Chris Colabello

Please refer to this thread for information on one of the best stories in the Twins farm system and my fellow Italiano, Chris Colabello.

Position: 1B (primary), LF/RF (secondary)

Bat: R

Throw: R

Height: 6-4

Weight: 220

Signed: Minor League Free Agent - February 2, 2012

Previous: Independent League (Worcester, Canadian-American League)

College: Assumption College

High School: Milford HS (Milford, MA)

Born: October 24, 1983 - Framingham, MA (30 min W of Boston)

Baseball-Reference Player Page - here.

MiLB Player Page - here.

Stats back to 2005. I'll make updates to 2013 occassionally.

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A recent Q&A by TDer Christopher Fee with Mr. Colabello about Rochester, Indy ball, the WBC, and his goals. Colabello mentions maintaining an even approach and consistent mindframe several times. Twins Daily - Q&A with Chris Colabello

Other blogs and articles about Mr. Colabello:

'Happiest Man in Baseball' - Jon Morosi (Foxsports, 2013)

'Paid His Dues' - David Dorsey (FSN, 2013)

'Fairy Tale' - Cody Christy (ND Twins Fan, 2013)

Perseverance - Paul Daley (Sentinel and Entreprise, local MA paper, 2013)

'IL to MLB' - Rhett Bollinger (mlb.com, 2013)

'Good Story, Good Player' - Tom Powers (Pioneer Press, 2012)

'2011 IL Player of the Year' - JJ Cooper (Baseball America, 2011)

Garrett Jones?

Umm, no, Chris Colabello. If you're trying to draw comparisons, I can see some.

Chris was named the International League Player of the Week (April 4-14):

Colabello named Batavia Downs POTW | Rochester Red Wings News

Last night, April 18th, Chris rocked a two-run homer in the first inning and had an RBI later in the game to lead the Red Wings to a 5-4 win that broke their 7 game losing streak. Colabello's 5 home runs this season are tied for 3rd across all of AAA.

Since the last update, the Red Wings have played 10 games and Chris is 9 for 38 with a home run and 9 RBIs. His 6 HRs on the season are 2nd within the Twins system behind only some prospect named Miguel Sano and puts him in a tie for 2nd within the Int'l League.

The .907 OPS that Chris is sporting leads the team (qualified batters w/ min 2.7 PA/g, ~65 PAs) by a significant margin.

Chris is rolling on an 8-game hitting streak right now. During that time, he is 14-for-32 (.438) with 4 multi-hit games.

His season triple-slash is sitting at .339/.397/.591 for an OPS of .988. He is top-10 of the Int'l League in runs, hits, HRs, RBIs, AVG, SLG, and OPS. Impressive!

I wish the Twins would move to a 11-man pitching staff after a few weeks so they could bring Colabello up.

I hope they DFA T. Wood shortly and at least get Colabello on the 40-man so they can bring him up in spurts when they can do without an extra arm for a bit. Walters, Deduno, and Thomas are the only other options I see right now.

Colabello played in the outfield today. Is Rochester short or are they trying to see if he can play corner of adequately. I am aware that Thomas is injured.

His BRef page shows he's only dabbled a little in the OF. A total of 11 games over his career (including the Indy Leagues). It certainly wouldn't hurt his chances of making it up to MLB, but it doesn't look like a concerted effort at this point.

Chris had a monster game last night! 3 for 4, with 2 HRs, a double, and 5 RBIs.

He hasn't had any problems adapting to AAA just yet and continues to mash. On the season, he's in the top 5 of the Int'l League in AVG, SLG, OPS, H, 2B, HR, and RBI. His 10 HRs have him tied for 2nd with some guy named Danny Valencia.

.340 / .395 / .621 (1.016) !!

(Note: This is not a "Twins screwed up!" post, more of a "Let's put Colabello's numbers in Perspective!" one.)

Future MLB All-Star or not, at least he's definitively better than both of them!

but something's got to give here.

Might it be the young OF/1B who has only started 3 of the last 8 games?

Well that would be a terrible idea right now. The Twins did their best to ruin Parmelee last year, and it is a bit precarious again this year for him.

I completely agree on all points, but his recent playing time would seem to indicate we're inching towards it. Something at the MLB level has to give. If Hicks, Arcia, and Willingham are going to play, I'd rather see Parm in AAA with Colabello as a bench option. Maybe Parm comes back for good if/when a mid-season trade takes place.

Ramirez has been okay, but I wouldn't mind seeing Colabello replace him outright now.

I'd love to see what Colabello can do. I just want to be realistic about the long odds of him having it work out.

I think we're all on the same page with you here. The odds of him becoming even an average regular are nothing short of long, but we can hope... [add extra dramaticism] and if we have hope, we have a chance.

As pointed out in today's minor league report...

The other thing worth mentioning is that Colabello's jack was off Chris Archer' date=' the Ray's #4 prospect, and #43 in all of baseball (according to MLB.com). That means Colabello has hit his 3 homers in the past two days off of the #3 and #4 (and #42 and #43) prospects for the Rays. Pretty impressive.[/quote']