Red Sox Acquire Paul Byrd from Cleveland
RED SOX ACQUIRE RIGHTHANDED PITCHER
PAUL BYRD
FROM CLEVELAND INDIANS FOR A PLAYER TO BE NAMED
LATER
OR CASH
CONSIDERATIONS
The announcement was made by Executive Vice
President/General Manager Theo Epstein.
Byrd, 37, has been added to Boston’s 40-man roster. The
Red Sox will make a corresponding move on the active roster once Byrd reports to
the club.
Byrd is 7-10 with a 4.53 earned run average
in 22 starts with the Indians in 2008. The righthander ranks second on the
Indians staff in wins, starts, and innings (131.0) and has issued just 1.6 walks
per nine innings, the eighth best ratio in the American League.
He has won all four of his starts since the
All-Star break with a 1.24 ERA (4 ER/29.0 IP) to lower his season ERA from 5.47
to 4.53. Byrd is tied for the major league lead in wins since the break and has
the second lowest ERA among pitchers with at least 20.0 innings behind
Arizona’s
Randy Johnson (0.66). He has worked at least 7.0 innings in each of his last
three starts, allowing six hits in going the route to win at Toronto, 4-2 in his last
appearance on August 9. Byrd has not allowed a home run in his last five starts
with a 1.80 ERA (7 ER/25.0 IP) in that span.
Byrd has a career major league record of
104-91 in 330 games/242 starts with the New York Mets (1995-96), Atlanta (1997-98; 2004), Philadelphia (1998-2001), Kansas
City (2001-02), Los Angeles Angels (2005), and Cleveland (2006-08). He has
won 10 or more games five times, including four of the previous five seasons
(2002-07). Byrd has issued just 2.12 walks per nine innings in his career, the
sixth lowest figure among active major league pitchers with at least 1,500
innings. He was a member of the 1999 N.L. All-Star Team with the
Phillies.
Byrd established career bests for wins
(17), starts (33), innings (228.1), and strikeouts (129) with Kansas City in 2002. Last
season, he was 15-8 with a 4.59 ERA in 31 starts for the A.L. Central Division
champion Indians and led the A.L. with a ratio of 1.31 walks per nine innings.
Byrd was 2-0, 3.60 in his two post-season starts, including a 7-3 victory over
the Red Sox in Game 4 of the ALCS on October 16 in Cleveland. He also won the
fourth and deciding game of the ALDS on October 8 at New
York.
PAUL BYRD—2008 AND MAJOR
LEAGUE CAREER
W-L ERA G GS CG SHO SV IP H
R ER BB SO
2008—CLE 7-10 4.53 22
22 1 0 0 131.1 146 70 66
24 56
ML Career 104-91 4.37 330
242 17 6 0 1614.0 1752 881 783
235 886