The newly-named Buster Posey Award, previously known as the Johnny Bench Award, is, unsurprisingly, awarded to the top catcher in Division-I baseball.
Awarded by the Greater Wichita Area Sports Commission, the award has never been given to a Valley Leaguer, although Marshall’s Rey Pastrana (Front Royal 2016) was a finalist in 2018. (And JMU’s Jake Lowery won the award in 2011, but, alas, he did not appear in the Valley League.)
The semifinalists will be announced May 17th; the Finalists on June 3rd, and the winner on June 27th. Players must be nominated by their coaches.
The long list of 79 players has been released, and seven former VBLers have been nominated:
- Chris Clayton (Charlottesville 2015), from Louisiana Tech (Transfer from Charleston)
- Logan Harvey (Charlottesville 2017), from Wake Forest
- Rey Pastrana (Front Royal 2016), from Marshall
- Carter Perkins (Front Royal 2017), from South Alabama
- Luke Robinson (Waynesboro 2017, Winchester 2018), from Western Carolina
- Will Simoneit (Staunton 2018), from Cornell
- Jake Washer (New Market 2017), from East Carolina
Two guys are rather conspicuously missing (I have no idea why- perhaps their coaches?):
- Alex Brait (Waynesboro 2018), from Florida Gulf Coast
- Danny Wondrack (Charlottesville 2016), from Charleston
