Cincinnati Reds 1st Round Pick - Catcher Yasmani Grandal

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Here is what I posted a few weeks ago on Grandal in the draft preview:

Yasmani Grandal is a catcher at Miami who was drafted in the 27th round back in 2007, but was perceived to be a much better talent than that who fell due to signability concerns.

Vitals

6? 2?
215 lbs
C
Switch hitter

Scouting Report

Grandal is a switch hitter who is extremely different from each side of the plate. From the left side he possesses better bat speed and power potential, though from the right side his swing is more smooth though containing less upside. While Grandal has good strikezone judgement, he does have issues with pitch identification at times. His swing also tends to get long at times, which leaves some scouts to question his hit tool.
Defensively he can probably stick behind the plate, but likely has a ceiling of an average defender behind the plate if he improves his problem areas. His catch and throw time is a little slow, which plays down due to his arm strength that is average at best. His agility behind the plate is fine and like nearly all catchers he will need to learn to call the pro game.

College Stats through 4/30/2010

Year	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	K	AVG	OBP	SLG
2010	152	65	18	1	10	37	24	.428	.544	.757
2009	197	59	11	0	16	33	37	.299	.414	.599
2008	124	29	6	0	7	22	31	.234	.358	.452

Video
Video from CamdenDepot

Overall opinion

Watching the video you can see where the power comes from. Lots of weight shift and a long swing. The problem with that is, it is going to lead to him being well off balance on offspeed pitches that he doesn’t read quickly which has been a noted problem with him. Given that his hit tool is fine for a catcher, but probably not special anywhere else on the field he could play and he is a defensive question mark behind the plate it would seem to be a bit of a reach for the Reds to take him. He has gone from a 2nd-3rd rounder coming into the season into someone who has been rumored as early as #4 to the Royals.

Here is a list of the scouting reports from around the web on Yasmani Grandal

Mark Sheldon has up a few words on Grandal over at Reds.com.

Update at 9:19pm

Mark Sheldon has up a larger article on Yasmani Grandal at Reds.com. This quote from Scouting Director Chris Buckley makes me feel better about Grandal:

“He’s very polished,” Buckley said. “He’s a plus thrower. He threw out 40 percent of runners this year at the University of Miami. He’s well above [average] defensive player, a switch-hitter with power from both sides.”

I had heard concerns on his arm, but until given other reasons, I put my faith in the Reds scouts. I give this my approval.

Update at 9:36pm

Here is a link to Yasmani Grandal’s player page at the official Miami Hurricane’s website.

For rounds 2-8, click here.

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