LA Angels Cory Rasmus suffered through injury-plagued season
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LA Angels pitcher Cory Rasmus was looked at as the Angels middle reliever/long man/spot starter, however that never really materialized. Rasmus season typified the Angels season as a whole with multiple stints on the disabled list.
Just when Cory Rasmus seem to get in a rhythm for the LA Angels, he would suffer an injury that would put him out for an extended period of time. It happened multiple times as well, which was similar to the Angels as a whole. Every time the Angels would finally look like they were pulling things together someone would go down with an injury including Rasmus.
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Rasmus pitched the first six weeks of the season and did decently take away three bad outings in which he gave up three or more runs including on opening day against the Cubs. Then the first injury hit Rasmus as he suffered a left groin strain on May 13th. He ended up missing a month coming back in the second week of June.
Rasmus second stint with the Angels was almost over with before it started as Rasmus only pitched in three games giving up one run in 2.1 innings of work, which lowered his ERA to 5.40 for the season. This time Rasmus strained his right groin. This injury put Rasmus out for much longer as he did comeback until September 15th.
In his five outings after the second injury Rasmus was not very effective as he had a 9.00 ERA in three innings of work giving up three runs in those innings. So for the season Rasmus finished with 24.2 innings pitched giving up 16 runs on 25 hits and 16 walks. His ERA for the season was 5.84 with a 0-2 record. Rasmus had a WHIP of 1.66 and an opponents batting average of .266.
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These numbers do not bode well for Rasmus and his spot in the Angels bullpen will be scrutinized moving forward to the 2017 season. Rasmus in his three years with the Angels has posted a 4-5 record with a 4.17 ERA. He has a WHIP of 1.33 and opponents batting average of .233. He has also struck out 121 batters in 123 innings of work which is very good and he also has a two-to-one ratio in strikeouts to walks as he has walked 57 batters in those same 123 innings of work.
The bright side for Rasmus is he is still young and is under club control for a few more years which will keep his salary down making him more desirable to keep on the roster. Rasmus just needs to pitch more effectively. His rookie year he went 3-2 with a 2.57 ERA in 56 innings of work and had a 1.05 ERA to boot. Opponents only hit .204 off of Rasmus that year and he struck out 57 batters and only walked 17.
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Hopefully Rasmus will figure out how to stay healthy and be more effective in 2017. If he can do that he could be a valuable part of the Angels bullpen going forward.