Tuesday, March 24, 2009

1989 Topps Major League Debut #13: Juan Bell



Juan Bell

PHOTO: For some odd reason, I didn't know until after Bell retired that he is the younger brother of George Bell, which is pretty obvious from the above photo as they bear quite a resemblance to each other. Want to see? Check out the elder Bell's 1988 Topps All-star card.

STAT: The Baseball-Reference PI is down right now as 1954 and 1955 are being added to the database, so I can't search on this. However, I noticed that Bell began his career with two seasons where he didn't get on base at all and produced an OPS+ of -100. True, he appeared in only 13 games total, but it's still pretty impressive.

CAREER: 1/10

Bell had a very disappointing career, especially as one of the star prospects the Orioles acquired when they traded Eddie Murray to the Dodgers. Bell was fairly unusual in that he was really bad with both his bat and his glove.

4 comments:

  1. Ah yes, Juan Bell. My cousin, who was a toddler at the time, called him "One Bell". It made perfect sense to him, since Juan used to wear #1.

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  2. One of the few trades the Dodgers made in the '90s that worked out.

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  3. Juan Bell, Rich Murray, Wilton Guerrero, Mike Maddux. I'd have to say out of this group (that just came to mind) Juan is definitely the least of the little brothers.

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  4. Tommy Aaron, Dom DiMaggio, Bill Ripken, Matt & Jesus Alou....

    See here for a complete list:

    http://www.baseball-almanac.com/family/fam1.shtml

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