18 Days Until Spring Training!
When the Met signed Byrdak on the 19th of January, I was wondering why his name sounded so familiar. After looking up his stats on Baseball Reference, I realized that he was on the Baltimore Orioles when I started to write this blog, and back then, since I was relying pretty much on Baltimore Newspapers to get by, I was very familiar with the Orioles club (now-a-days, I can hardly tell you about their pitching staff, but I think most people from Baltimore are in the same boat on that one, as the pitching staff nearly has a full turnover every season).
Anyways, Byrdak doesn't look to be a major component of this years pen (yet). The veteran (37 year old) has played nine seasons in the big leagues all as a reliever (343 games in those nine seasons). His career numbers look good though as he has pitched 266.2 innings with a 4.35 ERA. What has held him back in his career are injuries. He is another one of those players in camp that with a good Spring Training, could probably surprise his way onto the roster. Working against him is his minor league contract and non-40 man status, so if it comes down to similar players with similar numbers, he might lose out just on that. Anyway here are some objective numbers from the last two seasons.
2010 – 64 G, 38.2 IP, 3.49 ERA, 20 BB, 29 K
2009 – 76 G, 61.1 IP, 3.23 ERA, 36 BB, 58 K
As it stands, I wouldn't mind seeing him on the team as in the last three seasons he has appeared in at least 59 games and has an ERA under 4, which is very consistent as relievers are concerned.
Byrdak also brings a wealth of other stories with him. In 2003 he faced a 77 year old, Minnie Minoso, and according to his Wikipedia article, when was with the Tigers (2007), he worked the overnight shift at Target. (No Reference Though).
