Pirates Draft Day Two: Josh Bell On The Board

A very interesting option is on the draft board

today for the Pittsburgh Pirates, high school  Josh hitting machine Bell.   He’s a switch hitter.  He’s 6’3″ and 200 pounds.  He hit .584 and popped 13 bombs.  He also stole 16 bags hile driving in 50 Jesuit teammates.

He was number 15 on the Baseball America board and like the Pirates first round pick Gerritt Cole, Bell’s team has been eliminated from postseason play.

Bell was one of the top bats in the draft on most boards.  So why is he still around?  It’s obvious.  He wants to go to school.  The University of Texas, to be more specific.  In the article below, Bell even seems to be put off by the suggestion of ‘how much will it take for you to change your mind?’

His comment of I didn’t give teams a dollar figure is interesting too.   You can bet your paycheck that the Pirates are double checking his commitment, maybe triple checking it.

So the big question becomes will the Bucs be able to lure him away from his seemingly solid decision to go to the University of Texas?  Do they have a contact that knows if Bells’ decision might have a bit of a waver to it?

We know one thing, the Pirates shocked some people last year with the Stetson Allie pick.  But Allie let it be known that it would take a big check and of course, that’s what the Pirtes did.

What an aggressive move it would be by the Pirates to grab Bell today.

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