2011 second round pick Josh Bell will be joining the State College Spikes tonight, along with seven other players from the Gulf Coast League. Bell will be in uniform, and will be working out on the team, although he has not been added to the active roster yet. The Spikes play two more games at home, tonight and tomorrow night, and I will be reporting from both.
Also joining the team from the GCL will be pitchers Cesar Lopez, Diomedes Mateo and Logan Pevny, infielder Alen Hanson and outfielders Willy Garcia, Jose Osuna, and Gregory Polanco. None of the eight players, Bell included, are on the active roster yet.
Tim started Pirates Prospects in 2009 from his home in Virginia, which was 40 minutes from where Pedro Alvarez made his pro debut in Lynchburg. That year, the Lynchburg Hillcats won the Carolina League championship, and Pirates Prospects was born from Tim's reporting along the way. The site has grown over the years to include many more writers, and Tim has gone on to become a credentialed MLB reporter, producing Pirates Prospects each year, and will publish his 11th Prospect Guide this offseason. He has also served as the Pittsburgh Pirates correspondent for Baseball America since 2019. Behind the scenes, Tim is an avid music lover, and most of the money he gets paid to run this site goes to vinyl records.
