Trent Oeltjen: hottest rookie in years?

So, Trent Oeltjen did it again today, going 4-for-4, and falling a homerun short of hitting the cycle. He had 2 singles, a double, and a triple, and also had a sac bunt, and a real solid catch.


After five starts, he is now hitting .500 (12-for-24) with 2 doubles, a triple and 3 home runs.

Wow! That is amazing.

Looking back at the start from recent Rookie of the Year winners, Oeltjen stacks up well. After 5 games he seems to be well ahead of the pack when it comes to the well renowned rookies of recent years.

For comparison purposes, lets compare how Oeltjen is doing against how some recent ROY winners did after 5 games:


This speaks for itself and is completely full of awesome. The issue of course will be how long Oeltjen can keep up his run, and whether he can balance out to post any sort of decent numbers in the long term.

Also worth noting is the fact that Oeltjen has hardly faced top of the league pitching. In his five games he has faced off against two widely recognised terrible teams in the Pirates and the Nationals, and another team rapidly descending into farce: the Mets. Now, I have nothing against Kevin Hart, Collin Balester, JD Martin, Mike Pelfrey and Livan Hernandez, but this is not exactly an allstar lineup. This weekend the D-Backs face LA before heading to Philadelphia next week; so Trent is likely to face some better pitching. These games are likely to give a fairer insight in to his abilities.

That said, someone like Oeltjen seems to be just what Arizona needs right now. For that matter, he could be just what Australian baseball needs right now too. It has been a pretty forgettable season for Arizona, they are well under .500, have been hit with some key injuries and dismissed their manager. But they have seemed to turn a corner of late; they have won 7 of their last 10 games, and have one 14 out of 25 games since the All Star break (.560). Realistically they have barely the slightest of chances of making the playoffs this year. All this explains perhaps why Oeltjen has been received so well.

And why wouldn't he be received well. He plays hard, can hit for contact and smack homeruns, can throw and catch, is quick as lightning, and plays the game with a smile on his face. Twitter is all a fluster with Arizonan women swooning over him. He has all the makings for being a superstar if he can keep the numbers game going.

And for Australian baseball, this would be another great shot in the arm. The Aussie team, which Oeltjen played a key part in, had some moderate success at the World Baseball Classic this year; there is talk of a new national league in Australia; and Major League Baseball finally has a home on free to air TV. With other sports like NRL constantly under criticism and bad press; and with the Aussie cricket team losing some of its aura, the time is ripe for baseball to grow into a power house sport again. Oeltjen could just be the man to head up this charge.

So, it remains to be seen whether he will live up to the early hype, but it is clear that this is a heck of an opportunity for Oeltjen, and for Australian baseball.