t know. I didn’t find out until the next day. My dad came in [to his bedroom] and told me. Q: Yeah, he told me that he woke you up and tried to get you going…to get you to go down and work out twice as hard and he said that you told him it [the trade] wasn’t going to affect how hard you worked out because you were working out double-hard to begin with. Is that right? (Chuckles) When I came back from Taiwan, I just wanted to set myself up to go into Spring Training to show them what I’ve got, and to show them that I put everything together since I did struggle last year for a bit. I had another two good months and I finished up pretty good, I thought. I’m just going to go in there and play my game, hit the ball well, and, you know, let them make the decision. Q: What is the difference between Single-A and Double-A to you? The game is a little faster. There are better players. The pitching is better. There are good hitters in Double- A. This year, there were some good hitters up there. When I was in Single-A, there would be errors. In Double- A, everybody’s good, the game is working, it’s more fast-paced – everybody knows what’s going on. I liked it a lot. I liked playing in Double-A. It was fun for me. It was definitely different. Q: You really enjoyed Springfield? Your parents really seemed to enjoy Springfield. Yeah, I had a good time there. The fans up there are awesome. It was unbelievable. Q: Colby, you’ve had another year to see firsthand the other talent in the Cardinals farm system. Which players, in the Cardinals system in particular, most impress you as having big league potential? Bryan Anderson is probably one of the best-hitting catchers I’ve played with. He’s a great hitter to be a catcher. Of all the catchers I’ve played against I haven’t seen any who hit like he does. Chris Perez, once he gets to where he can throw strikes consistently, he’ll be deadly. He’s got great stuff, great movement. great slider, throws hard. John Jay, he’s a good player. He can hit. He just plays the game well. I faced Hawksworth last year and he’s good, a good pitcher. Joe Mather…Joey “Bombs”. He’s a good player -- big guy. He drops bombs for sure. I think he’ll definitely be there. He’s a great all-around player to me. Q: Given all the travel and the long season, it can be tiring. It’s not uncommon for ball players to pull a few pranks on each other. What’s one of the better one’s you’ve seen. …that you can talk about? (Grins big) There are some good ones. (Long pause accompanied by various grins and chuckles). I can’t think of any that I can say. It’s not high school anymore. Q: Most people that follow your career know that your dad use to play pro ball, and is a highly successful baseball coach now, winning the national high school baseball title in 2005. What’s the best piece of advice that your dad has given you about playing in the minor leagues? One thing that he didn’t use to say but he’s saying more [now] and that’s ‘Go out there and have fun, and play the game’ which has helped me out a lot, I think. Because when it comes down to it, if you’re not having fun you’ re not gonna be doing good. So I just try to go out there and have fun, and just play the game like I know how to play it, you know, and not worry about all the small stuff. Q: How often do you talk with the Cardinals front office? Does that ever happen? (Shakes his head) Not ever, really. I mean, I talk to them every time they come into town [minor league city] and I saw Mr. Luhnow before I left to go to Taiwan. He was out at the Fall League and I talked to him a little bit. And every time Mr. Mozeliak comes in, I talk to him. Q: Have you had any really good sit-down conversations with Mr. LaRussa yet? Last year in Spring Training we talked quite a bit. He came down there and talk to me during the games. And went he sent me down, he came in there and talk to me a little bit before he sent me down. Q: Any of that which you can divulge? I don’t know how he’d feel about that. OK, that’s cool. Q: The Cardinal farm system has, as a whole, been down for a few years and is obviously on the rise again but it’s been a real effort to infuse it with some talent. So the Cardinals are I kind of a transition period. They traded Edmonds recently. Last year, a year after winning the World Series, they finished under .500 for the year. They haven’t been real active this off-season [yet] picking up any free agents of note. [Consequently] there is a sense in Cardinals Nation of maybe apprehension or anxiety. Given all that backdrop, do you feel any degree of pressure if, and when you should come onto the scene to be the next great Cardinal player to come along, especially being a #1 pick and all and the expectations that are on you? That will definitely put pressure on someone. But that’s why I try to stay away from everything that people say. Some people who’ve never seen me play have something to say about it so there no need for me to be worrying about what they’ve got to say. I’m just gonna go out there and play the game how I play it. If people don’t like it, there’s nothing I can do about it. I’d like to be the next great player for the Cardinals and that’s what I’m going to try to be but I’m not going to put too much pressure on myself to where I can’t do that. I feel like that’s the reason for where I’m at. I’ve had that pressure and I’ve learned how to deal with that pressure so the pressure doesn’t really bother me that much. If I ever get on myself, that’s more than the pressure. That’s one of the things that I feel like I handle pretty well is pressure. I like being in those pressure-packed situations, I love having the ball and me being up there hitting when the game’s on the line. I hit a walk-off home run this year in the playoffs. That was something that was pretty special to me. I love to be that guy to step up and do something right for the team. Q: Probably the #1 question we get on the website Colby, and other sites like the [St. Louis] Post- Dispatch website has to do with the high expectations on you. Not many players, and certainly no fans have any idea – I certainly don’t – what it’s like to be surrounded with such high expectations. Do you think it’s possible to get a point – because it’s so constant and you’ve played at such a high caliber your whole life – you won the Little League World Series, Dixie Boys where you won that almost every year, you won the high school nation championship – you’ve been successful at every level – there are these expectations on the one hand, but you’ve played with such success and been on teams that have done extraordinarily well, can a person get to a point where it “runs off of your back” after a while, where you get kind of numb to all of it, and it [pressure, expectations] really doesn’t matter any more? That’s the way I feel about it. That’s why I was saying I don’t really worry about all that. I guess that’s a good way to put it, I just try to let it “run off my back”, you know, in one ear and out the other. Like when I was in Springfield and I started struggling. I started letting that stuff get to me a little bit and I had to stop myself and I was like, “What am I doing?” And when I got sick and all that happened was bad. But I just stopped myself and said, “What am I doing?” I’ve never done that before. I never put myself in this sort of situation. That another thing that upset me about going through that situation – it should have never happened. I got sick and probably should have sat out a couple games. I just try not to worry about that kind of stuff. It’s not gonna make me better in the end and that’s all I want to do is a great player. So I just try to do things that are going to help me be a great player. (Commentary) It sounds like the physical development and the skills development are equally important to just maturing as a human being and learning to play the game on the field and off the field. It’s interesting, as a side note, the difference between last year and this year, I can see it. I see a maturing taking place and a confidence level that is coming along side that, and it’s a good thing to see. Q: OK. Let’s go a little lighter on the questions and have a little fun. ESPN has something on their website called Page 2 where they ask some of the lighter questions. So if you don’t mind, let me fire a couple of these at you. (Huge grin) Am I on the Budweiser “Hot Seat?” Q: Which power would you wish for: the strength of 100 men, the ability to fly, or the ability to be invisible? Probably the strength of a hundred men. Q: Why? (Chuckles) So that I could hit hundred-men-strength bombs. (Laughs more) That one you hit over in Taiwan was a pretty good bomb. The announcers liked that one quite a bit. Q: You’ve got your cell over there. Who’s the most famous person’s number you’ve got stored in that cell phone? Most famous person? (Big smile) Ah, probably have to be Edmonds. (Joking) What’s that number…let me look at that. (All smile) Q: What person outside of sports would you most like to meet? Outside of sports? (Looks into the distance, then looks over to his dad) Oh, what’s that guy’s name? The guy that’s on Mr. Deeds. Dad: Adam Sandler? The other guy. He’s in Anger Management. The guy that hits his foot. Dad: The Italian guy Yeah. I can’t think of his name. [Though he doesn’t think of the guy’s name, it’s John Turturro] I like that guy. I’d like to meet Arnold Schwarzenegger, that’d be pretty cool. (Pause) Megan Fox. You know who Megan Fox is? Have you seen Transformers, the new one? That’s her. I thought you were going to say Jessica Biel from last year. I like Jessica Biel, too. Chuck and Larry? (mimics a whistle and looks to his Dad with a grin) Q: Fill in the blank. If I weren’t a professional baseball player, I would be a __________? (Totally stumped, then after a long pause:) I’d probably be working at the Wal-Mart Distribution Center with my best friend. Q: Why? That’s what he did and that’s probably what I’d be doing. Q: This one’s not quite so light. Describe Colby Rasmus, the person. Outgoing? Shy? Tell us a little bit about yourself. I’m outgoing. I get along with pretty much anybody. I like to have a good time. I like to meet new people, you know, I love meeting new people. Q: Favorite movie? I like movies a lot. I Am Legend. I thought that was pretty good. (Commentary) One of my favorites than makes me think of you is The Natural. Have you seen that? Yeah, I looked at that movie – it’s a good movie. Dad: Remember last year somebody asked you about Roy Hobbs and you said, "Who is that?” (Dad chuckles, Colby smiles) Q: Alright let’s talk music. Name some of the artists you like to listen to? I like Three Doors Down, Shine Down, Stained. I still like rock & roll..Lynyrd Skynyrd…I like all that stuff. Q: What’s your “walk-out” song going to be this time around? (Smiles) I don’t know yet. I gotta think of something good. I understand Sweet Home Alabama turned out to be a jinx song. (Shrugs shoulders) I don’t know. That’s what I had for awhile. That’s a good choice. I guess it didn’t work too good so I had to change it up. Q: What can you tell us about your family? My brothers are Corey, Kyle and Casey. Corey’s twenty. Kyle’s eighteen and Casey’s seventeen. Corey’s with the Braves [pitcher]. He was drafted supplemental last year. Kyle and Casey, they’re both seniors. Kyle signed with the University of Southern Illinois [baseball scholarship] and the younger one, Casey, signed with Okaloosa-Walton [also on a baseball scholarship]. I have a few questions from members of the Cards Talk forum on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch website. Question #1. Are you superstitious, and if so, what does he do to prepare himself for game time…like what does he eat, etc.? I have a couple things. Nothing before the game, I’m not superstitious like that, that I gotta do certain things. For me, for like a week, I’ll tape my wrists a certain way for every game. I don’t do anything that’s really set except I don’t step on the lines with my right foot. And when I hit, I always hit [tap] the other side of the plate. Question #2: With the new money, the new car, living from city to city, from hotel to hotel, and a lifestyle that’s entered around nightlife, and temptations, how can you stay focused, keep baseball a priority, and continue to work to get better? (Commentary) Good question, huh? Just sit at home and play XBOX. (Smiles) Leave the house to go workout and do everything I gotta do and come back and play some more. I like playing video games. (Smiles again). Question #3: If you play video games, what’s your favorite game at the moment? Halo 3. Q: What’s so great about Halo 3? I don’t know, I just like it. The graphics are pretty good and it’s pretty realistic. Alright, Colby. We're looking forward to a very exciting year for the Cardinals, and for you personally. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us again today. Glad to do it. |