I think we all know that Josh Bell is having a great season. I was curious as to how it stacks up in Pirates history. First of all, let us look at his current line (as of 6/15/19)
| Age | Tm | Lg | G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | CS | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | OPS+ | TB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 | PIT | NL | 68 | 298 | 262 | 51 | 84 | 25 | 3 | 19 | 63 | 0 | 1 | 31 | 62 | .321 | .389 | .656 | 1.046 | 173 | 172 |
| 4 Yr | 4 Yr | 4 Yr | 420 | 1653 | 1440 | 218 | 390 | 90 | 13 | 60 | 234 | 4 | 11 | 195 | 302 | .271 | .355 | .476 | .832 | 122 | 686 |
| 162 | 162 | 162 | 162 | 638 | 555 | 84 | 150 | 35 | 5 | 23 | 90 | 2 | 4 | 75 | 116 | .271 | .355 | .476 | .832 | 122 | 265 |
If we assume he stays healthy and keeps up this pace, then he would finish with over forty home runs. The last Pirate to do that was Willie Stargell in 1973. In fact, it has only happened seven times that a Pirate has hit 40+ and it was only Ralph Kiner and Stargell that did it. Pretty elite company to join. After them, Brian Giles holds positions 8-10 on the Pirates single-season home run list, he hit 39,38, and 37.
The more impressive statistic is the OPS. 1.046 would put him in 7th for the Pirates, ahead of Stargell’s best season. Crazy to think a 1.000+ OPS season has only happened thirteen times: three times by Kiner and Giles, twice by Stargell, once by Barry Bonds, Honus Wagner, Kiki Cuyler, and Jake Stenzel. Fun fact, Arky Vaughan had the best OPS at 1.098 in 1935.
If he keeps up that slugging percentage, it would be the second best ever for a Pittsburgh hitter, after Ralph Kiner in 1949 (.658). He is on pace for a shit ton of RBIs and if that happens he could easily surpass the record, which is 131 by Paul Waner in 1927.
When it comes to WAR, unfortunately, Bell does not really have a chance at getting into the Pirates record books. For comparison, Andrew McCutchen’s MVP season in 2013 was good for 7.9 WAR. That puts him as the 20th best season for the Pirates! The best was Honus Wagner in 1908 with 11.5 wins above replacement. The top twenty is littered with names like Wagner, Kiner, Vaughan, and Roberto Clemente. It is amazing that Bonds shows up four times. Easy to forget how great he was during his time in Pittsburgh.
Quick aside. If you look at the top seasons for Defensive WAR, which is not the greatest stat ever, but there was a name that took me back: Jack Wilson. His 2005 season was the best defensive season all-time for the Pirates. If you want to understand what that means, Wilson saved enough runs with his defense that it earned the Pirates about four more wins. If you want some perspective, his defense was almost as good as Ken Griffey Jr.’s offensive value. Pretty cool (and also, goes to show that WAR still have plenty of issues).
One last stat he has a chance of achieving: Total Bases. If he keeps up this pace, he could beat Kiki Cuyler’s 1925 season Pirates record of 369. Just in case you were curious, the Pirates record for runs scored is 150. Second place is 147. Both places come from the 1894 season by Jake Stenzel and Patsy Donovan. Think about that for a second, two players scored almost 300 total runs. I cannot even imagine what baseball looked like in 1894. They had two other guys with 100+ runs scored and they finished with a 65-65 record and in 7th place in the NL. How bad was their pitching? OHHHH, it was like 2019 Pirates level bad, yikes! In case you were wondering, the league average was 7.38 runs per game (the Orioles average almost ten runs per game that year).
Okay, this was a fun stroll through the history books. I hope Bell can keep this up. I hope that I end up being way wrong in regards to my bet with Ryan.
