The 2024 DTBL Draft class did not have the same hype as the group from the year prior. Nor did it prove to have as many immediate impact players taken in the first round as there were in the 2023 Draft. But that wasn’t because of the player picked first. The Diamond Dogs owned that first pick for the third straight year. They had a fairly straightforward choice to make, with the only problem being that they were already loaded at the shortstop position. After making a pre draft trade to open up a spot, the no brainer decision to select Elly De La Cruz was made. And for the second straight year, it seems they may have gotten themselves a franchise building player in the process. Elly De La Cruz is the unanimous selection for the 2024 DTBL Rookie of the Year award.
De La Cruz smashed onto the big league scene in 2023 and immediately became a fantasy stud, hitting 13 home runs with 35 stolen bases in 98 games. Just a modest improvement over those numbers would have made him an exceptionally valuable fantasy player. Instead, he nearly doubled both of those figures. He hit 25 homers with a gaudy 67 stolen bases. He also scored 101 runs and improved his batting average to a respectable .259 figure. His league leading 67 steals were the eighth most in league history and second most among rookies, trailing only Scott Podsednik’s 70 steals for the Moonshiners in 2004. Kenny Lofton also stole 70 in 1993, but every player was technically a DTBL rookie in the league’s inaugural season. The only DTBL player to ever top both De La Cruz’s HR and SB figures in a single season was Ronald Acuna Jr just last season. His 9.7 Batting PAR (which was actually 11.0 before last week’s adjustment) topped all rookie hitters by almost three points. In a normal year, with the numbers he accumulated, he’d be a likely pick for the Most Valuable Player award as well. But he’ll have some stiff competition for that honor this year.
De La Cruz is the kind of player who pretty much guarantees that the Diamond Dogs will always be competitive in the steals category no matter what, allowing them to focus on other categories for future acquisitions. In year one, he lifted them from dead last in stolen bases in 2023 to fourth place this season. Overall, he was the driving force behind them improving from 22.5 batting points to 33.5 and an extremely respectable fifth place finish in the final standings. Largely because of him, the Diamond Dogs streak of first overall picks will end in 2025, unless they were to trade for the top spot. Their shortstop trio of De La Cruz, Oneil Cruz and Trea Turner combined for an incredible 18 Batting PAR. Oneil Cruz switched to the outfield too late in the season to be making a DTBL position switch in ’25, so the Dogs figure to run it back with the same trio in the infield again next year. De La Cruz is the first Diamond Dogs player to win any of the three major DTBL individual player awards.
Before I get to the vote results, a quick thanks to Mike for immediately brining to my attention that I completely botched the initial Rookie of the Year ballot. Somehow, De La Cruz wasn’t on it! In my initial compilation of the list, I had picked out the top candidate from each team and then worked down from there. For reasons I can’t explain, I actually overlooked De La Cruz at first and had Jake Burger as the Dogs’ top candidate. Fortunately, Mike pointed this out before anyone had submitted a ballot so I didn’t need to issue a re-vote. De La Cruz was indeed the unanimous selection, topping all ten ballots. Second place was extremely tight. Mavericks’ outfielder Jarren Duran edged out Kings’ starting pitcher Bryce Miller by one point. Duran and Miller were two of the biggest steals of the draft, selected in the fourth and fifth rounds respectively. Duran was a major cog in the Mavericks all time great offense and championship winning roster. He was quite the power/speed force in his own right with 21 homers and 34 steals. Miller was part of a rejuvenated Kings rotation, leading all rookies in the Pitching PAR at 8.9. Miller actually received a majority of the second place votes (6), but was bested in the overall tally by Duran who got three seconds and six thirds to finish with 54 points. Following Miller is another Kings starting pitcher, Cole Ragans. The southpaw was a second round selection, but the first pick made by the Kings in this year’s draft. He didn’t receive any votes higher than third place, but joined De La Cruz and Duran as the three players who were on all ten ballots. Ragans finished with 30 points. Rounding out the top five is perhaps this year’s most surprising breakout star, Cougars outfielder Brent Rooker. Rooker not only went undrafted, but remained a free agent until mid-May when the Cougars finally snatched him up. He still managed to hit 29 homers in 3/4 of a season. Rooker picked up a second place vote which accounted for a bulk of his 12 points to place fifth.
Click here to view the full voting results.
Thanks to everybody for getting your ballots in. I’ll be announcing the Cy Young award winner later this week, with the Most Valuable Player announcement mostly likely coming sometime next week. There are certainly a ton of deserving players for each of those awards, but with clear favorites as well. Will either of them be unanimous too? Find out soon!