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....

Dustin Pedroia, Carolina

In one of the closest races in a long time, Carolina's Dustin Pedroia claimed the hardware this year. Pedroia was drafted in the first round of the supplemental draft of 2007 by Marietta, but subsequently released prior to the beginning of the season. Marietta owner David Landsman has regretted it ever since. Pedroia was drafted with the first overall draft pick in last year's draft by Carolina in a pick they acquired from Blue Ridge. Pedroia becomes only the second first overall pick to win the Listach - the first ever Listach went to the other one, Phoenix's Nomar Garciaparra. Pedroia shined both in the batter's box and in the field. He led all rookies in doubles with 61 and tied with Newark's Jack Cust for the lead in hits with 204. He ranked fourth in batting average (.308), third in RBIs (100), second in runs created (114.1) and tied for fifth in OPS (.833).

There were many deserving candidates this year as five different players received first place votes. Coming in second in the voting, missing by just one point, was Marietta's Josh Hamilton. Hamilton has had a rough start to his career and finally made it to the bigs this year after Marietta took a chance with their 15th round pick in 2007. Coming in tied for third were Newark's masher Jack Cust and Sardine City's B.J. Upton. The final first-place vote went to Hoboken's Jeremy Guthrie, who finished in fifth.

Pedroia becomes the second Mudcat to win the award.