Is he a major-league player?

Because Bell had such a horrible 2-53 BB/K ratio in his extended 2010 big-league service (53 games, 161 plate appearances), he’s going to have to be really impressive before he gets another full shot. With the Orioles in 2011, he doubled his walks and halved his strikeouts, but his BB/K ratio was a still-poor 4/25.

Even after 2010, I still thought Bell could be a good player, but I’m less optimistic after 2011. On the positive side, Bell hit 19 home runs in AAA, playing his home games in offense-killing Harbor Park. But that power increase came at the expense of his batting average, which dropped from .278 to .253, and especially his non-home run extra-base hits, so his slugging percentage dropped from .481 to .438. His BB/K ratio in AAA was 40/118, which is just barely acceptable. As a defensive player, Bell still has great “tools” but lacks baseball skills and judgment; he still doesn’t know when to throw and when to hold onto the ball.

In the 1980′s, Seattle came up with a very athletic third base prospect named Darnell Coles, whose career got off to a slow start because of inconsistency and poor strike-zone judgment. Coles bounced around, had one good season with Detroit as a full-time player and lasted a few years as a part-time, platoon corner outfielder. Josh Bell reminds me of Darnell Coles. I expect Bell to have a good season or two, but not be a player you can rely on.

In one 2011 game, Josh Bell committed four throwing errors. In the box score summary, the following line appeared:

E: Bell 4 (throw, throw, throw, throw)

I think that could lead to a Weird Al Yankovic-style parody of a Ke$ha hit — (Josh Bell’s About to) Throw.