clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Colby Rasmus Still Not A Fan Of The St. Louis Cardinals, Which Makes Sense

Color me a little more sympathetic than Jeff Gordon about the not-especially-surprising revelation that Colby Rasmus harbors a grudge about his time with the St. Louis Cardinals, which was marked by injuries, clubhouse whispers, a power struggle conducted entirely by shifty guys named Tony, and a weird city-wide propensity to see any hot streak as temporary luck and any ugly run as proof of his fundamental not-rightness.

↵

Speaking to the Toronto Blue Jays' press corps, Rasmus talked about the St. Louis media being "on" him; the apparent oppressiveness of being "the young little puppy and everybody wants to teach me the tricks and beat me down and tell me that I'm doing things wrong," which says worrying things about his relationship with puppies; and his inability to relax in the dugout.

↵

Gordon suggests Jon Jay, Rasmus's replacement, is a True Cardinal because he sucked for a while during the World Series and then he didn't suck at the right moment, even knocking a nameless collective of internet Cardinals fans for "dismissing him as a hapless loser" and not a clutch never-say-die type, which sounds a lot like... what happened to Colby Rasmus! (For what it's worth, I read Gordon's suggestion that Rasmus is an emotionally fragile ballplayer who, like that hypothetical hapless loser, probably wouldn't pull out of a slump when it counted... on the internet!)

↵

Rasmus's poor numbers after the trade don't do much to promise his immediate renaissance in Canada, but I think it's worth pointing out that as much as Jay has exceeded expectations, and Rasmus has failed to meet them, their offensive numbers prior to Rasmus's disastrous trip north were fundamentally similar. Say what you will about the Cardinals having to trade Rasmus because of conclusions that others have drawn about his character, but there's not a whole lot of slack in the idea that Jay is a clearly superior baseball player.