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Josh Bell and Reese McGuire Receive Best Tools Honors

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Baseball America continued their Best Tools lists today, looking at all of the players in full-season A-ball. Yesterday I wrote about how the Pittsburgh Pirates had a few guys make the list in the upper levels, including Elias Diaz being named the Best Defensive Catcher in the Eastern League, and Gregory Polanco being named the Best Batting Prospect and the Most Exciting Player in the International League.

The Pirates had two more prospects winning Best Tools honors in A-ball. Josh Bell was named the Best Batting Prospect in the Florida State League. He has since moved up to Double-A, but Bell posted a .335/.384/.502 line in 331 at-bats while he was in Bradenton. It’s a little surprising that Tyler Glasnow didn’t win any honors, although a lot of the pitching awards went to Jose Berrios, who posted a 1.96 ERA in 96.1 innings, with a 109:23 K/BB ratio. That had the same dominance that Glasnow has, without a lot of the control issues.

In the Low-A list, the Pirates had another defensive catcher award. This time, Reese McGuire was named the Best Defensive Catcher in the South Atlantic League. Last night I wrote about how Elias Diaz is the top catching prospect for the Pirates in the upper levels, even ahead of Tony Sanchez. McGuire is the top catching prospect in the system. However, he’s much further away than Diaz. He has a .257/.301/.315 line in 327 at-bats this year. McGuire shows some potential with the bat, while making solid contact that could lead to some power as he gets older and stronger. If the bat develops as expected, then he could be an All-Star starting catcher.

It should be noted that Diaz also struggled with the bat in A-ball, while showing a lot of raw hitting potential. He had a .607 OPS in West Virginia in his age 20 season, then returned to post a .549 OPS the next year. Last year he had a .781 OPS in Bradenton at the age of 22, and this year he’s breaking out in Altoona with an .822 OPS at the age of 23. McGuire has a .616 OPS in his age 19 season, so he’s a little bit ahead of where Diaz was, with plenty of time to show improvements.

Tim Williams
Tim Williams
Tim is the owner, producer, editor, and lead writer of PiratesProspects.com. He has been running Pirates Prospects since 2009, becoming the first new media reporter and outlet covering the Pirates at the MLB level in 2011 and 2012. His work can also be found in Baseball America, where he has been a contributor since 2014 and the Pirates' correspondent since 2019.

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