A Game Byrd

It wasn’t so much a prediction as an extrapolation:

If new Angel pitcher Paul Byrd feels better now than he did when he went 17-11 with a 3.90 earned-run average for a 100-loss Kansas City team in 2002, then he should be even more successful with a superior Angel team that is expected to repeat as American League West champions in 2005.

“With this defense and offense, there’s no reason I shouldn’t win 20 games,” said Byrd, a 34-year-old right-hander who missed the 2003 season because of elbow ligament-replacement surgery. “I should be better because I’ll have the same stuff, with the addition of a sinker and a curve, and playing for a team that’s really good.”

Bold talk for a No. 5 starter -- can you name a 20-game winner who was considered a fifth starter? -- but Byrd feels that confident.

“I feel like the Angels are going to get a better Paul Byrd than the Royals got in 2002 because I’m healed up, I’m fixed, I’ve gained some velocity, and I feel I’m a better pitcher,” he said. “I feel like I’m 18 again, like I have a new transmission.”

A National League All-Star when he went 15-11 with a 4.60 earned-run average for Philadelphia in 1999, Byrd was even better in 2002, when he led the American League with seven complete games, threw a career-high 228 1/3 innings and provided one of the few bright spots for a dreadful Royal team that finished fourth in the AL Central, 32 1/2 games behind Minnesota.

But as good as Byrd was in 2002, he didn’t have the crisp sinker he’d had in the minor leagues in the early 1990s, and he had trouble with his curve. The next spring, after signing a two-year, $10-million deal with Atlanta, he found out why.

Byrd was throwing sinkers to Brave pitching coach Leo Mazzone and on one pitch felt as if he’d “hit my elbow on the door, like when you hit your funny bone,” Byrd said. Doctors thought Byrd might need some bone chips removed but eventually determined he’d need major surgery.

While performing the “Tommy John” procedure that July, a hole was discovered in Byrd’s elbow that “the doctor said he could stick his pinkie through,” Byrd said. “It had been there for years. It explained a lot because I could never throw a sinker, and my curve was not as good.

“I hurt my arm in 1992, and the MRI test did not show a tear. MRI tests are 90% accurate. I was the one in 10.”

Recovery time for ligament-replacement surgery ranges from 12 to 18 months. Byrd was activated last June 19 -- about a year after surgery -- and pitched well in his first 11 starts for the Braves, going 4-4 with a 4.11 ERA despite a fastball that hovered around 85 mph.

His success belied his struggles. He couldn’t throw in the bullpen between starts, and his discomfort was so severe, “I couldn’t comb my hair or brush my teeth between starts,” Byrd said. “The first couple of months you pitch after surgery, you don’t know whether you’re going to make your next start.

“I talked to John Smoltz and Horacio Ramirez, who had been through the surgery, and they said to just survive this year, and next year you’ll be in business. Just hang on because you don’t have your good stuff, and you can’t turn it loose on sliders.”

He began to feel better late in August and reeled off a seven-start string in which he went 4-2 with a 2.21 ERA. His last game of the season was a flop, though. Byrd, who finished with an 8-7 record, gave up nine runs in four innings against the Chicago Cubs, an outing that raised his ERA from 3.34 to 3.94.

But the Angels were still impressed enough with his mental makeup, stuff and speed -- his fastball was hitting 90 mph by the end of 2004 -- to sign him to a one-year, $5-million contract.

“I remember a guy who was very competitive, who had the look of wanting to battle, and from what our scouts say, his velocity is up,” pitching coach Bud Black said.

Byrd’s stuff is not what Manager Mike Scioscia would call “electric,” but he throws a sinking fastball, cut fastball, slider, curve, changeup and screwball.

He changes speeds and arm angles, works quickly and efficiently, throws strikes, and has a reputation for going deep into games. He has been impressive so far this spring, giving up four hits over five innings in his first two exhibition starts and inducing more ground balls with his sinker.

“He gets outs,” Scioscia said. “He gives you a chance to win.”

Byrd had fan clubs in Philadelphia and Kansas City -- on the days he pitched, teenagers congregated in the upper deck wearing feathers on their arms, rubber bird beaks, and hats that looked like nests.

“They cheered for me when I was doing well,” Byrd said, “and they cheered for me when I stunk it up.”

It remains to be seen whether Byrd will generate such a following in Anaheim, but the Angels didn’t sign him as a marketing tool. They’re confident he will stabilize the fifth spot in a rotation that received uneven production from Ramon Ortiz and Aaron Sele last season.

“The thing he’s going to bring is, when it’s his day to pitch, there’s an intensity to his game that is infectious, a real positive energy that he exudes,” Black said. “He might not have been the type of player people viewed as a star, but he’s battled the whole way through his career, and that’s a tribute to him.”

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The Career

Paul Byrd’s pitching statistics:

*--* YR. TM G IP W L ERA ’95 NYM 17 22.0 2 0 2.05 ’96 NYM 38 46.2 1 2 4.24 ’97 Atl. 31 53.0 4 4 5.26 ’98 Atl. 1 2.0 0 0 13.50 ’98 Atl/Phi. 9 57.0 5 2 2.68 ’99 Phi. 32 199.2 15 11 4.60 ’00 Phi. 17 83.0 2 9 6.51 ’01 KC 16 93.1 6 6 4.05 ’01 Phi./KC 3 10.0 0 1 8.10 ’02 KC 33 228.1 17 11 3.90 ’04 Atl. 19 114.1 8 7 3.94 Totals 215 907.1 60 53 4.34

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Notes -- Selected to the National League All-Star team in 1999. Byrd sat out the 2003 season because of an elbow injury.