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Josh Bell Among Top Prospects in the International League

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Baseball America has released their final league top 20 prospect list and Josh Bell is the lone representative from Indianapolis on the International League list. He just barely qualified for the list, reaching the minimum plate appearances needed halfway into the last game of the regular season.

Bell was rated 12th overall in the league, eight spots ahead of where he was rated on the Eastern League list. His lack of in-game power and poor defense hold him back in the rankings, but Bell had an impressive overall season at the plate. He hit .347/.441/.504 in 35 games for Indianapolis, then hit .444 in eight playoff games. Prior to being promoted, Bell had an .803 OPS in 96 games with Altoona. He committed a total of 16 errors on the season and looked shaky at first base in the playoffs, so he still has work to do before he is Major League ready on defense.

Bell will also need to work on his right-handed swing before he gets promoted to Pittsburgh. He had a .632 OPS from that side in 157 plate appearances this year. He hasn’t hit a homer from the right side since June of 2014. Since the Pirates don’t have a spot for a lefty DH, that means he will need at least a couple months at Indianapolis before he is ready for the big show.

Tyler Glasnow didn’t pitch enough to qualify for the list and Alen Hanson was left off the top twenty. You can see all the previous league rankings from Baseball America below. The Pirates had at least one player make each list.

Altoona

Bradenton

West Virginia

Morgantown

Bristol

GCL Pirates

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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