Cody Bellinger, the Dodgers’ rookie first baseman and outfielder, has taken the National League by storm. Already, he’s cranked 24 home runs (which leads the National League), and became the fastest player ever to reach 21 dingers in his career (it took him just 51 games, beating an 87-year-old record).
Slashing .271/.340/.670 (155 wRC+) overall, Bellinger is understandably the front runner for the National League Rookie of the Year Award here in 2017. It’ll take an absolute miracle (or some ridiculous implosion) for anyone else to take that away from him, even this early in the season.
But he wasn’t always this guy. Wait, scratch that. Yes he was, he just used to be slightly smaller (and younger).
Check out Bellinger absolutely tear it up in the 2007 Little League World Series as an 11 year old:
Two singles up the middle and a two-out, two-RBI home run the opposite way? Are you kidding me? I wonder what it’s like to be a child prodigy.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, his favorite actor is Will Smith: