A's sign Leyland and Consigli

by Threepwood XX on Jul 21, 2009 8:46 PM PDT

According to scout.com (the best pay site for A's minor league information on the web), the A's have left themself open to numerous "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" jokes by signing San Dimas High catcher Josh Leyland.

Josh Leyland, the A's 16 round pick, was one of the best highschool power hitters in CA. The A's drafted him as a catcher, but there are already questions about if he will be able to stay there or have to move to first base.

Royce Consigli is an outfielder who went to Notre Dame HS in Welland, Ont. I don't know much about him, but here is what Melissa Lockard (Scout.com) had to say:

Consigli is a left-handed hitting outfielder from Notre Dame High School in Welland, Ontario, Canada. Consigli also turned 18 this month. He is turning down a scholarship offer to play at the University of Pittsburgh to sign with Oakland.

Evidently the A's agreed to pay for his schooling to get him to sign. Could this be a sign that Selig has finally OK overslot drafting?

Threepwood's players he wants to see signed: Grant Green, Max Stassi, Ian Krol, Sam Dyson, ~~Josh Leyland~~, Kyle Roller.

One down, five to go!

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Hallelujah!!!

That’s always good news.

Although it might be that the team can’t announce the signing yet… IDK. All this Selig crap is annoying.

by Blicks on Jul 21, 2009 9:20 PM PDT reply actions

Stassi was at the Coli last night

I think he’s as close to done as you can get right now.

by Orodawg on Jul 21, 2009 9:41 PM PDT reply actions

I agree

In the interview he gave on the A’s pre-game show he really sounded like he was in the middle of negotiating, not trying to make up his mind between college and going pro.

But I don’t think Stassi singing is really in any doubt. It’s like everyone keeps saying, the A’s wouldn’t have used a 4th round pick on him if they didn’t think he would sign.

The big question marks on my list, in my opinion, are Ian Krol (because we haven’t herd a darn thing about his plans yet), Sam Dyson (who’s team is already planning not to have him next year but may end up being too injured), and Kyle Roller (a draft and follow currently leading the Cape Cod league in slg).

I think Green will sign, but the most we’ll hear about it in the press before hand will be a “Beane has made an offer” kind of thing. Boras knows damn well Beane doesn’t leak stories to the press, so I doubt he’ll be dumb enough to try to negotiate through the press and then blame the leaks on the team like he did with Texiera or Manny.

Sometimes life will strike you out on a curve ball and the only choice you have is to flip off the umpire and walk to first base anyway.

by Threepwood XX on Jul 21, 2009 9:54 PM PDT up reply actions

A lot of my wife's family

is in Welland…..

I didn’t know that they played baseball there.

[b]More Rajai Davis & less mount Davis[/b]
Does Rajai Davis know Al Davis?

by Athletics fan and runner on Jul 22, 2009 5:58 AM PDT reply actions

SAN DIMAS HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL RULES

"If Vin Mazzaro comes anywhere near me with shaving cream he’s gonna be coming away with a bloody stump" – Dallas Braden

by doctorK on Jul 22, 2009 8:17 AM PDT reply actions 1 recs

i was waiting for that one

"If you hit .440 with 20 bombs, you don't have to do s---. You don't have to bring a glove to practice, just hit and leave whenever you want. You can bring a 40 and smoke a cigarette and call me from the parking lot asking me what time the game is, and I'll tell you. You can even say 'F--- you, Steve!' Actually, don't say that, that wouldn't be very nice." -Steve Friend, Head Coach, Chabot College Gladiators Baseball

by flipgatey3 on Jul 22, 2009 8:21 PM PDT up reply actions

I'm really happy about Leyland. Yay!

by Elston Gunn on Jul 22, 2009 10:15 AM PDT reply actions

Not to be a party pooper

But should we start to temper our excitement on Leyland? I remember after the draft Leyland was pretty high up on most people’s “I hope we can sign him” list because of the power potential and some good scouting reports. I was skeptical of the A’s chances at first because from what I heard he seemed like somebody with skill’s higher than your normal 16th round draft pick which usually means major signability concerns.

Now that he has signed for presumably what you would expect a 16th rounder to sign for should we start to consider him as such? It seems that he didn’t have any outlandish bonus demands so any team could have picked him anytime but nobody pulled the trigger. Is there any reason to be more excited about Leyland than any of the 14 guys the A’s selected ahead of him?

by OkayJay81 on Jul 22, 2009 8:31 PM PDT reply actions

Just watch him swing it

https://secure.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?content_id=4737103

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETVTk48sHaA&feature=channel_page

(Fast forward a little to get past the ads)

and some addition info

http://www.powershowcase.us/profiles/2009-PLAYER-profiles/profile-ca-leyland.php

If the A's can build around Holiday, Furcal, Cust, and maybe call up 2nd baseman Wes Childs at some point in the year, they have a shot to take a weak AL West. -- jameersju post on ESPN.com

by youdownwithOBP on Jul 22, 2009 9:20 PM PDT up reply actions

His swing in the HR derby reminded me of Prince Fielder with less fat.

Im no good at those kind of comparisons so take it with a grain of salt, but thats what I saw.

In play, run(s)! Talk dirty to me gamecast, talk dirty. - Nevermoor on FK

by designatedforassignment on Jul 23, 2009 6:21 PM PDT up reply actions

No

1) We don’t know if he signed for slot.

2) Are we any less excited about Nino Leyja because he was a mid round pick? No! I think we need to look at Leyland for what he would be if the draft was actually fair. A 2-3 round pick with good power potential; it’s perfectly normal to be excited about someone like that.

Sometimes life will strike you out on a curve ball and the only choice you have is to flip off the umpire and walk to first base anyway.

by Threepwood XX on Jul 22, 2009 10:00 PM PDT up reply actions

Possible

1) He may have signed for above slot, but in the Scout chat Kubota mentioned that he expected Leyland to sign for slot and that he was drafted right about where they thought he would. Also Selig hasn’t been approving above slot signings yet. Either way it’s probably best to wait for official word before we make too many assumptions on his bonus.

2) I don’t remember anyone being all that excited about Leyja when he was drafted, it wasn’t untill after he had a good showing in the AZL that people started to talk about him. Also, I’m a little confused as to how the unfairness of the draft would bump him from a 2-3 round pick to the 16th. If he was willing to sign for slot (just an assumption at this point) I don’t see why teams would wait untill the 16th round to pick him if he really had 2-3 round talent.

by OkayJay81 on Jul 22, 2009 10:30 PM PDT up reply actions

Leyland was much more highly rated coming into the draft than Lejya was

Leyland was rated the 145th best prospect in the country by BA coming into the draft. I seem to remember Leyja was rated 70 something in just Texas. Leyland is a much better prospect than Leyja. I remember Kubota saying that Leyland was asking for not much more than slot but I do not recall him saying that he was a 16th round talent.

by DeJay on Jul 23, 2009 1:20 AM PDT up reply actions

BTW

I was also confused as to how a potential 4th/5th round projectable high school prospect would fall to the 16th round. Melissa over at Scout believes it was because Leyland was a fairly unknown prospect coming into the season. I believe he was a back up catcher for a while and only came into his own this year. It is conceivable then that he flew under the radar, especially of East Coast teams. It is possible that other teams were put off by his commitment to Washington State or simply didn’t have as good a read as to what it would take to sign him or how much he wanted to play pro ball as the A’s area scout did. I would expect that he signed for a bit more than slot with a full scholarship paid on top. Either way we got a high school catcher rated 145th best prospect by BA who has huge power potential in the 16th round and signed him. I don’t think we should be looking gift horses in the mouth.

by DeJay on Jul 23, 2009 1:39 AM PDT up reply actions

Yeah even if he's a bust

Its worth the risk not to pass up another Justin Smoak.

by AthleticsReign on Jul 23, 2009 10:01 AM PDT up reply actions

I certainly didn't mean to disparage Leyland or the pick

Frankly, I had never heard of him untill the A’s drafted him. I was just trying to reconcile why there was so much excitement over signing a guy if he was willing to sign at or near slot and made it all the way untill the 16th round.

by OkayJay81 on Jul 23, 2009 6:19 PM PDT up reply actions