Daniel Bard
Daniel Paul Bard (born June 25, 1985, in Houston, Texas) is a baseball pitcher for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Bard, a junior, is considered one of the top prospects in college baseball.
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 North Carolina 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 4.55 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 selection in the 2005 Cape Cod League after a successful summer with the Wareham Gatemen. Bard and fellow North Carolina left-hander Andrew Miller were rated the top two prospects in the Cape Cod League.
As of October 2005, Baseball America listed Bard as one of the top five prospects for the 2006 Major League Baseball draft [1].
Selected in the first round of the Amatuer draft by the Boston Red Sox June 6, 2006