Through 9 games with AAA Norfolk, Bell was off to a pretty dismal start hitting just .094/.256/.250. However, when the Orioles acquired him from the Dodgers in 2009 along with Steve Johnson in exchange for George Sherrill, Bell was highly thought of as a prospect. In 2009, Bell had a nice season in AA with an OPS of .933. And in 2010, he was less good in AAA but still had an OPS of .803. That got him a call up to the majors in July where he would basically be the Orioles starting third baseman for the rest of the season. He received 161 plate appearances to prove himself that year. What did he do with this opportunity? He just slashed .214/.224/.302 with 53 SO and 2 BB. Yes, 2 BB in 161 PA's. His 1.2 BB% is the lowest I can remember seeing from a major league player.
This earned him a return engagement at AAA where he had moderate success, remembered how to walk a little bit and had an OPS of .758. But when he was called up to the Orioles in 2011, it was more of the same except his K% actually went up to 38.5%. In total, he received 226 major league plate appearances and had a 2.7 BB% and a 34.5 K%. It's next to impossible to succeed in the majors with rates like that. So, the Orioles designated him for assignment to make room on the 40 man roster for Luis Exposito, who was waived himself by the Boston Red Sox. I suppose the Orioles thought they needed more minor league catching depth. In a few days, they worked out the deal with the Diamondbacks where they're not guaranteed to get a player back. They may just get cash.
The interesting part of this is that once Josh Bell was traded to the Diamondbacks, the AAA Norfolk team needed a third baseman. So what did they do? The team went out and signed 32 year old utility man Bill Hall. Hall signed with the Yankees prior to spring training this year and was pretty excited about it; after he signed with the Yankees, he tweeted:
IT’S OFFICIAL IM A YANKEE!!!!!!!!#IwannaRing!!!!But he didn't make the Yankees major league roster out of spring training so he opted out of his contract and has been a free agent since. Hall has had some previous success in the major leagues, but he hasn't been an above average major league player since he hit 35 home runs in 2006 with the Brewers. At this point, it's pretty clear that was a fluke. Right now, he may be a decent utility player because he can play a few different positions around the infield and maybe even a little outfield. For the Red Sox in 2010, he played every position on the diamond except for catcher and first base. So he's got that going for him.
— Bill Hall (@BillHall_III) February 7, 2012
To me, this move signals that the team had given up hope that Josh Bell would be a productive major leaguer and also means that the team is unhappy with the defense they've been getting from the third base position. They're willing to look under any and all rocks to try to find someone that's capable of playing third base and not be terrible at it. Betemit and Reynolds have each taken turns looking horrendous at third so far. There are even rumors that the Orioles are considering Brandon Inge. I sincerely hope that doesn't come to fruition as Inge hasn't hit major league pitching in years.
Hall is off to a nice start with Norfolk, going 0 for 4 with 4 strikeouts in his first game. At the end of the day, the team probably won't call up Hall unless they suffer a rash of injuries. So he's really just roster depth for the infield, primarily at third base. These days, that seems to be the primary focus of the Orioles front office.
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