| abstract | - Daniel Paul Bard (born June 25, 1985, in Houston, Texas) is a right-handed baseball pitcher in the Boston Red Sox organization. Bard was the first round (28th overall) pick of the Red Sox in 2006 Amateur baseball draft. At the midpoint of the 2004 season, Baseball America named Bard the top freshman pitcher in the U.S. and gave him Freshman All-America honors. For the entire season, Bard was named to Baseball America's All-Freshman second team and was named as Freshman All-America by Collegiate Baseball. He was Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Freshman of the Year and earned first-team all-conference honors. In 16 games pitched, Bard was 8-4 with a 3.88 ERA; his eight wins tied the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill freshman record. For the 2005 season, Bard was named preseason first-team All-America by Baseball America and was named preseason third-team All-America by Collegiate Baseball and by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. Bard went 7-5 with a 4.22 ERA in 16 starts and was third in the ACC in opponents' batting average at .219. He was named to the Roger Clemens Award Watch List. Bard was a second-team summer All-American selection in 2005 Cape Cod League after a successful summer with the Wareham Gatemen, where he led the league in innings pitched and strikeouts while finishing 3rd in ERA. Bard and fellow North Carolina left-hander Andrew Miller were rated the top two prospects in the Cape Cod League. He finished his junior year with a 9-4 record and a 3.64 ERA in 17 starts. He earned ACC pitcher of the week honors twice during the 2006 season. On June 6, 2006, Bard was selected in the first round (28th overall) of the Amateur draft by the Boston Red Sox. On September 4, Bard signed with the team. Bard admitted that he had enrolled in classes at UNC as a backup plan in case a deal with the Red Sox was not finalized in time.. Bard had been previously selected in the 20th round with the 604th overall selection out of high school by the New York Yankees in the 2003 MLB First-Year Player Draft, but did not sign. He is currently rated the #4 prospect in the Red Sox organization by Baseball America. After a disappointing 2007 season spent playing for the Greenville Drive and Lancaster Jethawks, Bard had a spactacular 2008 season spending most of it with the double-A Portland Sea Dogs. He posted a 1.51 ERA and had 107 strikeouts in 77.2 innings of work, and was named the Boston Red Sox 2008 Minor League Pitcher of the Year, an award that has been given to current Red Sox Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz in recent years.
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