#99 Josh Bell (Outfielder[S/R])

Pittsburgh Pirates

Born: August 14th, 1992 (Age 20)
Origin: 2nd Round Pick(#61 overall) in 2011 out of Dallas Jesuit College Prep (TX)
Height: 6’4’’
Weight: 195

Chris Blessing: Coming into the 2011 draft, many people around baseball thought it would take a haul of money to sign Dallas Jesuit’s Josh Bell.  It did.  The Pirates selected the Texan outfielder with the first pick of the second round and used a five million dollar signing bonus to sign Bell away from the University of Texas.

Due to a knee injury suffered while running the bases in April, Bell’s 2012 season was limited to 15 games in Class A West Virginia, the Pirates affiliate in the South Atlantic League.  The injury, a torn meniscus, was expected to keep Bell out until August. But after experiencing several setbacks, he also missed instructional league action in the fall.  The Pirates expect Bell to be ready to go in Spring Training.

Jeff Reese: It was indeed a lost season for Josh Bell; the amount of time missed with the meniscus injury was a bit surprising, but it shouldn’t hurt his stock longterm. As always seems to be the case with preps who float gigantic bonus demands, Bell was probably a bit overhyped coming into the year. As an amateur he showed good offensive tools with bat speed and plus power potential from both sides of the plate. However, there was some rawness in his hit tool and pitch recognition that needed to be ironed out in pro ball and – while physically impressive – he profiled as a pure corner outfielder. Nothing has really changed a year later.

Al Skorupa: The ceiling is still very high here, but it was a big lost year for Bell. At only 19 years old, he is more than young enough to miss that time and not end up being overly harmed by it. Bell does have a lot of work to do, but switch hitters with plus power from both sides tend to get the benefit of the doubt from me. Count me among those extremely eager to see what Bell can do in 2013.

Fantasy Outlook by Chris Blessing:
I would be leary of adding a player this far away from the majors coming back from an injury that his body struggled to heal from.  With that said, there are worse players to spend a dollar on to occupy one of the last spots on your 40 man roster. Bell’s power projection on it’s own makes him worth taking a flier on in the right league formats.

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