Rank History
| Year | Team | Position | Team Rank | OFP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | MIL | RHP | 10 | 40 |
Grades Update: Jan 2021
| OFP | Role | FB | CB | SL | CH | Cnt/Cmd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | 40 | 60 | 45 | 60 | 30 | 40/30 |
Jan 2021 Report
Evaluator: Rhys White
Age: 26 yr
Height: 6-1
Weight: 211 lbs
Hits/Throws: R/R
Acquired: 2018 Round 5
RuleV: On 40-Man Roster
Physical Description: Drew is slightly shorter than what you would want as a pitcher but he makes up for that lack of an inch or two with a balanced well filled out frame with a good lower half.
Delivery & Mechanics: There is little wasted movement when Rasmussen pitches. He releases the ball from a high three-quarters armslot. He has a fast and loose arm. His delivery is simple, he lifts his front leg up and drives towards the mound releasing from his high three-quarters slot. The fastball comes out of his hand slightly higher than the slider, curveball, and changeup, which opposing hitters have picked up on in his short major league career and is going to be something he has to work on to be effective at the highest level.
Fastball: Drew Rasmussen can reach 99 with his fastball and sits as low as 96 with it. He gets arm-side movement on his fastball. He uses the fastball in any and all counts. Late in counts he likes to throw the ball up in the zone to get batters to swing and miss. The fastball is most effective when he can spot it up in the zone, and he understands the armside run he generates with the pitch and will try and back-door right-handed hitters with the fastball. Rasmussen lacks command of his fastball, which causes the fastball to play down. Grade: 60
Curveball: He sparingly throws the curveball, using it as a show pitch, trying to catch opposing hitters off-guard when they have keyed in on the fastball or slider. His curveball gets up to 83 mph and has a standard 12-to-6 shape that has posted as high as 2700 rpms. He tends to throw his curveball most frequently to left-handed batters, where he is trying to throw the curveball low and inside. It does an average job of generating swings and misses but it more frequently causes off-balance swings resulting in batters fouling it off or weak contact. Grade: 45
Slider: The slider is a true swing-and-miss offering for Rasmussen. In his brief major-league career he was able to throw the slider as high as 89 mph. It is closer to a slurve than the traditional hard-sweeping slider. It gets good 1-to-7 movement with hard vertical movement. The velocity and movement profile of the slider allows him to throw the curveball and sequence with the slider and curveball. He generates swings and misses with the slider, but one thing to note is he does release it slightly lower than the fastball and hitters did start to key in on that in the major leagues. Grade: 60
Changeup: He lacks feel for the changeup, you might be wowed that he can throw his changeup as high as 91 mph but as we know changeup velocity is rather useless, the most important thing with a changeup is the feel, the arm-speed at which the pitcher throws it, the velocity separation that the pitcher has between the fastball and changeup, the raw velocity of a changeup is useless. Rasmussen overthrows the changeup, lacks feel for the offering, gets below-average separation, and it lacks tumble and fade. Going forward I believe if he is to stay in a relief role he should abandon the changeup. Grade: 30
Control and Command: He tends to be erratic, he has well-below average command and below average control. Oftentimes the catcher sets up for a pitch on one side of the strike-zone and Rasmussen will throw the ball to the opposite side, causing the catcher to have to make a quick play to avoid a wild pitch. Up in the zone the fastball gets erratic, as he can have a propensity to overthrow any of his offerings. Control: 40 | Command: 30
Overall: Drew Rasmussen has already made the major leagues in 2020. He showed a high-octane fastball to go along with a plus slider. He profiles best as a reliever because of his underwhelming command and control. He needs to see the command and control of his pitches take a step forward for him to be a more consistent reliever. He will also need to get the release point of the fastball and slider to be consistently the same to avoid hitters being able to guess which pitch is coming.
OFP: 40
Role: 40 - Low Leverage Reliever
Risk: Moderate
