BY DANIEL BARBARISI
FORT MYERS, Fla. –– Every winter, the Red Sox bring the organization’s best prospects to Boston to get taste of the city and learn a little about what it will take to be big-leaguers.
Then the team brings most of those players to spring training as non-roster invitees. As the spring wears on, they are inevitably cut from camp, usually reasonably early.
Daniel Bard watched as nameplates were taken off the lockers around him, a couple every few days until all 12 others in that program were gone. He looked around and realized he was the last one remaining from the winter camp.
But how could the Red Sox send him down? The lanky reliever has been perhaps the most talked-about player in camp, with his 100-mph fastball and effortless dominance on the mound.
Boston’s bullpen was so rigidly set coming into spring training that there was clearly no place for Bard. But on other teams, he would no doubt be fast-tracked to the major leagues to start the season.
“Hopefully, I opened some eyes,” Bard said after he was sent down yesterday afternoon.
Bard was picked in the first round of the 2006 draft, but suffered through a miserable 2007 as the team tried to tinker with his arm angle and he adjusted to pitching in the minor leagues. He turned it around in 2008, but some still remembered that first year in pro ball and wondered if the University of North Carolina product would fulfill his potential.
This spring, Bard hasn’t just silenced the doubters, he’s made it seem strange that there ever were doubters.
Bard threw 9 1/3 innings in spring training. He allowed six hits, walked three, and threw one wild pitch. He struck out 12, and at times seemed so overpowering and composed that it appeared that he was the experienced veteran.
With that kind of success, the expectation is that he’ll be in Boston at some point soon, either when the first injury strikes the bullpen, or perhaps by June or July regardless.
“I hope so. I think the big thing missing is experience. Whether that’s a month, two months, another season in the minors, we’ll see. That’s not for me to decide,” he said.
Manager Terry Francona has spent much of camp answering questions about Bard and his fastball.
“He’s had a good camp. He’s a good young prospect. At some point, he needs to go pitch,” he said.
Bard knew the cut was coming. When he saw the lockers around him empty out and he was the last prospect remaining, it was only a matter of time.
Source: Projo.com
Then the team brings most of those players to spring training as non-roster invitees. As the spring wears on, they are inevitably cut from camp, usually reasonably early.
Daniel Bard watched as nameplates were taken off the lockers around him, a couple every few days until all 12 others in that program were gone. He looked around and realized he was the last one remaining from the winter camp.
But how could the Red Sox send him down? The lanky reliever has been perhaps the most talked-about player in camp, with his 100-mph fastball and effortless dominance on the mound.
Boston’s bullpen was so rigidly set coming into spring training that there was clearly no place for Bard. But on other teams, he would no doubt be fast-tracked to the major leagues to start the season.
“Hopefully, I opened some eyes,” Bard said after he was sent down yesterday afternoon.
Bard was picked in the first round of the 2006 draft, but suffered through a miserable 2007 as the team tried to tinker with his arm angle and he adjusted to pitching in the minor leagues. He turned it around in 2008, but some still remembered that first year in pro ball and wondered if the University of North Carolina product would fulfill his potential.
This spring, Bard hasn’t just silenced the doubters, he’s made it seem strange that there ever were doubters.
Bard threw 9 1/3 innings in spring training. He allowed six hits, walked three, and threw one wild pitch. He struck out 12, and at times seemed so overpowering and composed that it appeared that he was the experienced veteran.
With that kind of success, the expectation is that he’ll be in Boston at some point soon, either when the first injury strikes the bullpen, or perhaps by June or July regardless.
“I hope so. I think the big thing missing is experience. Whether that’s a month, two months, another season in the minors, we’ll see. That’s not for me to decide,” he said.
Manager Terry Francona has spent much of camp answering questions about Bard and his fastball.
“He’s had a good camp. He’s a good young prospect. At some point, he needs to go pitch,” he said.
Bard knew the cut was coming. When he saw the lockers around him empty out and he was the last prospect remaining, it was only a matter of time.
Source: Projo.com
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