Creek moving up in Braves’ system Former UM star flourishing in minors

Just over 2 1/3 months ago, Greg Creek was back home in Manchester, wondering if he’d ever get a chance to play pro or even semi-pro ball after being passed over in Major League Baseball’s 2005 amateur draft.

Then the Atlanta Braves called, offered a free agent tryout which he accepted. He impressed scouts and was assigned to play rookie league ball in the Gulf Coast League.

Wednesday afternoon, the former Maranacook High School and University of Maine star was reflected on the whirlwind summer that was while waiting to head back to Orlando for a five-week fall instructional league.

“They want to make me a catcher and they’re going to work with me a lot on it,” said Creek, who didn’t hesitate to agree to the switch even though he hasn’t caught a game since Little League. “Of course I was willing to try it. It’s an opportunity. Maybe it will work out and maybe it won’t.”

Opportunity has been knocking a lot for Creek, who finished his Black Bears career with a .354 batting average, 17 home runs, 37 doubles, 896 RBIs and 107 runs.

Just nine weeks into his first minor league baseball season, Creek was promoted to the low Single A Rome (Ga.) Braves, where he played for just under two weeks before getting another promotion, this time to the high A Myrtle Beach Pelicans.

Three teams and three leagues in two weeks. Whew.

“I played in the first league for 21/2 months and that was ending up when somebody got hurt in low A so I got moved up. Then another guy had personal leave for the hurricane and I was moved up again,” said the 23-year-old.

At all three stops, Creek distinguished himself with the bat despite not swinging a wooden bat – again – since Little League days.

At Orlando, Creek batted .322 with two home runs, 10 doubles, 14 RBIs and 21 runs scored in 41 games. At Rome, he hit .333 with one homer, one double, one RBI, and three runs in seven games. At Myrtle Beach, he had a .375 average with two doubles and two runs in four games.

Then came the challenge of getting home.

“My car was in Rome, I was in Myrtle Beach, and I had flight booked out of Orlando,” he explained. “I took a plane from Myrtle Beach to Atlanta and someone on my team drove me to Rome, and then I drove to Orlando. I left my car in Orlando since I’ll be back Sunday for instructional league.”

Not all of Atlanta’s prospects attend instructional camp.

“There are a lot of guys who don’t even get invited to instructional and I think there are around 60-65 total players,” he said. “I just hope I can turn some heads.”

The 6-foot-3, 235-pound Creek has been doing that since he arrived in Orlando. The first baseman-third baseman has impressed Braves officials with his contact at the plate and eagerness. They haven’t made too many changes to his approach.

“Sixto Lezcano was my hitting instructor in the GCL and he was surprised I didn’t hit for more power so he had me switch my weight more to my front foot and right after that, I was doing much better,” Creek recalled. “As far as catching, they haven’t really said much about the transition other than I would have to learn to deal well with failure because there are a lot of things to learn in a short amount of time.”

Creek, who has already broken in his team-issued Wilson catcher’s mitt and participated in catching drills with former teammates at UMaine in Orono, said the action in Single A isn’t that much different from Division I college ball.

“More pitchers throw hard, but the schedule is the toughest thing, especially in the GCL,” he said. “You wake up at 7 or 8, field for three hours and then play at noon. That’s brutal. But after GCL, it was primarily night games and it made it a lot easier to get a full night’s sleep every night.”

Although he’s been resting up at home, getting a full night’s sleep hasn’t been as easy as it normally would be for Creek lately.

“I can’t wait. I don’t know what to do with myself right now,” he said. “There’s been nothing like it in my life. Not going to school and not having to worry about my schedule… Heck the only thing I have to decide is what to have for dinner and what to watch on TV.”

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