Ryan Spilborghs

Ryan Adam Spilborghs is a professional baseball player from the USA who plays as an outfielder. Spilborghs attended the University of California in Santa Barbara and in 2001, played for the Madison Mallards in the summer league. In 2002, the Colorado Rockies drafted Spilborghs in the seventh round of the 2002 Amateur Draft, before he could complete his college education.

In 2000, his freshman year, Spilborghs averaged just .262 with the bat while playing just 18 games. The following year, he improved by leaps and bounds, playing 57 games and batting at .375. In 2002, after 55 games for the University of California, Santa Barbara, Spilborghs was picked by the Colorado Rockies and began his professional career at the low A-League with the Tri-City Dust Devils.

Spilborghs played 71 games for the Dust Devils and batted at .230 with a .313 on-base percentage. The following year, he was promoted to the Ashville Tourists in the A-League where he began improving his game. With 15 homers and 61 RBI, Spilborghs was batting at an average of .281 with a .379 on-base percentage. This was good enough for the Rockies' organization to place him in the Advanced A-League with the Visalia Oaks.

At 444 at-bats with the Oaks, Spilborghs scored 59 runs with 8 home runs and 57 RBI. Although his batting average dropped to .259, he was considered good enough for the AA-League and soon, in 2005, Spilborghs was at Tulsa to play for the Drillers; And boy! Did he come out and play or what!

Spilborghs was possessed with the Tulsa Drillers and hammered his way to 54 RBI at a .341 batting average. His on-base percentage rose to .435 with a .525 slugging percentage. Midway through 2005, Spilborghs was at the AAA-League with the Colorado Springs Sky Sox for another 60 games and had a .339 batting average. That was enough to earn him a call-up to the Colorado Rockies for his debut at the Major League.

On his debut, Spilborghs had 2-hits in 4 at-bats with one RBI.

In 2006, Spilborghs began the year with the Sky Sox in the AAA-League and after about 68 games, was called back up to the Rockies' roster. His .338 average in the AAA-League, that year, dropped to about .287 in the Majors although he hit 4 home runs and had 21 RBI in 167 at-bats.

2007 began much the same way, although the duration of Spilborghs stay at the Sky Sox kept reducing to the point that he played only 34 games with them. He was back in the majors with 97 appearances and batting at an average of .299 with 11 home runs and 51 RBI to his name. In 2008, the story repeated itself with 11 games at the Sky Sox followed by another 89 with the Rockies.
Spilborghs batted better than ever, raising his batting average to .313 with a .407 on-base percentage. Spilborghs began as the year as the fourth outfielder in the team and after the departure of Willy Taveras, he became the first choice in center field. A versatile fielder, Spilborghs has been known to play all over the outfield.