Just a couple hours after winning the AL Cy Young award in a bit of an upset, Corey Kluber has his name attached to another honor. The first year DTBL pitcher was, hands-down, the steal of this year’s draft. Picked in the tenth round to provide some depth to a very strong Demigods rotation, Kluber wound up playing a leading role for a staff that put up some of the best numbers in league history. His performance propelled him to the top of a very deep rookie class. Corey Kluber is the 2014 DTBL Rookie of the Year.
On a team with Yu Darvish, Johnny Cueto, Cole Hamels, Doug Fister and first round draft pick Jose Fernandez, Kluber had to wait his turn to become a fixture in the Demigods’ rotation. He spent most of April in a minor league slot. But after being activated in late April, he never looked back. Despite not having the opportunity to put up a full season of stats, his numbers were still quite impressive. He won 16 games with a 2.40 ERA, 1.089 WHIP and 241 strikeouts for the Demigods. On most teams, those stats would have made him the obvious staff ace. But he was slightly bested by Cueto in all four categories. However, he easily led all DTBL rookies in wins, ERA and strikeouts and was second in WHIP. His 11.5 pitching PAR was best among rookies as well and fourth among all pitchers. His brief stint in the minors will probably keep him from being a serious contender for the DTBL Cy Young award, but he should receive plenty of consideration there as well. Not bad for a tenth round pick.
The Demigods seemed to have their rotation set well before Kluber was drafted. Jose Fernandez was chosen with the third pick in the draft and was supposed to be the final piece in their loaded rotation. But once Fernandez succumbed to Tommy John surgery in May, Kluber’s presence became absolutely essential. Even without the young phenom Fernandez, the Demigods put together one of the best pitching seasons in league history. Unfortunately for them, it wasn’t quite enough to beat out the Naturals for their first league title. But Kluber played a key role in their best season ever and now appears to be an important piece of the puzzle moving forward as well.
As mentioned, this was a pretty strong rookie class overall, especially among later round picks. There were actually quite a few first round busts, at least for the 2014 season. But some of the guys picked much later picked up the slack. The Rookie of the Year voting was competitive, but Kluber won by a fairly comfortable margin. He received seven first place and three second place votes for a total of 91 points. His main competition for this award wound up being another draft steal, Naturals second baseman Anthony Rendon. Rendon was a sixth round pick and rewarded the Naturals with a rookie leading 5.2 batting PAR. He received the other three first place votes and was the only player besides Kluber to appear on all ten ballots. He accumulated 75 points in finishing second. In third place was Moonshiners third baseman Josh Donaldson. Considered the favorite for this award through much of the season, Donaldson was clearly the most productive of this year’s first round picks. He received 34 points. Finishing fourth was the only other rookie pitcher who came anywhere near Kluber’s numbers, Darkhorses pitcher Julio Teheran, who received 30 points. There was a sizable gap between those four and the rest of the pack. But rounding out the top five were a pair of Athletics pitchers who tied for that spot with 10 points. Jackalope youngster Sonny Gray and Kings closer Sean Doolittle were key contributors to their respective squads.
Click here to view the full Rookie of the Year voting results.
My plan is to announce the Cy Young award winner tomorrow (Thursday) evening with the MVP announcement coming early next week. So be sure to check back soon for those results.