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.