Before this season started, it was a seemingly foregone conclusion that the Rookie-of-the-Year award would come down to either Delmon Young or Alex Gordon, with Adam Lind perhaps challenging. So far, they're all disappointing -- none have an OPS above .680.

Travis Buck currently has an OPS of .913, good enough for fourth highest on the A's. However, that mark leads all American League rookies with at least two plate appearances per game -- and his nearest challenger, Elijah Dukes, is almost 100 points behind him. To put that in perspective, Buck's OPS is #21 in all of the American League.

Buck hit his fifth homer of the season last night, an opposite field shot against Baltimore's John Parrish. It was Buck's third opposite field homer this season and his fourth against a lefty. It was also his third homer in a row against a John -- Papelbon, Sanchez and Parrish. John Lackey should be worried.

That scatterplot is taken from Greg Rybarczyk's wonderful Hit Tracker.

At the end of April, Buck seemed to still be trying to catch up with MLB pitching. Pitchers were making adjustments faster than he could, and consequently Buck's line on April 30 was .190/.338/.413/.750 in 63 at-bats. Then came May. In this month, now nearly complete, Buck is hitting a much, much higher .359/.435/.744/1.178, though in just 39 at-bats.

Throughout his two years in the minors, Buck hit wherever he went. In 497 combined at-bats in Vancouver, Kane County, Stockton, and Midland, Buck hit .328/.399/.511/.910 with ten homers and 53 doubles. His batting average is lower in the majors so far, but the rest of his numbers line up nicely.

Though the AL RoY award would be a nice addition to the Oakland mantle, even if Buck doesn't win, his contributions to an otherwise anemic offense could be key to Oakland making the playoffs this season. After Dan Johnson, Jack Cust, Nick Swisher and Buck, there's not much pop to the Oakland lineup. Well, until Milton Bradley comes back from the overpopulated DL, but that's another topic for another day.