Sox kicking up their heels over UNC's Bard
NEW YORK -- Red Sox scout Jeff Zona, whose coverage area includes North Carolina, assumed he was just going through the motions when he set up a meeting before the start of the college baseball season with Andrew Miller and Daniel Bard, star pitchers for the University of North Carolina. Both Miller, a 6-foot-7-inch lefthander considered a potential No. 1 pick, and Bard, a 6-4 right hander who last summer was the best pitcher in the Cape Cod League, figured to be long gone by the time the Sox drafted.
``We were all kind of laughing while they were filling out forms for me," Zona said after the Sox had taken Bard with the 28th pick of yesterday's amateur draft, one pick after they'd chosen high school outfielder Jason Place. ``I told `em, `Maybe we'll get you in a trade someday.' They all laughed.
``This was at 8 o'clock in the morning. As the guys were walking out, in comes Peter Gammons, who was there for some kind of alumni event or something. He said, `What are you doing, talking to those guys?' Nice surprise, to get such a big arm. Picking down where we are, you don't expect it to happen, but you've got to be prepared for it. It's a bonus."
As predicted, Miller went early, Detroit grabbing him with the sixth overall pick. Meanwhile, Bard was at a Chapel Hill restaurant with his parents, following the first round on a computer. ``I was on the phone with the Cardinals," he said, ``and all of a sudden the guy says, `Congratulations,' and gets off the phone.
``I guess the computer was a little bit behind on the draft, because we were only up to the 20th pick. Every pick after that, I was watching it, thinking it would be me. As I was slipping, I was hoping it would be to the Red Sox."
Why should a Tar Heel born in Texas be rooting to go to the Sox?
It so happens that Bard's father, Paul, is from Worcester, and his mother, Kathy, is from Reading. Paul was a catcher at Tufts and was drafted in the sixth round in 1980 by the Dodgers. One scout who helped in drafting Paul Bard was Buzz Bowers, who as a semi-retired scouting consultant for the Sox watched Daniel Bard pitch last summer for the Wareham Gatemen in the Cape League, which he led in strikeouts (82 in 65 IP).
``My grandparents are in Reading, I have an aunt and uncle in Shrewsbury," Bard said yesterday. ``Believe it or not, I really started following the Sox when I was 9 or 10, and have really followed them closely the last couple of years."
Bard, who is scheduled to pitch for North Carolina Saturday in the College World Series Super Regionals in Tuscaloosa, Ala., might never have fallen to the Sox if he hadn't hit a rough patch that began with an outing against Maryland (nine earned runs on 10 hits). In his next three starts, against Georgia Tech, Florida State, and Miami, he allowed nine more runs on nine walks and 11 hits in 12 innings. But he quickly righted himself, perhaps his best outing a shutout of North Carolina State.
``He had his ups and downs, but maybe we don't get him if he didn't have those downs," Zona said. ``But he had a lot of real good ups. He throws a lot of four-seamers that ride up in the zone, and a devastating breaking ball when it's working."
Last season, when St. John's University product Craig Hansen fell to the 26th overall pick because other clubs were scared off by his adviser, Scott Boras, the Sox took a pitcher they felt would get to the big leagues in a hurry. He made a cameo in September, and was back last night, an emergency call-up from Pawtucket. Then there's Jonathan Papelbon, another college pitcher (Mississippi State) who was in the big leagues two years after being drafted in the fourth round in 2003.
``I'd like to follow right in those guys' footsteps," Bard said.
Meanwhile, in Albuquerque, where he'd been invited to play in a high school all-star game, Place, 18, couldn't wait to go back home to South Carolina so he could sign with the Sox and begin his pro career. ``High school? I was ready to get out. It's like being released from prison," he said. ``To be drafted by the Sox is just awesome. I know they've got the best fans in the world and play in the best park in the world. I'm speechless."
The 6-3, 200-pound right handed hitter, who played center field in high school but projects as a right fielder because of his strong throwing arm (his fastball was clocked at 92 miles per hour as a pitcher) is from the small town of Easley, S.C., which is in Pickens County. Another raw-boned country boy who hailed from Pickens County: Shoeless Joe Jackson.
Place, whose family lives 20 minutes from the ballpark where Boston's Class A affiliate, the Greenville Drive, plays its home games, worked out at Fenway Park earlier this month. ``I hit a couple of balls over the Monster," he said. ``I turned around, looked at the scouts, and smiled."
