Josh Bell swinging the lumber on July 8 during the Home Run Derby in Cleveland sounds like good fun, eh? Well, Pirates fans, it just might be a reality.
Last night, Pirates assistant hitting coach Jacob Cruz tweeted: "Someone I know (wink) has been invited to Home Run Derby? Can you guess who? Ha."
That tweet was quickly deleted, but the Internet is undefeated in capturing these things, so it was quickly posted to Reddit. Today, a reply from Cruz lives on:
That’s funny
— Jacob Cruz (@JacobCruz09) June 21, 2019
There, you can see the original tweet has been deleted, but look at the initial reply, "Can the anonymous scout pitch to him?" and Cruz's final retort.
Yeah. It's not too hard to put the pieces together in this mystery, folks.
That said, MLB has a blanket policy on this kind of thing, and there is, as of Saturday, no confirmation that Cruz's tweet is 100 percent accurate. Maybe he was fed poor information, or maybe he somehow didn't mean Bell. Until we receive official confirmation, we won't express it as such. So for now, file this under the "extremely likely" category.
Should this play out, though, Bell would join Vladimir Guerrero Jr. as one of two confirmed entrants for the showcase in Cleveland.
This season, Bell is slashing .312/.379/.642 while putting up 20 home runs and an MLB-leading 66 RBIs. He also has 27 doubles the most in the majors, although doubles won't count on July 8.
Need a little extra hype? This Bell blast into the river should help:
Josh Bell just keeps crushing baseballs. #dkps #pirates pic.twitter.com/NfPDu0uJZS
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPghSports) May 8, 2019
