April 3, 2007
Cullowhee, N.C. -
Former Western Carolina pitcher Jared Burton became the latest Catamount to make it to baseball's Big Show. Burton was officially named to the Cincinnati Reds active roster in the bullpen following the close of spring training this past Sunday.
With Burton making the major league club, Western Carolina is again the only school in the Southern Conference which boasts players in each of the MLB, NBA (Kevin Martin, Sacramento Kings) and NFL (Brad Hoover, Carolina Panthers).
Burton, the 56th Catamount taken since 1967, was the 248th pick in the 2002 MLB draft, selected in the eighth round by the Oakland A's. This season, Cincinnati selected him with their 15th pick of the Rule 5 draft. As a result, he must remain on the Reds' 25-man active roster or major league disabled list all season or be offered back to the A's.
While at Western, the Westminster, S.C., native pitched 244.2 career innings to rank 15th all-time in the school's record book. His 212 career strikeouts continues to rank 10th all-time, while also recording the fifth-best strikeout-to-walk ratio at 2.49. Burton posted a banner year as a junior in 2002 when he started 15 games, which is tied for the 10th-most in a single-season, and pitched 103 innings, ninth-most in a year. He recorded 105 strikeouts in '02 - second in the SoCon and sixth in the WCU record books - while holding opponents to a .256 batting average.
Having never played Triple A ball, Burton posted a 6-5 record with a 4.14 ERA primarily as a reliever for the Class AA Midland Rockhounds last season. The big right-hander struck out 66 and walked 24 in 74 innings of work, allowing less than one hit per inning pitched (71). In 2005, Burton saved 24 games for Class A Stockton.
In the most recent Arizona Fall League (AFL), Burton helped lead the Phoenix Desert Dogs to a championship, holding opposing hitters to a .213 batting average. All told, Burton tossed 252.1 innings in minor league action.
Story on Jared Burton from the Asheville Citizen-Times:
Former Catamount makes Reds' roster
