Vanderbilt baseball outfielder Connor Harrell makes the VandySports 100 at No. 58. Here's a link to our landing page as we count down to No. 1.
Honors and awards: 2010 Freshman All-Southeastern Conference
2010 All-Louisville Regional
2011 All-Nashville Regional
2011 All-College World Series
2012 All-SEC Tournament
2013 second-team All-SEC
2013 second-team All-American (NCBWA, ACBA)
2013 All-SEC Tournament
In the VU record book: Single-season RBIs: 10th (67, 2013)
Career at-bats: fourth (841)
Career RBIs: tied-seventh (168)
Before VU: Starred at Houston's Kinkaid School, where he was a three-time all-conference pick. Lettered in baseball for four years, and in football for two. Captained both teams as a senior.
Freshman (2010): Played 61 games, starting 58, for a 46-20 (16-12 SEC) team that lost in the Tallahassee Super Regional. Began a four-year run as VU's primary center fielder, and fielded .985 in 133 chances with three assists and two errors. Played in 27 SEC games and started each, hitting .316/.373/.398, with one homer and 19 RBIs and 12 runs scored in league play. Saved a two-run homer vs. Louisville in a game that vaulted the Commodores to the Louisville Regional title (video below). Was 4-for-10 with four runs and four RBIs in the Ohio series.
Sophomore (2011): Played 64 games, starting 55, for a 54-12 (22-8) team that shared the SEC title with Florida and South Carolina and finished tied for third at the College World Series. Fielded .990 with one error. Played in 30 SEC regular-season games, hitting .267/.330/.477 with four homers, 15 RBIs and 15 runs scored in league games. Hit the first home run at T.D. Ameritrade Park in the College World Series against North Carolina. Homered later against the Tar Heels to help VU win a CWS elimination game. Homered against Georgia for the second-straight day, as part of a three-run, three-RBI day.
Junior (2012): Played 57 games, starting 52, for a 35-28 (16-14) team that finished second at the Raleigh Regional, while fielding 1.000 on 136 chances with three assists. Hit .284/357/.523 in 26 SEC games, of which he started 23. Had three hits, including a homer each time, in successive games vs. Tennessee. Hit a grand slam to vault VU past Kentucky. Had two homers and four RBIs in a win at Stanford.
Senior (2013): Played 66 games and started them all for a 54-12 (26-3) team that won the SEC. Fielded 1.000 in center in 174 chances, with two assists. Hit .336/.403/.555 in SEC play, with six homers, 25 RBIs and 33 runs. Hit a two-run homer vs. ETSU in VU's NCAA Tournament opener. Singled twice and scored twice in the SEC Tournament title game loss to LSU. Was 3-for-6 with two runs scored in the SEC Tournament vs. Mississippi St. Homered twice in a regular-season game vs. Kentucky. Had four hits, four RBIs and four runs in a win vs. Missouri. Had three hits, including a game-winning double, vs. Ole Miss. Was 2-for-4 with a homer and four RBIs vs. Evansville. Homered, doubled and drove in four in a loss to Long Beach St.
Post-VU: The Tigers took Harrell in Round 7 of the 2013 MLB Draft. Harrell made it to AAA in 2016 before retiring.
Final thoughts, and why I ranked him where I did: Harrell struck out 219 times in his career, making him prone to long slumps that resulted in temporary benchings like the ones he endured for parts of his first three seasons.
It wasn't a small flaw, but perhaps the only significant one he had. He had power (87 career extra-base hits) and speed (25 career steals) and was a fluid athlete whom coach Tim Corbin trusted to man center field for four years. And while Harrell's consistency may have waned with the bat, it never did with the glove: He started 231 career games and made just three errors. He played on two of VU's all-time best teams--the 2011 and 2013 teams that won SEC titles, and combined to go 108-24--and played well in postseasons, making two all-regional teams, two All-SEC Tournament squads and an All-College World Series team.
Throw in a great peak season that earned him a second-team All-American honor, and a body of work that landed him on several significant school career charts, and it's not a hard call to put Harrell inside the top 60.
* "RC/ARC-27" are how many runs a player "created" per 27 outs, according to a Bill James formula. The first is a player's raw total for that season, and the second is the same number adjusted to an average run-scoring environment from 2003-19.
