Rob Rassmussen is coming home…Former Poly star goes to Dodgers in minor-league trade with Astros

Former Pasadena Poly standout pitcher Rob Rasmussen, who also helped UCLA to the College World Series in 2010, is coming home. He was traded by the Houston Astros to the Dodgers for Triple-A pitcher John Ely on Wednesday.
In three minor league seasons, Rasmussen is 21-20 with a 3.88 ERA. He split last season between Jupiter in the Florida League, a Single-A league, and Corpus Christi, of the Texas League, a Double-A league. Rasmussen was 4-7 with a 3.90 ERA for Jupiter. He was 4-4 with a 4.80 ERA for Corpus Christi.
There has been no announcement where he will be assigned to by the Dodgers.

Here is J.P. Hoornstra’s story

By J.P. Hoornstra, Staff Writer

Rob Rasmussen is coming home.
The former Pasadena Poly and UCLA standout was acquired by the Dodgers in a trade with the Houston Astros on Wednesday. The Astros received right-handed pitcher John Ely.
Rasmussen was driving from his home in Santa Monica to his parents’ home in Pasadena when Astros assistant general manager David Stearns called to deliver the news.
“I loved being there,” he said of the Astros’ organization, “but it’s hard to contain your excitement when you get traded to the only team you ever wanted to play for.”
The 23-year-old left-hander was chosen in the 27th round of the 2007 draft by the Dodgers but chose to attend UCLA instead. Rasmussen said there was very little choice in his mind — he
already told major-league teams that he intended to go to college — but he said that Dodgers scout Chuck Crim “thought I deserved to have my name called.”
Crim is now the Dodgers’ bullpen coach.
Rasmussen said he attended “tons” of Dodger games growing up in Arcadia. Why not jump at the chance to play for his dream team out of high school?
“I went to a very small, academically-focused high school, Pasadena Poly,” he said, “and I always wanted to go to college. I never thought about playing pro baseball at that point in time. To
be honest I don’t know if I was ready for the minor league lifestyle at that point in time.”
Rasmussen went 38-2 with a 1.04 ERA over four varsity seasons at Pasadena Poly, recording 492 strikeouts and allowing just 37 earned runs in 248.2 innings. As a senior he was named the 2007
CIF-SS Division VI Player of the Year, leading Poly to a 24-2 overall record and a CIF playoff appearance.
He suffered an early setback at UCLA: In his first college game, a line drive hit back to the mound struck his foot and broke a bone.
Rasmussen came back to go 4-4 in 27 games (eight starts) with a 6.21 ERA in his freshman and sophomore seasons.
As a junior, Rasmussen joined the starting rotation and led the Bruins to the Finals of the College World Series for the first time in the program’s history. He was drafted in the second
round by the Florida Marlins that year.
Rasmussen finished the season 11-3 with a 2.72 ERA, and threw six scoreless innings in UCLA’s final game of the College World Series, a 2-1 loss to South Carolina.
In two and a half years in the Marlins’ organization, Rasmussen split his time between Low-A Greensboro and High-A Jupiter. He was one of two prospects traded from the Marlins to the Astros
on July 4 in the trade that sent Carlos Lee to Miami.
Houston assigned Rasmussen to Double-A Corpus Christi, where he went 4-4 with a 4.80 earned-run average and raised his strikeout-to-walk ratio to a career-best 2.44.
Rasmussen doesn’t count toward the Dodgers’ 40-man roster, leaving them with one open roster spot.
Ely, 26, made two major-league appearances in 2012 and took the loss in both. He ended the season with a 20.25 earned-run average after allowing six earned runs in 2 2/3 innings. Prior to
that, Ely excelled in Triple-A, winning the Pacific Coast League’s triple crown (14-7, 3.20 ERA, 165 strikeouts) and earning the league’s Pitcher of the Year award.
Ely made 18 starts in 2010, winning three of his first four decisions, but finishing 4-10 with a 5.49 ERA. He made five major-league appearances in 2011 (one start) going 0-1 with a 4.26
ERA.

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