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Josh Bell Ranked as the Second Best First Base Prospect

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MLB Pipeline continued their rankings of the top players at each position tonight, naming Josh Bell as the second best first base prospect. He only trailed Cody Bellinger of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Going into 2016, Bell was also ranked second overall at first base, one year after taking the top prospect spot in his first season at the position.

The interesting thing about Bell being ranked among the top prospects is that he will likely lose his prospect status during the first game of the season. In his third at-bat, he will pass the 130 at-bat mark in the majors, which is the limit to maintain prospect status. With the Pirates in 2016, the 24-year-old hit .273/.368/.406 in 152 plate appearances, with 21 walks and just 19 strikeouts.

During the winter mini-camp last week, Bell talked about changing up his off-season workouts, slimming down to help him be more athletic in the field without sacrificing any of the power at the plate. In case you missed it, you can view video here of Bell taking grounders, plus batting practice from both sides of the plate, during last week’s mini-camp at Pirate City.

Bell is the second prospect from the Pirates to be ranked among the top ten at their position. Tyler Glasnow was named the second best right-handed pitcher earlier this week. The Pirates came up empty in the top ten for left-handed pitchers and catchers. The rest of the positions will continue on Monday, followed by the top 100 prospects next Saturday night. That list will be revealed live on MLB Network at 8 PM EST.

John Dreker
John Dreker
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball. When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.

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