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It was about 4:30 p.m Saturday. when University of Pittsburgh at Bradford baseball player Aaron Cressley got the call.
He was just finishing up a scrimmage with his Cape Cod League team, the Cotuit Kettleers when his phone rang. The San Diego Padres were on the other end, informing the junior pitcher that they had just made him their 26th round selection (777th) overall in the 2014 Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft.
“The coaches asked us to keep our phones on just in case,” Cressley said.
That one phone call changed everything, as Cressley, who was preparing for a summer on the Cape, instead is en route to Arizona, where he will sign a contract and officially begin his professional baseball career.
“It’s a big step for my hometown,” said the Corry native. “It just goes to show you that it doesn’t matter where you come from, as long as you put in the hard work it will pay off.”
Cressley spoke with his father, brother and coaches at Pitt-Bradford, Bret Butler and Zach Foster, who were obviously excited.
“My Dad was ecstatic,” he said. “My brother called me; I think he knew before I did. I think everyone’s just really happy and embracing it.”
That would include Foster, who became the first Pitt-Bradford baseball player to be drafted by the Pirates in 2008 and has now had a hand in helping Cressley become the second.
Foster rose to Class AA Altoona in the Pirates system and just completed his first season as an assistant for Butler.
“It brings back a lot of memories of the process I went through,” Foster said. “The coaching side was neat as well. I can’t really take any credit for it. Coach Butler was the one that helped get him here. I was just fortunate enough to be with him for a year.”
Make no mistake, however, Foster was instrumental in helping Cressley, and the two now are now linked in Pitt-Bradford baseball lore.
Foster noted that Cressley was already very developed in terms of pitching, and that they worked a lot on the mental aspect of the game.
“We may have butted heads at times, but he’s a great kid and deserves everything that’s coming to him,” Foster said. “He’s just a good kid that’s willing to work hard and I think he’s going to do great.”
Butler was equally excited.
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“I am so happy for Cress,” said UPB head coach Bret Butler. “This is exactly what he has been striving for his entire collegiate career. His efforts are paying off and I am so very proud of him. I’m also happy for our pitching coach Zach Foster. Zach did an exemplary job preparing him for this opportunity.”
Added Cressley: “Every day I was there, me and coach Butler would talk, I would pick coach Foster’s ear, just about baseball stuff. We’d talk a lot about how I could improve and once I got closer to the draft, what I was going to do. Coach Butler has given me a lot of help over the past three years and coach Foster helped out a lot with both the physical and mental aspects of the game. He’s been through it and taught me what I needed to know.”
Understandably, the jump from college to professional baseball is huge. So what advice does Foster have for Cressley as he starts his professional career?
“The biggest thing is knowing that it’s a long process, it’s a marathon,” Foster said. “You have guys from all over the place you’re going to be playing with, traveling with every day. You’re going to have to be on a bus for eight hours and then come out and pitch the next day. It’s a day in, day out grind that you have to get used to. I know he can do it, it’s just a matter of finding out what works.”
Cressley flashes a plus fastball that sits in the low 90s and has been clocked as high as 96, as well as a slider that Foster describes as more of a slurve and a developing changeup.
“Both (fastball and slider) are very good pitchers, they’re major league pitches that play very well,” noted Foster. “The fastball has a lot of sink to it; it’s very live and tough for hitters to pick up. The change is developing and they will continue to help him develop it.”
Cressley certainly has the physical tools as well as the mental makeup to succeed in professional baseball.
He knows it will be a grind, but it’s one that he is looking forward to.
“Now it’s work, now it’s your job, you’re fighting for a spot,” he said. “My dream is to make it to the big leagues someday and with hard work I think I can do that.”
So what is the biggest asset Cressley believes will help him get there?
“I love the game,” he said. “I’ve been around it my whole life. The things that are going to help me the most are what Zach taught me about getting mentally and physical prepared for pro baseball. I think I’m going to succeed at the next level. Hopefully I have about 20 more years of baseball ahead of me.”
