Trent Oeltjen

From BR Bullpen

Trent Carl Oeltjen

Bats Left, Throws Left
Height 6' 1", Weight 195 lb.

Born February 28, 1983 in Sydney Australia

[edit] Biographical Information

Trent Oeltjen was signed by the Minnesota Twins organization in 2001. The 18-year-old hit .321/.387/.418 for the GCL Twins that year, with 10 steals in 13 tries and .233/.226/.267 in 9 games for the Elizabethton Twins. He would have been fourth in the Gulf Coast League in batting average had he played enough to qualify. In '02, Trent hit .298/.363/.391 for Elizabethton but only .240/.321/.280 in 10 games with the Quad City River Bandits.

Oeltjen was a bright spot for a last-place River Bandits team in 2003. He hit .298/.371/.384 and led the Midwest League with 20 times hit by pitch. He was 8th in the league in batting average and stole 29, but was caught 14 times. In '04, the Aussie hit .278/.352/.337 and stole 25 of 33 for the Fort Myers Miracle. He missed time when he represented his home country of Australia in the 2004 Olympics.

At age 22, the outfielder hit .287/.369/.396 in a return engagement with Fort Myers and was hit by another 20 pitches. He batted .235/.278/.471 for Australia in the 2005 Baseball World Cup. He also played for Australia in the 2006 World Baseball Classic and went 0 for 6 with three strikeouts and a walk. Leading off for the World team in the 2006 Futures Game, he was 0 for 2. He batted .299/.378/.411 for the New Britain Rock Cats that year, with 10 triples and 23 steals in 34 attempts. He was four triples behind Eastern League leader Vic Buttler and finished third in batting average behind Michel Abreu and fellow Aussie Brett Roneberg.

Oeltjen struggled in his AAA debut, hitting .238/.303/.340 for the 2007 Rochester Red Wings in 97 games and stealing 14 bases in 21 tries. In the 2007 Baseball World Cup, though, Oeltjen was one of the brightest stars. He hit .523/.580/.614 with 7 steals in 9 tries and 12 runs in 10 games. He led the tournament in average, runs and stolen bases. He joined Frederich Cepeda and Colby Rasmus in the Cup All-Star outfield. He drove in Brad Harman in the 7th inning against the Cuban national team for a 2-1 lead before Cuba rallied to win in the 10th. He scored one, drove in two and was a homer short of a cycle in a 4-3 win over the Dutch national team. He scored three runs in a 7-6 win over Team Canada. Oeltjen was involved in a dispute with members of the Mexican national team. Taking offense after being hit by a David Dominguez pitch, Oeltjen stole second despite a nice Australian lead late in the game. After he was picked off, the Mexican fielders and Oeltjen began to argue and both benches cleared to join the conflict. It was the lone dark spot in an excellent tournament for the center fielder.