NEWS | Roger Dorn Baseball

The Spokane Fightin' Fish are kicking off the official start of the 2024 RDBL Season with a bombshell report that the club is willing to listen on star outfielder Julio Rodriguez (2R/$3) and infielder Luis Arraez (3/$1) according to sources close to the club. The club is reportedly looking to start a rebuild after winning Division Titles in five of the last seven seasons with two Regular Season Titles and two RDBL Titles.

Rodriguez is fresh off a stellar season that saw him finish as the runner-up for the Activation of the Year Award to Corbin Carroll who edged him out by just 3.0 point in RDBL Regular Season scoring. Rodriguez was the only player in the American League to hit at least 30 homers, both score and drive in over 100, while also stealing more than 30 bags while Acuna Jr bested him in every category overall.

While he was prone to slumps, hitting below .250 in three of six months, Rodriguez had a monster second half and played the full 2023 season at just 22 years old. He finished 2023 ranked sixth in outfield scoring and should produce at a Top-five level in each of the final two years of team control through 2025.

Arraez was a hitting machine in 2023, backing up his breakout 2022 of 385.5 points with 450.0 in 2023, winning the batting title in both seasons. He was one of three qualified hitters who walked more than he struck out, which is quite the accomplishment given he only walked 35 times in 617 plate appearances in 2023. His extreme bat to ball skills with a willingness to use all fields gives him the highest batting average floor in fantasy baseball and his .294 career average in nearly 2200 plate appearance attests to that.

The Meinert Hops are set to make the first overall selection in the 2024 Reserve Draft for the first time in Franchise History. Based on RDBL History, the odds of turning that pick into a productive one look to be quite long for GM Garrett Shelley.

Since the league was founded in 2013, ten Reserve Drafts have taken place with those 10 players accounting for a total of just 1,901.5 points during their Rookie RDBL Contracts with 823.0 of that production coming from Fernando Tatis, Jr. with five players scoring zero points total.

Tatis is the only player taken first overall to finish his RDBL Rookie contract which concluded at the end of the 2023 season. His time with the Lake Merced Goutfish, who acquired him in June of 2019 from the Maltese Falcons for Tommy Pham, Adalberto Mondesi and Luis Severino, was hardly smooth. Tatis immediately burst on the scene as one of the best players in baseball in 2019, posting 444.0 with 42 home runs. Shoulder and wrist injuries in the COVID-shortened 2020 season delayed his 2021 debut which ultimately never happened due to a steroid suspension.

The second most productive pick was right-hander Jon Gray who was drafted by the Lake Merced Goutfish in 2014, the first selection by GM Ryan Atkinson in Franchise History. He would go on to be activated by the Cloverdale Clovers, spending 2017 and 2018 there before being dropped entering the 2019 season. Gray compiled 448.0 points over those two seasons.

Jurickson Profar, the first selection in RDBL History in 2013, was finally activated by the Lunatic Fringe in 2019, also spending 2021 with the club before being released. He posted 440.0 over those two seasons, the third most by a 1st Overall pick.

The Las Vegas Aristocrats made Cuban defector Hector Olivera the top overall selection in 2015 after he agreed to sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers for six years and $62.5 million. A July trade that summer moved Olivera to the Atlanta Braves where he appeared in 24 games, entering 2016 as a potential activation candidate for the 'Crats. The Front Office held off on the move which proved to be smart as Olivera was suspended for a domestic violence charge after six games and never appeared in another big league game.

Olivera was joined by Lewis Brinson (Grapes, 2016) and Austin Martin ('Crats, 2017) as top picks that failed to score a point as an activated player while Joey Bart (2019, Ducks) totaled just 26.5 points in 2023 as a member of the Ducks Active Roster.

Things could start to turn for the group of former 1st Overall picks soon with Hunter Greene, Anthony Volpe and Roki Sasaki all looking like positive contributors moving forward. An injury to Greene in 2023 marred his activation season for the Asti Grape Stompers, who picked the hard-throwing right-hander in 2017. He totaled 154.0 points and is a strong bet to return to the Grapes for 2024.

Volpe is in line for an Opening Day activation for the Cloverdale Clovers after mixed bag of results in his Rookie campaign that saw him post 288.5 points while still under a Minor League contract for GM Chris Shelley.

Sasaki, the St. Joseph Jokers top prospect, is expected to move over to the big leagues from Japan for the 2026 season and ranked 13th overall in the RDBL Top 100 from earlier this week.

Who is the worst top Overall Pick in RDBL History?

1. Jurickson Profar, Fringe (2013)
2. Jonathan Gray, Goutfish (2014)
3. Hector Olivera, 'Crats (2015)
4. Lewis Brinson, Grapes (2016)

PROSPECT NEWS

3 UP, 3 DOWN

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Hops Prepare for Top Overall Pick, Looking to Overcome Mixed Results for the Selection Historically