2021 Listach Award winner: Ke'Bryan Hayes

Ke'Bryan Hayes lived up to the billing of being a No. 1 overall draft pick and after a putting together a monster season for the Blue Ridge Bombers, easily won the Listach Award as the DMBL's top rookie in 2021.

Hayes garnered 5 1st place votes among the 7 ballots cast by DMBL owners. Vancouver C Will Smith and Philly 1B Jared Walsh received the other two 1st place votes.

It's the first Listach Award in franchise history for Blue Ridge, which went 106-56 to secure the No. 1 seed before falling to Vancouver in 7 games in the DMBL finals. In the postseason (which is not taken into consideration for the annual DMBL awards), Hayes added a league-high 19 RBI (1 better than Vancouver rookie Will Smith) and 16 runs, and tied Vancouver's Jose Abreu with 7 HR.

Hoboken SP Ian Anderson, selected right after Hayes in the 2021 draft, finished a distance second with 12 points (3 2nd place votes and 3 3rd place votes - the most among those receiving votes). Smith finished 3rd with 9 points, also getting a single 2nd and 3rd place vote. Walsh, taken in the 2nd round of the 2021 draft (No. 35 overall) finished 4th with 5 points -- his single 1st place vote.

		1st	2nd	3rd	POINTS
1	KHayes, BR	5	1	1	29
2	IAnderson, HBK		3	3	12
3	WSmith, VAN	1	1	1	9
4	JWalsh, PHI	1			5
5	France, VAN		1	1	4
6	Gonsolin, ARK		1		3
7	Dalbec, SF			1	1

In all, seven rookies appeared on ballots. Smith's teammate, and 2021 DMBL batting champion, Ty France finished 5th with 4 points (1 2nd place and 1 3rd place vote). France was drafted in the 2nd round of 2021 (No. 29 overall). Arkansas SP Tony Gonsolin, another 2021 1st rounder and the 4th SP off the board, was the only other pitcher to appear on a ballot, nabbing a 2nd place vote to earn 3 points.

Rookie RBI leader Bobby Dalbec of San Francisco earned a single 3rd place vote to finish 7th in the voting. Dalbec and Smith were the only rookies who were drafted as ineligible prospects before 2021 and protected. In 2020, Smith was picked in the 10th round, No. 153 overall, and Dalbec was selected in in the 3rd round of the supplemental draft (19th round, No. 296 overall).

Ke'Bryan Hayes put together historically great numbers in the quirky 2021 campaign. He was among the league's leaders throughout the season and ended up leading rookies in most batting categories.

Hayes posted a juiced slash line of .337/.384/.596, which put him among the league's leaders in all three categories. He added 35 HR and 116 RBI as Blue Ridge cruised to a 106-56 records and the No. 1 seed. The 24-year-old led not just first-year players but the entire DMBL in hits (236), total bases (418), extra base hits (96) and runs created (156.8). He also finished 2nd in triples (16) and slugging (.596). Among rookies, he was 1st with 133 runs. He's among a handful of rookies in DMBL history to eclipse 400 total bases in a season.

On draft day 2021, Blue Ridge traded up for the No. 1 overall pick to nab Hayes. The Bombers dealt the the No. 5 overall selection plus a 2nd rounder (originally held by Marietta and sent via Philly) to Marietta for the opportunity to draft 1st overall. (Marietta ended up selecting Willi Castro at No. 5 and then Mike Brosseau with the 2nd rounder, No. 24 overall).

That 2nd round pick was well traveled. It was Marietta's original pick which the Mighty Men sent to Philly in April 2020 in exchange for RP Aroldis Chapman. At the deadline that year, Philly packaged it with a 5th rounder and in return got Zack Wheeler from Blue Ridge.

Hayes is the son of former DMBLer Charlie Hayes, who bounced around the league in 1990s, spending time with Scranton, Columbia, Arkansas, Honolulu, and Carolina. Charlie Hayes was a journeyman free agent fill-in for most of his five seasons. Only in 1994 did he get regular playing time while with Arkansas, where he compiled 662 of his 883 career at-bats with a 17 HR, 45 2B, 116 RBI campaign.