Clemson Tigers Baseball Star Receives High National Player Ranking

The preseason awards are starting to flood in for Clemson Tigers outfielder Cam Cannarella and the preseason ACC awards aren’t even out yet.

The latest is Perfect Game’s rankings of the Top 75 juniors in the country. The site recently ranked him as its No. 5 player in that class.

Juniors are usually MLB Draft-eligible, so this could be his last year with the Tigers. He’s almost certain to be on the watch list for the Golden Spikes award, given to the country’s top player, along with just about every other national player of the year award.

He put together an incredible season a year ago, which became more impressive given the circumstances that no one was aware of until after the Tigers’ final game.

He had offseason surgery for a torn labrum and revealed that he played the season with the injury after suffering it on the campaign’s opening weekend.

With the torn labrum, he batted .337 with 16 doubles, three triples, 11 homers, 60 RBI and 58 runs. He had a .417 on-base percentage in 58 games. He also led the team with 29 multiple-hit games as he secured status as an all-American and all-ACC player.

In his two-year collegiate career, Cannarella has batted .363 with 32 doubles, six triples, 18 homers, 107 RBI, 130 runs, with a .440 on-base percentage and 24 steals in 117 games. During his first year he was named All-ACC Freshman of the Year.

Meanwhile, the Tigers are getting plenty of national attention going into the season, the results of going 44-16 with a 20-10 record in the ACC and reaching the super regionals.

Baseball America has the Tigers ranked No. 4 and Perfect Game has them at No. 8.

When it comes to pro baseball, Cannarella is considered among the best prospects overall. Per MLB.com, he is ranked as the No. 15 overall prospect in a pool of potential draft selections. In fact, he’s the four-highest ranked outfielder.

That pool includes college-eligible, junior college-eligible and prep players.

The scouts at MLB.com gave him an overall grade of 55, which is on the traditional 20-80 scouting scale, with 80 being perfect. Among his tools as a player, he earned 60s for both his running and his fielding.

The left-handed hitting center fielder could end up being the Tigers’ highest-selected position player in program history. Right now, Billy Spiers (1987) and Tyler Colvin (2006) were both drafted No. 13 overall in their respective drafts.

Clemson will head to Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, to open the regular season on Feb. 14 to play in the Shriners Children’s College Showdown against Oklahoma State, Arizona and Ole Miss.