Named after the phenom Columbia Crusaders shortstop in 1993, who batted .315 in 161 games, the Pat Listach Award has stood for excellence among first year players in the DMBL. The Listach Award first was awarded in 1998 to Nomar Garciaparra of the Phoenix Dragons, who was also the first pick in that year's draft.

This year's award goes to....

Francisco Liriano, Marietta

Marietta had a lot of faith in the young lefthander, despite the fact that Liriano was originally drafted by Las Vegas in 2006. Liriano was the 20th player selected in the 2006 draft and spent the entire season in the minor leagues. Vegas then sent Francisco over to Marietta in December of 2006 along with reliever Chris Ray for three high draft picks.

The gamble paid off for Marietta, however, as the Mighty Men reached the World Series for only the second time in franchise history. Liriano was a key component of that playoff run. Liriano was 17-2 on the season with a league-leading 2.35 ERA. He amassed 237 strikeouts in 179.2 innings of work with a 1.10 WHIP and .601 OPS against. The Mighty Men mortgaged a big part of their future, but they believed that the young hurler would be a bigger part of that future.

It wasn't unexpected for Liriano to win the Listach this year, the real competition was for runner up. And coming up second was Honolulu's first baseman, Adrian Gonzalez, who garnered one first-place vote and three other votes. Third place was Hoboken's Chris Duncan, who took the final first-place vote. Newark's Cla Meredith finished fourth.

Liriano is the first Mighty Man to win the prestigious Listach Award and the first pitcher since 2003.