Josh Frye is returning for his second stint as the field manager of the La Crosse Loggers in 2024, marking his seventh season in the Northwoods League as both a player and a coach.
Frye, a California native, led the Lumbermen to a 40-28 (.588) mark in 2023 including a Great Plains East division championship and a return to the playoffs for the first time since 2020. That postseason berth did not come easy for the Loggers as Frye navigated the 2023 team through a 12-game losing streak in June before going on to win a team-record 27 games in the second half of the season en route to capturing the division title. After starting the season 3-12, La Crosse went 39-17 from June 16 through the end of the season and into the playoffs. The Loggers would sweep the Eau Claire Express in a best-of-three divisional series before eventually losing in walk-off fashion to the St. Cloud Rox in the Great Plains Divisional Championship Game.
Frye, who played his collegiate baseball at Long Beach State, was a late summer addition to the Loggers in 2012 and helped them to their only NWL Championship that summer. He came back to La Crosse with a vengeance in the summer of 2013, going 6-3 with a 3.31 ERA. Frye made 12 starts over the summer, pitching a team-high 76.0 innings, while striking out a league-high 79. Frye was named a 2013 Northwoods League mid- and post-season All-Star, and the 2013 La Crosse Loggers Cy Young Award Winner.
At Long Beach State, Frye was named a 2014 First Team Big West Pitcher and a 2014 second team All-American after going 8-1 with a 1.94 ERA. In addition to his time with the Loggers, Frye also played summer ball for the Long Beach Legends of the California Collegiate League, where he was their 2012 Pitcher of the Year and was inducted into the Long Beach Legends Hall of Fame in 2015.
Frye played professionally after college, spending two years in the Los Angeles Angels organization, a year in the Frontier League, and finishing his final two years in the Western Australia League. He began his coaching career in 2016 as the Assistant Pitching Coach at Long Beach State in 2016, before becoming the pitching coach at Cypress College. The Long Beach, Calif. native has spent three previous summers coaching in the Northwoods League, including a stop with the Rochester Honkers during the summers of 2017-18 before re-joining the Loggers as the pitching coach in 2022. Frye also currently serves as the pitching coach at Long Beach City College (Calif.).
Twitter Handle: @jfrye45
Devin Burke embarks on his second season as an assistant coach. Burke serves as the pitching coach and also the recruiting coordinator. Burke arrived on Staten Island after spending the 2021 season at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, serving as the volunteer assistant coach. Before joining the Minutemen, Burke spent two seasons as the pitching coach at Middlebury College. Over his two seasons at Middlebury College, the 2019 Panthers led the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) in team earned run average, hits per nine innings (7.71), strikeouts to walk ratio (2.12), and WHIP (1.27). The Panthers also ranked No. 2 in the league with 7.9 strikeouts per nine innings. Nationally, the squad boasted the No. 9 ranking in hits per nine innings and No. 20 in ERA. Burke mentored Colby Morris, who finished his career with the most wins in the history of the program (16), helping him earn All-NESCAC honors in 2019. Before embarking on a coaching career, Burke spent five seasons in the Colorado Rockies organization, splitting time between the starting rotation and the bullpen. In all, he posted 18 wins over 92 games, tossing 344.2 innings. The right-hander struck out 279 batters in his career while allowing just 91 walks, a 3.07 to 1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. In 2013, he was named a Pioneer League Postseason All-Star after posting a 5-2 record with Grand Junction, fanning 54 hitters in 56.0 innings while yielding only 12 walks. He was promoted to Triple-A Albuquerque in 2015 and 2016. Burke later pitched for the Atlantic League’s New Britain Bees in 2018 and 2019, where he was named 2019 Atlantic League Mid-Season All-Star. Burke pitched at Virginia Tech and was part of the Hokies’ team that reached the 2013 NCAA Regionals. He posted an 11-4 career record in his two seasons in Blacksburg, highlighted by a stellar 2013 campaign, where he went 11-3 in 16 appearances. He was named to Blacksburg Regional All-Tournament Team. He was also a 2013 semifinalist for the Gregg Olson Comeback Player of the Year Award. In prior off-seasons, Burke has spent time as the pitching coach for both the Bobby Valentine’s Baseball Academy (2014-17) and the Connecticut Blue Jays (2014-18). He also spent two summers playing in the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League for the Wareham Gatemen and the Harwich Mariners. In 2011, he helped lead the Mariners to the league championship. The Darien, CT native earned his Bachelor of Arts in Foreign Languages – Spanish from Virginia Tech in 2014.
