Chad Bell believes he still has a ton of ceiling left to tap.
Pulaski third baseman Chad Bell had a very solid debut season this year, batting .251 with nine home runs in just 55 games. While he is the first one to admit there are some things he needs to work on going forward, he can’t help but feel he opened some eyes inside the organization and he can’t wait to get after it once again.
“I think it went pretty good,” Bell said. “Definitely for my first season I now know what to expect, things to work on, how the game has changed between college and pro, but for the most part I’m happy with it.”
He finished with the second most home runs in the short-season leagues for the Yankees [second only behind Ezequiel Duran who had 13], not bad for a 19th round pick this year.
“I feel like I came out of nowhere a little bit,” he said. “I went to JUCO one year and then Louisiana-Monroe for three years. I didn’t have the years I wanted to my sophomore and junior years but I was lucky to have the senior season that I did and the Yankees gave me an opportunity.
“I was able to have a pretty good start to my pro career so I think I was able to open up some eyes, which I am happy about.”
While he is happy about breaking out somewhat, he still can’t help but feel that he can tweak his game in a number of different areas and continue to improve overall.
“I’ve got to make some adjustments now and get ready for the next season,” he admitted. “I need to be able to recognize that tomorrow is a new day and that there’s a new game every single day pretty much, and if you have a bad game you need to shake it off, show up to the park the next day, and make the adjustments to be able to perform at a higher level.”
Keeping his emotions in-check is part of the maturation process. He says though he does need a bit more exposure to professional pitching to get further acclimated too.
“In college it was more guys throwing 90 mph with one good [secondary pitch] but now guys are throwing even harder with better offspeed so I’ve got to go up there with a better plan,” he continued. “I need to look for a particular pitch, stay with that pitch, and if I don’t get that pitch don’t be afraid to take.
“I chased a bit too much this year. I think that’s the big thing, to be able to go up there and better execute my plan.
“For me I’m looking for a pitch to drive. I want to go up – I’m an aggressive hitter so I want to hit earlier in the count but that also gets me into trouble sometimes – but earlier in the count I’m looking for a pitch that I can drive, do some damage with.
“That doesn’t necessarily work the whole time so I guess I need to be more ready for the fastball this upcoming season because I saw a lot more of those than I did in college.”
He says he’d also like to not be so pull-dominant heading into his first full season in 2020 too, a facet of the game he and the Yankee coaching staff worked on during Instructional League earlier this offseason.
“In college I hit a lot of my home runs more to the back side and this season [in Pulaski] I kind of got away from that a little bit. This offseason I’m focusing on staying up the middle and use the big part of the field.
“I think at times I got too big and when I try to the pull ball I see that I don’t play as well. I just don’t have the at-bats that I’m happy with [when I pull the ball]. When I’m really going well I’m thinking big part of the field, using left-center and right-center more than pull.
“Mainly being able to put myself in a position to pick up the ball early and be able to sit my zone, and if it wasn’t in my zone just take it. That was the big focus [at Instructs].
“It was mainly offensive stuff. I know my strikeout rate was too high for pretty much everybody’s liking. I just did different drills to help with my pitch selection and that’ll be my main focus for next season.”
Defensively he says he is very happy about his play lately. In fact, he says this is the best defense he has ever played. He would still like to improve his range, however, and get better in his first-burst jumps, and that requires a bit better conditioning.
“I sat down with our nutritionist. I’m trying to improve my diet and be prepared for Spring Training, get my body ready for a long season. But with that I still want to get bigger, faster, stronger, etc. You can never be too fast or too strong in my opinion.
“I actually started back up a couple of weeks ago, hitting the weight room and hitting. I am trying to get my body in good shape when Spring Training rolls around.”
Bell feels like he still has a bunch of ceiling left in nearly every area of his game. He thinks he can get bigger, stronger, and faster, and he believes he can be a much better hitter too. Given the tools he already has and coming off a solid debut season like the one he had, he can’t help but be excited about his first full season in 2020.
“I got a lot of experience, I got to play with some really good players in our organization and against some really good players outside of our organization, I’ve seen what has worked for some guys, I went to Instructs in the fall and there was a lot of information given to us there so I think I’ve put myself in a really good position to have a good season next year.
“I’m very excited. It’s weird not being in college and not having a fall season so this is like the first time in my life where I haven’t played baseball for an extended period of time. I’m anxious to get started again so I’m excited to get back to Tampa and get going with Spring Training,” Bell concluded.