The CBB continues our countdown for the 2010 College Baseball season by checking in on the Top 100 Players in the country. We will be providing one player per day until we reach number 1.
We continue the list today with number 39 in our countdown with Miami switch hitting junior catcher Yasmani Grandal. He is from Miami where he attended Miami Springs High School. As a senior, he hit .447 with 48 RBI and 13 HRs as he was named Miami Herald’s Class 6A Hitter of the Year, AFLAC High School All-American, and a second team ABCA/Rawlings High School All-American. Baseball America named him the 19th best high school prospect heading into the 2007 MLB Draft. The Boston Red Sox selected him in the 27th round but could not come to terms with him.
Grandal decided to attend his hometown school by playing for Jim Morris at the University of Miami. He appeared in 38 games (36 starts) while hitting only .234 with seven homers and 28 RBI. He finished the season with a .452 average. He was also strong behind the plate as he threw out 10 runners in 35 attempts while having a fielding percentage of .981. He spent the summer of 2008 with the Brewster Whitecaps in the Cape Cod Baseball League. Grandal finished the season with a .279 
average with a homer and 10 RBI in 20 games.
Yasmani continued to develop as a sophomore as he played in 59 games (57 starts). He finished the season with a .299 average with 16 homers and 45 RBI as he slugged .599. He did struggle behind the plate as a sophomore as he made 10 errors bringing his fielding percentage down to .976. He threw out 9 out of 34 runners on the year also. He spent the summer of 2009 with the USA Collegiate National Team where he appeared in 19 games where he struggled at the plate with a .182 average while hitting three homers and seven RBI.
Yasmani is a specimen to see in person with power from both sides of the plate but needs to work on his defense to become a true elite catcher. If he can do that then you can expect him to be drafted in the top two rounds of the 2010 MLB Draft.
You can check out the rest of our Top 100 by clicking here.
