Davidi: New-look, new attitude Rasmus arrives
Posted February 24, 2012 1:08 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
DUNEDIN, Fla. – Smiling, at ease, and with a shaggy new mane pouring out from his cap, Colby Rasmus very much seems like a new man this spring.
And the 25-year-old centre-fielder, someone who will very much be a focal point for the Toronto Blue Jays this season, attributes that to a comfort level with his new club he never had with his old one.
“No doubt,” he said Friday when told he seemed like a different guy. “I really never felt good in St. Louis. I always felt like I wasn’t … I don’t know. I was always so much younger than everybody else, and I just felt like I was never really, I guess you could say, a part of the team kind of.
“I never got comfortable, and Tony (La Russa, the former manager) wanted it that way. He always said he didn’t want me to get comfortable, he wanted me to always stay working hard and doing this and doing that. So I think that was one thing that might have hurt my game a little bit. …
“I think right now I’m in good shape and feeling good mentally, so we’ll see what happens down the road.”
Rasmus arrived in camp Thursday and greeted his teammates with a wide smile and big hugs, in sharp contrast to the quiet, reserved persona he showed last year after his trade deadline acquisition from the Cardinals by the Blue Jays.
Addressing the media Friday after workouts, he was as open, introspective and engaging as he’s been since the deal, and offered a window into what he felt went wrong for him in St. Louis, where he clashed with La Russa and the coaching staff.
Asked why things got so bad, he replied: “I don’t know, I guess I just said some things that rubbed people the wrong way. I don’t know really, it’s all about how you play. If I would have played good, it wouldn’t have mattered, but I didn’t play good and like blood in the water, they came after me. But it’s all good, I’m here today ready to play, I’m not worried about it.”
Rasmus is adamant life with the Blue Jays will be very different.
“It won’t be like St. Louis where I’m just 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,” said Rasmus, adding later: “In St. Louis it just got to where I was so much just business, I was out there with no emotion, every day, I felt like I couldn’t, I just felt like everything I did was the wrong thing. If I showed emotion like I was happy, I wasn’t playing good enough so I could do that.”
He believes adjustments to his swing, minimizing a leg kick, “that might have been getting a little too crazy,” will help.
Hitting coach Dwayne Murphy met with him in Georgia about three weeks ago and came away thrilled with his progress and enthusiasm.
