Collin DeLome is a minor league baseball player from Buna, Texas, a small town north of Beaumont and east of Houston. As of May 31, 2011, DeLome, 25, was playing for the Oklahoma City RedHawks, the AAA franchise of the Houston Astros.
College
DeLome was the 2006 Southland Conference Player of the Year as a sophomore at Lamar University in Port Arthur, Texas. He hit .376 with 11 home runs and 57 RBIs. His 17-game hitting streak was the fourth longest in Lamar baseball history. DeLome, an outfielder, registered a .991 fielding average and threw out seven base runners.
Lower-Level Minor Leagues
Selected in the fifth round of the Major League Baseball draft in 2007, DeLome was sent to the minors in New York state, batting .300 In 2008, he played in four leagues, ending the season at Salem, where he batted .232. In 2009, DeLome spent the entire season with the Corpus Christi AA team, raising his average to .255 and displaying power with 20 home runs and speed with 15 stolen bases.
AAA Record
In 2010, DeLome ended the season with the Round Rock team in the AAA Pacific Coast League. Round Rock, located north of Austin, proved inhospitable to DeLome. In 95 games, he hit .224. Most disturbing was his walk to strikeout ratio. DeLome walked 17 times and struck out 113 times in 368 at-bats. His future as a major league player grew dimmer. But DeLome bounced back during the early 2011 season. Playing for Oklahoma City, DeLome hit .296 through May. During those 28 games, DeLome improved his walk-to-strikeout ratio, with nine free passes and 24 strikeouts. While the strikeout total remains high, DeLome's on-base percentage was .383, the highest in his baseball career.
Considerations
DeLome has played both center field and left field. With better than average speed, he appears to have the tools to be a decent outfielder at the major league level. As of May 2011, DeLome was working hard on pitch selection. "I'm a first-ball, fast ball hitter," DeLome told the NewsOK website. "But I'm changing that up," said DeLome, who walked three times in a May 2011 game, this first time he could remember doing so. "I'm trying to be more disciplined at the plate with less than two strikes." Putting in lots of extra work with the RedHawks pitching coach was part of the bargain for DeLome, who dreams of getting to the big leagues. "I'm definitely aware I'm only one phone call away [in AAA]."
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