Wild Things' Vaeth, Foster win Frontier League awards

And earlier this week, Washington clinched the West Division title, its eighth division championship.

To cap the big regular season, the Wild Things won the Frontier League’s Organization of the Year Award on Friday, along with two individual awards, when the league announced its end-of-year honors.

Washington’s Tom Vaeth was named the Roger Hanners Manager of the Year, and lefthanded starting pitcher Kobe Foster won the Jason Simontacchi Award, which is given to the Rookie of the Year.

“This is an honor that every team seeks before the season begins,” Washington executive director Steve Zavacky said of the Organization of the Year award. “To have been selected as the Organization of the Year when there are 15 other strong candidates makes this a huge honor for our entire front office and one we worked very hard to achieve. Serving the best fans in baseball makes our job all the more fulfilling.”

It is the third time Washington has been named Organization of the Year. The others were in 2002 and 2005.

Vaeth has guided the Wild Things to a pair of division championships in his two seasons as manager. This is his first Manager of the Year award.

“I am very humbled. There is only one thing to say and that’s thank you to everyone who voted,” Vaeth said.

“Let’s face it. If you’re a manager, you’re only as good as your players, so this award is all about the players we have in the clubhouse. In all honesty, I think I probably did a better job of managing last year than this year.”

Foster joined the Wild Things in June after a stellar career at Tennessee Wesleyan, where he went 25-1 over his final two seasons and helped his team to the NAIA World Series both years. With the Wild Things, Foster has been their most consistent starting pitcher. He has an 8-1 record (10 starts) and a sparkling 1.00 ERA.

“It’s a well-deserved honor for Kobe. He has simply been spectacular,” Vaeth said. “People who told me about him said he was pretty good. He was 25-1 the last two years at Tennessee Wesleyan, and it doesn’t matter where you’re at, if you’re 25-1 that’s good anywhere. Based on that, I was confident we were getting a good one but nobody was expecting this.”

It is the second season in a row that a Washington lefty pitcher has won the Rookie of the Year. Ryan Hennen, who is currently in the Baltimore Orioles’ farm system, was the pick a season ago.

Tri-City second baseman Brantley Bell, who has a league-leading .369 batting average with 24 home runs and 80 RBI, was named the Most Valuable Player. Bell is the son of former Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Jay Bell.

Though Washington has the second-best record in the league, only one Wild Things player made the end-of-season all-star team. Shortstop Nick Ward, who is second in the league with a .350 batting average to go with 18 home runs and 18 stolen bases was the selection. Ward drew some MVP support but he has missed the last two weeks of games with a hand injury after being hit by a pitch.

“There are some guys in our clubhouse who I feel were overlooked,” Vaeth said.

“Our guys have grinded it out every night. Even with all the accolades, we have bigger goals in mind. We’re going to stay focused on the task at hand.”

The other players on the all-star team are Quebec catcher Jeffry Parra, New Jersey baseman Dalton Combs, Joliet third baseman Briley Ware, outfielders Josh Rehwaldt of New Jersey, David Vinsky of New York and L.P. Pelletier of Trois-Rivieres. The designated hitter is 37-year-old Denis Phipps of Tri-City. Quebec’s Miguel Cienfuegos is the Pitcher of the Year and Evansville closer Logan Sawyer was the relief pitcher. Sawyer has allowed only one unearned run over 30 appearances.