The CBB continues our countdown for the 2010 College Baseball season by checking in on the Top 100 Players in the country. We will be providing one player per day until we reach number 1.
We continue the list today with number 70 in our countdown with UCLA junior LHP Rob Rasmussen. He picked up four letters at Pasadena Polytechnic School in Pasadena California. He had a career record of 38-2 with an ERA of 1.04 while striking out 492 batters in only 248.2 innings. In his entire high school career, he only gave up 37 earned runs. He picked up several awards in his high school career including being named a third-team All-American by Baseball America and first-team All-State honors from CalHi Sports.
Rasmussen made 10 appearances during his freshman season including two starts. His season was cut short when he suffered a broken foot in his first career start making him miss 10 weeks. He ended up finishing his freshman season with a 0-2 record and a 5.60 ERA. He spent the summer of 2008 with the Orleans Cardinals in the Cape Cod Baseball League where he went 4-3 with a 4.12 ERA in 39.1 innings.
Rasmussen’s sophomore season saw him make 18 appearance (six starts) where he had a 4-2 record with a 6.75 ERA. He went a perfect 3-0 with a 4.95 ERA in his 12 relief appearances while compiling 27 strikeouts and 12 walks in 20.0 innings. He spent the summer of 2009 back with the Orleans Cardinals in the Cape Cod Baseball League where he went a perfect 4-0 with a 1.80 ERA while leading the team in strikeouts with 42 in 35 innings of work. He was the only pitcher in the league to win four or more games without a loss. He was named the starter in the CCBL All-Star game where he pitched one inning giving up two unearned runs on one hit to Zach Cox that hit the center field wall at Fenway Park.
Baseball America named him the 16th best prospect in the CCBL and we believe that Rasmussen will be a perfect number 3 starter for the UCLA Bruins this season as they have two outstanding pitchers in Trevor Bauer and Gerrit Cole. If Rasmussen can find his form from his summer league days, then he will live up to my expectations for him.
You can check out the rest of the Top 100 countdown by clicking here.
