30.2 F
Pittsburgh

Josh Bell Showing the Good and Bad of His Defense at First Base

Published:

BRADENTON and FORT MYERS, Fla. — The good and the bad of Josh Bell’s defense at first was on display on Thursday against the Boston Red Sox.

On one play, he ranged behind him into shallow right field, dropped a pop up and then threw it into left field attempting to get a runner out at third. On another he dove to his right, snagging a hard-hit ground ball and tossing it to the pitcher. Later, he made a picture-perfect scoop of a low throw from Gift Ngoepe.

Clearly, Bell is still a work in progress defensively at first base, but manager Clint Hurdle says there has been significant progress made in the past year, with even more work getting accomplished during the weeks in Bradenton since Bell returned from knee surgery in February.

“He’s a better first baseman now than he was last year at this time,” Hurdle said. “He still needs to work.”

So work continues, with Bell getting extra infield help from Joey Cora and Kevin Young, taking extra reps and getting the bulk of the playing time at the spot.

“There’s some things he’s doing better and there’s some things he still needs to work on,” Hurdle added. “Plays can be made that can really change the direction and dynamic of a game, and when they’re not made, they can change the direction and the dynamic of the game the other way. He’s working. That’s all you can ask him to do.”

Bell said he feels good and is in a “confident spot” defensively. But in the spring, when opportunities are not always frequent, what are the things that Pirates fans should look for as signs of progress? Young said he looks for signs that Bell is thinking the game like a natural first baseman.

“A lot of it’s mental; being able to be prepared and seeing the play develop before it actually develops,” Young said. “You can tell from the reaction if he’s anticipating something happening, whether it’s a ball hit hard somewhere, where they play is going to be. The rest of it is being able to execute physically. So when you talk about progress, you look at in a sense of is he able to anticipate? If he is, you’ll see it because his mind is going to set up his feet.”

In addition to the mental aspect, Bell said he has an internal checklist of everything he’d like to do defensively at first base this spring and there are some items still left on it.

“I haven’t gotten a double play ball yet this spring,” he said. “I want to turn a couple double plays. I want to cut a relay off and get a runner in a rundown. I just want to have that overall sense of someone that’s a sound first basemen.”

The other, big one, won’t be as noticeable until the rosters trim down farther, and maybe not even until the team goes north. Over the last couple years, the Pirates have used defensive substitutions late in games at first base. It started when Pedro Alvarez was the primary first baseman and continued through the tenures of John Jaso and Bell a year ago. But the player that did a lot of that work — Sean Rodriguez — is no longer with the team. So there could be an opportunity for Bell to be a nine-inning player at the position.

“That’s one thing that I went into this offseason working on — just trying to be one of those guys that could play all nine,” he said. “I know it’s a different ballgame being in the National League and the Pirates have so many pitchers in the bullpen that get ground balls. It’s one of those things that I hope to work towards.”

Even though Rodriguez is gone, the Pirates still anticipating having defensive options to make those substitutions, if that’s the direction Hurdle wants to go.

“We will get the players ready for that like [Adam] Frazier and [Phil] Gosselin,” Cora said. “They’ll be ready for that kind of role if they need to be.”

Related Articles

Latest Articles