Baseball America report: Orioles come to terms with 26th-round pick

By Steve Melewski

Orioles

August 14, 2011, 9:03pm

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A tweet this morning from Baseball America's Jim Callis reports the Orioles have signed their 26th-round pick, high school pitcher Zach Davies, to a $575,000 contract. The 6-foot, 165-pound, right-hander played at Mesquite High in Arizona. He had a college commitment to Arizona State. Here is Baseball America's scouting report on Davies: "Another Arizona State commit is righthander Zach Davies, who got multiple Mike Leake comparisons from scouts and college recruiters. Like Leake, Davies has a medium build at 6 feet and 165 pounds and shows good athleticism. When he's not pitching, he plays shortstop. Davies doesn't have huge stuff but knows how to pitch and has four pitches that should be at least average: fastball, curveball, slider and changeup. He doesn't have Leake's fastball movement, but the similarities with his athleticism and feel for pitching are obvious." If this report is true - and Baseball America seldom gets this info wrong - this brings to 19 the number of players the Orioles have signed. On Sunday, I reported that the Orioles were negotiating with a fourth player beyond the big three of Dylan Bundy, Jason Esposito and Nicky Delmonico. Check here throughout Monday for more draft stories and coverage and follow me on Twitter @masnsteve.