As the Pittsburgh Pirates prepared to begin the 2017 season, one of the most interesting players to keep an eye on was first baseman Josh Bell.
With Pittsburgh Pirates 1B Josh Bell, there are plenty of questions coming into his first full season in the big leagues.
Will Bell live up to the hype with the bat?
How will the late start and cold spring training effect Bell’s production?
And everyone’s favorite, will Bell be able to handle first base enough defensively to remain in the Pittsburgh Pirates lineup?
Bat outweighs the Glove. Simple As That.
In Monday’s opener, we got a look at what Bell can do both with the bat and the glove and while questions will persist all year, about Bell’s defensive ability, the Pittsburgh Pirates need to forget about the questions and just live with what Bell does in the field. He’s not going to be a gold glove first baseman any time soon, but with what he can give the team with his bat, the Pirates should be fine with the tradeoff.
In his brief look last season, Bell looks more comfortable than a guy like Pedro Alvarez did throughout an entire season. He seems to know what position he needs to be in and last year looked comfortable making the throw to second base on double plays.
In Monday’s game against the Boston Red Sox, Bell did nothing defensively that would cost a team a game. His toughest play, Bell couldn’t pick a short hop throw from Jordy Mercer, but that is a tough play for most first basemen.
The difference though is what Bell can do offensively to help the Pittsburgh Pirates lineup out.
[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]His ninth inning opposite-field double off of Red Sox closer Crain Kimbrel looked effortless and there will be more positive things coming from Bell’s bat than negative things coming from his glove.[/perfectpullquote]Other teams have done similar
Teams can get away with sacrificing some defense for offense.
Bell’s case isn’t a case like Alvarez where he is going to make 25-plus errors a season. Bell’s footwork is much better at first base and more importantly already seems to be able to mentally handle the switch
Guys like Mike Napoli, Jose Abreu, Ryan Howard, Chris Davis and Chris Carter all made double-digit errors at first base last season and in each case (maybe not Howard’s), their manager was willing to take the production from the bat over a handful of misplays.
When he was in Milwaukee, Prince Fielder wasn’t a great defensive first baseman, but it never stopped Ned Yost or other Brewers’ managers from penciling his name on the lineup card every night.
Bell will be fine. I would be more concerned if his bat starts to slump than if he makes a few errors. He will hurt the Pirates more by not hitting than making a few errors. He certainly still has a ways to go as a first baseman, but Bell is a good athlete and will at the minimum be an average to above average fielder.
As long as he hits, the Pittsburgh Pirates should take that and be happy.
The more he hits, Bell can hopefully make the talk about his defensive ability fade away.
Image Credit – Flickr Creative Commons
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