Pressley swinging a hot bat Rogers picks up first professional victory

With still a little more than a month to play in most minor league baseball seasons, it has already been a Tale of Two Cities summer for Josh Pressley.

It’s been both the best and worst of his eight professional baseball seasons.

Just a month into the 2005 season – his first in the Kansas City Royals’ minor league organization – Pressley was one 63 minor league players given a 15-game suspension for violating Major League Baseball’s minor league steroid/substance abuse policy.

That’s a tough way to start off with a new organization – his third in three seasons – after signing as a free agent in the offseason. The 6-foot-6, 225-pound first baseman/designated hitter opted for Kansas City because the Royals are a rebuilding, youth-oriented franchise.

Pressley attributed his positive test to cold medication he was taking at the time.

The 1996 American Legion Zone I Player of the Year has been on a tear since he came back from his 15-day hiatus. Two months later, Pressley is leading his Double A Wichita Wranglers with a career-best 16 home runs, is second on the team with a .297 batting average, and third with 56 RBIs through Tuesday night.

The 25-year-old Pressley was selected in the fourth round – 142nd overall – by Tampa Bay in the 1998 amateur draft. Last year, he was picked as the 89th best hitting prospect in the minors by Baseballnotebook.com.

The native of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., who played Bangor East Side Little League and Bangor American Legion baseball while summering in Maine as a youth, has played at all three levels (Triple A, Double A, and Single A) for three organizations over the last four seasons. Before this season, he had a total of 10 home runs from 2002 through 2004. It wasn’t like he was ineffective at the plate in that same time span, however, as he drove in 146 runs and batted .253.

Now he’s just biding his time, trying to remain consistent and patient, and hoping to sieze the opportunity if he gets a call to the big leagues.

Marking the win column

Maine’s highest Major League Baseball draft pick finally notched his first professional victory earlier this month. Orrs Island native Mark Rogers pitched five innings of four-hit, six-strikeout ball while allowing two earned runs and three walks against the Lakewood (N.J.) Blue Claws July 12.

Rogers faced 21 batters and retired six on strikeouts, five on flyouts, and two on groundouts.

Rogers hasn’t managed to double his win total since, but he does have a respectable ERA at 4.74 for the West Virginia Power through Monday. The 6-foot-2, 205-pound right-handed pitcher is now 1-7 with 13 starts in 47 games for the Single A South Atlantic League team. He has allowed 61 hits – eight of them home runs – and issued 44 walks while striking out 78 batters in 68 1/3 innings.

The former Mount Ararat High School of Topsham two-sport star (hockey was the other) was drafted fifth overall and signed in mid-June by the Milwaukee Brewers.

Grays area

Much of the team that would have been the Bangor Lumberjacks finished the first half of the Can-Am League season with a .500 record (23-23) and third-place finish in the north division standings.

Manager Chris Carminucci, who was Bangor’s hitting coach last season, has done a solid job with the hastily-assembled team that was created to fill the league vacancy resulting from the folding of the Lumberjacks.

The Grays aren’t faring as well in the second half so far, however, as they are off to a 1-8 start and are six games behind first half division winner and current leader Quebec.

Lumberjacks fans will recognize the names of some current Grays players like Brad Hargreaves, Mark Burke, and Willie King. Also Jason Startari may be familiar. He’s the answer to a good bar trivia question as the last player ever signed by the Lumberjacks.

Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600 or at aneff@bangordailynews.net