Josh Bell, a first baseman and right fielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates, has taken the 2019 MLB season by storm, posting incredible numbers through the first half of the season, landing him a spot on the National League's All-Star team. In just his third full season in the majors, Bell is having his best season despite being on an underwhelming Pirates club that is not expected to make the postseason.

Bell made his debut in 2016 and played 45 games as a 23-year-old for the black and gold. In 2017, his first full season, he finished third in rookie of the year voting and posted 26 homers, quite an impressive campaign. His 2018 season was a step back, as his home runs and RBIs dipped significantly. Coming into 2019, there was little expectation for Bell, making this start even more surprising and incredible.

Bell's most recent outstanding performance came at home on July 1st against the Chicago Cubs in which he hit three home runs and had seven RBIs in an 18-5 win. It was the first time that a Pirates player had recorded this stat line since legend Willie Stargell in 1968. After the performance, Bell has now recorded 4 multi-home run games this season after recording zero in his first three MLB seasons.

As of July 3rd, the switch hitter is leading the entire MLB in RBIs (runs batted in) with 87 and doubles with 29, and is also tied for 4th in the league with 25 home runs in addition to being 6th in runs scored with 65. His .306 batting average through 83 games is 45 points better than last year, where he batted just .261. His previous career-high in home runs was just 26 in 159 total games in 2017, meaning that he is well on his way to surpassing that this season. He will make his first appearance in the upcoming All-Star Home Run Derby on July 8th.

Despite the incredible start to the season for the power hitter from Texas, he is attracting little attention from the national media and the casual baseball fan. Part of this is due to the fact that Bell's Pirates are 41-43 in a weak NL Central Division. While just 4 games back of the division-leading Milwaukee Brewers, Pittsburgh is expected to miss the postseason and has not won a series since their 1979 World Series win. In addition, Pittsburgh is a small market by MLB standards, as the metropolitan area has just 2.3 million people, 27th largest in the nation.

Bell is just 26 years old, relatively young by baseball standards. It is quite possible that this outburst is just the start of an incredible individual career for him. Many including myself hope that he gets to play for a contending team in Pittsburgh or elsewhere because it would be a shame for his talent to be wasted as Mike Trout's has for the Angels. With baseball being a team sport where one or two individuals cannot win the majority of games for their team, unlike in basketball, it is important for the Pirates management led by General Manager Neal Huntington to build a competitive club around the slugger before he leaves in free agency.