MILWAUKEE — Clint Hurdle gained perspective on Josh Bell during a lengthy rain delay at PNC Park two weeks ago. As he awaited word on when or if the Pirates would play the Tigers, Hurdle watched a segment on AT&T SportsNet featuring a home video of Bell as a child swinging a bat at a tire with his father, Earnest, supervising and his mother, Myrtle, reminding the boy to not work too hard.
Hurdle tried to get Bell to watch the segment again. It was the manager's way of playfully reminding the first baseman to not work himself to exhaustion. After all, Bell has been marred in an early-season slump for a second consecutive year, and the problem has moved the Pirates' first baseman to take hundreds of swings before games.
He's batting .238/.315/.346 through 35 games; however, he and his hitting coach have pinpointed what exactly has gone wrong over the past month, and Bell showed Sunday with his solo home run against the Brewers that he could be close to breaking out.
"It’s all about timing," Pirates hitting coach Jeff Branson told DKPittsburghSports.com Sunday at Miller Park. "He’s one of the better hitters I’ve seen that can put the barrel on the ball. It’s just a matter of time before he starts breaking out because he’s getting close. You can see him. He’s starting to deliver the barrel more consistently."
Bell's walk rate is down and he's struck out 27 times to 15 walks. On the other hand, he's swinging at fewer pitches both in and out of the zone, and his contact rate is up. Bell hasn't been making hard contact the way he did as a rookie in 2017.
Bell's barrel has connected with the ball 4.8 percent of the time —a two-percent decrease from last season – and his hard-hit percentage is also down. As a result, his weighted on-base average, a catch-all offensive statistic that measures a hitter’s overall offensive value based on the relative values of each distinct event, is .292.
For perspective, anything below .300 is considered "poor," according to FanGraphs. He's batting .183/.266/.282 with only two doubles, one triple and one home run in 20 games since April 16. Although he's driven in seven runs during that span, he's struck out 14 times with eight walks.
Rather than a mechanical adjustment, Bell is working on improving his pitch selection. He's swinging at pitches inside the zone, yet those pitches aren't always ones he can do damage on, which is leading to weaker contact. His singular focus now is waiting for a pitch thrown in an area where he can make harder contact and properly timing his swing on that pitch.
"I could have had a lot more walks in the last couple weeks, if I’m more selective, if I have an A swing on a 2-0 count, rather than trying to just put balls in play," Bell said. "If I foul off more balls, if I swing and miss more, I don’t think they’re coming to me. We’ll see what happens in the next couple weeks."
Bell, facing Brewers reliever Jorge Lopez in the seventh inning Sunday, chose to not swing at a first-pitch curveball on the inner half of the plate. Then, Lopez threw a two-seam fastball over the middle of the plate, and Bell hit the pitch 411 feet to right-center for his second home run of the season.
It was a hit weeks in the making.
Nearly five hours before first pitch last Saturday at PNC Park, Bell was hitting balls from a pitching machine with Branson standing behind the portable backstop. Bell would step out of the batter's box after several pitches to consult with Branson before taking more swings.
The drill continued for 30 minutes, and the two continued their discussion prior to infield drill work hours later. It appeared Bell was working on a mechanical adjustment to his lower body, yet Branson said that was not the case. The two were discussing how Bell can better fire off his swing to improve his timing.
He's batting only .220 with a .329 slugging percentage against fastballs this season, compared to a .279 average and .485 slugging percentage last season. Also, his whiff rate against breaking pitches mirrors that of his difficult stretches last season. Bell batted .198/.285/.415 with 25 strikeouts to nine walks last May; however, he batted .306 with a .915 OPS from July 1 through August 30.
"I had some ups and downs last year, too," Bell said. "I don’t think it’s any different. I know I have to make them come to me and have a one-spot mentality. If I can do damage in that one spot and spit on the other things, that’s when things start going well for me."
He finished with a .255 average, .790 OPS and 26 home runs with 90 RBIs. Branson said there is a common thread between the two cold streaks, and the two men tasked with helping Bell find a solution have encouraged him to simplify his approach and wait for a good pitch to hit.
"We encourage him to work on one thing and the number one thing is to get a good pitch to hit," Hurdle said. "Sometimes that’s always going to be a little bit gray with Josh because he can do some things on pitches outside of the strike zone. Getting a good pitch to hit, seeing the ball well and trusting his swing."
Bell is an introspective hitter, constantly evaluating himself both by feel and video analysis. He'll then make any necessary changes to try to achieve a certain "feel" at the plate. He'll take hundreds of swings in search of that feeling and will lessen his workload once he finally finds comfort.
Despite his cold streak, his 17 RBIs are the fourth-most among National League first basemen. It's a process Branson described as unorthodox, but he commended Bell's work ethic and determination to do whatever it takes to help the Pirates win. They haven't done much of that when Bell struggles.
He's batting only .134/.207/.245 in the Pirates' losses this season. On the other hand, he has a .312 average with a .802 OPS, one home run and 13 RBIs when the Pirates win.
"It’s still a learning process of what’s working for him now, what's not working for him now," Branson said. "Let’s think about this, let’s think about that. He is a hitter. It’s an unorthodox way at times, but he’s a hitter. He comes to work every day ready to hit."