Gary Dreher Tourney Starts Today

The first day of the Gary Dreher Memorial Summer Classic is today with three games slated at Elk Grove High School.

At 11:30 a.m. the host Herd will take on Laguna Creek. At 2:30 p.m. the Cardinals will take on Woodland and in tonight's nightcap Elk Grove will play Woodland at 5:30 p.m.

On Friday the tournament gets into full swing with games also at Laguna Creek and Franklin High Schools as well as Hornet Field at Sacramento State Univ. Some interesting games you might want to watch are all at 5:30 p.m. Friday: Elk Grove plays Harvard-Westlake on the varsity field while on the JV diamond Valley Christian will face De La Salle. At Hornet Field Simi Valley will take on Bellarmine. Rocklin will take on Archbishop Mitty at Franklin H.S.

Some of the state's top players are in town this weekend and it's worth dropping in for a game or two. Admission will be charged at all sites.

Lee Feature

BaseballSacramento.Com has a great story about Leon Lee, father of long-time major leaguer Derek Lee, brother of Leron Lee, the area's very first first-round draft pick.

Site editor Rick Cabral also reports that Elk Grove outfielder Derek Hill has been selected to play for the Oakland A's "Area Code" all-star team. There will be seven other MLB Area Code teams playing Aug. 5-10 in Long Beach.

Interesting that Grant's ace pitcher Cameron Avila-Leeper will also selected to the squad along with Davis' Matt Trask. Avila-Leeper sat out much of last season because of poor grades.

Tellez: Signing or Not?

Former Elk Grove H.S. slugger Rowdy Tellez wasn't drafted until the 30th round of the June 9 Amateur Draft. That came after several national publications, including MLB.Com and Baseball America, ranked him as one of the top two or three first basemen available for the draft.

Tellez told me on June 11 that none of the teams were offering what he was asking and thus he dropped down in the draft before the Toronto Blue Jays finally selected him.

"I'm going to USC and win some championships," Tellez said that day. Last November he inked a letter-of-intent to play for and attend Southern California.

But, now there's a report Tellez may reconsider.

Cabral is reporting on his website that the Blue Jays have been signing their earlier draft picks for less money that what MLB allows as a signing bonus. It could, according to Cabral, mean the Jays might be able to offer Tellez a signing bonus and contract he wants.

Cabral also quoted local scout D. Brown, who works for the Jays and is a man Tellez called one of his mentors, as saying whatever round a player is drafted doesn't really matter when it comes to signing bonus or contract offers.

"I think it is fair to say that we're going to do everything we can to make a legitimate run at getting the 'Latino Bambino' in a Blue Jays' uniform," Brown told Cabral.