Kellen Robert Kulbacki (born November 21, 1985) is an American former professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

player who won numerous awards and honors during his college career. He was drafted by the

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penn ...

in the first round of the

2007 Major League Baseball Draft The 2007 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft was Major League Baseball's annual amateur draft of high school and college baseball players and was held on June 7, 2007 and June 8, 2007. The first day session of the draft included the fir ...

Career

Kulbacki was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and attended Hershey High School in

Hershey, Pennsylvania Hershey is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Derry Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is home to The Hershey Company, which was founded by candy magnate Milton S. Hershey. The community is lo ...

. In his senior year at high school, he was named the Keystone Division Player of the Year. He then attended

James Madison University James Madison University (JMU, Madison, or James Madison) is a public research university in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Founded in 1908 as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Harrisonburg, the institution was renamed Madison Coll ...

from 2005 to 2007, hitting .343/.392/.552 his first campaign. That year, he was named to the Colonial Athletic Association All-Rookie team and earned the Kevin Nehring Rookie of the Year Award. Later, with the Herndon Braves in the Clark Griffith League, he won MVP honors. His sophomore year, he hit .464/.568/.943 with 24 home runs, 75 RBI and 13 stolen bases in 53 games to co-earn ''

Collegiate Baseball Newspaper ''Collegiate Baseball Newspaper'' (also known as ''Collegiate Baseball Magazine'' and ''Collegiate Baseball'') is an American publication based in Arizona that considers itself the "voice of amateur baseball" which has been published for over 40 ...

s College Baseball Player of the Year honor, alongside Wes Roemer. He earned many other honors that season, including VaSID State Player of the Year, CAA Player of the Year and All-CAA first team,

NCBWA The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) is an association of baseball writers, broadcasters, and publicists in the United States. It was founded in 1962. The NCBWA compiles a preseason ranking of the top 35 teams in the natio ...

District IV Player of the Year and ABCA All-East and VaSID All-State first team. The following organizations named him first-team All-American: ''Collegiate Baseball Newspaper'', '' Baseball America'', the

American Baseball Coaches Association The American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) is the world's largest Amateur baseball in the United States, amateur baseball Manager (baseball), coaching organization. It was founded in 1945 as the American Association of College Baseball Coach ...

, the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, the

College Baseball Foundation The College Baseball Foundation was formed in 2004 in Lubbock, Texas as a non-profit organization, with the dual aims of awarding the Brooks Wallace Award, and creating the National College Baseball Hall of Fame. The organization also annually pres ...

and

Rivals.com Rivals.com is a network of websites that focus mainly on college football and basketball recruiting in the United States. The network was started in 1998 and employs more than 300 personnel. History Rivals.com was founded in 1998 by Jim Heckma ...

. He was a finalist for the

Dick Howser Trophy The Dick Howser Trophy is bestowed annually to the national college baseball player of the year. The award is named after former collegiate and Major League Baseball (MLB) player and manager Dick Howser, who died of brain cancer in 1987 at the a ...

and the Brooks Wallace Award. Later in the summer, he played for the

Cotuit Kettleers The Cotuit Kettleers are a collegiate summer baseball team based in the village of Cotuit, Massachusetts, which is in the southwest corner of the town of Barnstable. The team is a member of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) and plays in the lea ...

of the Cape Cod League. He returned to James Madison University for 2007 to hit .398/.538/.785 with 19 home runs and 49 RBI. He again earned several honors, including first-team All-American selections by ''Baseball America'', Rivals.com, '' Ping!Baseball'', and the NCBWA. Kulbacki was taken as the 40th overall selection in the

by the

. The signing scout was Ash Lawson. He hit .301/.382/.491 in 61 games for the

Eugene Emeralds The Eugene Emeralds (nicknamed the Ems) are a Minor League Baseball team in the northwest United States, based in Eugene, Oregon. The Emeralds are members of the Northwest League and are affiliated with the San Francisco Giants. Eugene plays thei ...

in his first professional season to earn ''Baseball America'' Short-Season All-Star honors, as well as a

Northwest League The Northwest League is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Northwestern United States and Western Canada. A Class A Short Season league for most of its history, the league was promoted to High-A as part of Major League Basebal ...

Player of the Week selection. In 2008, Kulbacki hit .332/.428/.589 with 20 home runs and 66 RBI in 84 games for the

Lake Elsinore Storm The Lake Elsinore Storm are a Minor League Baseball team of the California League and the Single-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres. The Storm plays their home games at Lake Elsinore Diamond (Pete Lehr Field), which opened in 1994; the park s ...

. He also batted .164 in 18 games for the

Fort Wayne Wizards A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

to bring his season totals to .304/.400/.540 with 22 home runs and 75 RBI. He earned a California League Player of the Week honor, a Post-Season All-Star selection and a ''Baseball America'' High Class-A All-Star selection. Going into 2009, he was named the fourth-best prospect in the Padres system by ''Baseball America'' and the 89th-best prospect in the game by '' Baseball Prospectus''. Injuries toward the end of the 2008 campaign affected the rest of his career. He was officially released by the Padres prior to the 2011 campaign and joined the independent leagues for 2011 and 2012. 2012 was his final campaign - overall, he hit .273 with 32 home runs and 137 RBI in 238 games.

References

External links

Triple Crown candidate focuses on postseason
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kulbacki, Kellen Living people 1985 births Baseball players from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Baseball outfielders James Madison Dukes baseball players Cotuit Kettleers players Eugene Emeralds players Fort Wayne Wizards players Lake Elsinore Storm players San Antonio Missions players Lake Erie Crushers players All-American college baseball players