Poor Mark Prior
By
Zeldink
Posted at 8:34 pm
With reports of Mark Prior's fastball reaching the mid-80's on a good day, I thought it would be a good time to check out the current Cubs news.
And here's what I found. Apparently, Prior is performing so poorly that there's talk of him spending time in minor league camp to bolster his confidence. Ouch.
Goatriders had a great take on that:
Hey, I'm just surprised they didn't try this sooner. I know that whenever my confidence is shaky, going to the local middle school and beating up on some 13-year-olds always helps me feel better about myself.
So Mark Prior again won't help the Cubs this year.
The team is better than last year, but I don't see them being in the competition for the Central title. Nope. It's Spring enough that I'm expecting that to be a bitter fight between Cincinnati, Houston, and St. Louis.
Two reasons I think that’s a bad idea: 1) does it really bolster your cofidence to get sent to the minor league camp? and 2) what if he still gets smacked around? Even minor leaguers can hit a 83-mph fastball.
Prior killed me in my keeper fantasy league the past two seasons. I thought I was sitting pretty with him and Sheets at the top of my rotation, and Harang turned out to be my best pitcher by far. So I am no longer fixated on high velocity and ridiculous K:BB ratios, because those guys get hurt all the time and flame out. harang just throws his nice steady fastball, not over powering but sneaky fast and if properly placed a strikeout pitch as we saw last year when he led the league in Ks. He just keeps getting better and better while these other guys get all the media hype but are lucky to stay off the DL.
If Prior didn’t kill you, Sheets would have. :laugh:
FWIW, many of our NL Central rivals do seem to be having their problems right now.
In St. Louis, Encarnacion will start the year on the DL and I just read where Edmonds may be joining him. And we already knew about the uncertainty surrounding their starting rotation.
In Houston, where the starting pitching also took a step back with Pettitte and Clemens leaving, Woody Williams has been battling elbow soreness much of the spring.
The Cubs have Wade Miller, Angel Guzman and Prior (two medical disasters and a guy who was 0-6, 7.39 last year) battling for the #5 slot in the rotation. Prior’s been throwing mostly 85-88 MPH. And although it may come as a total shock to you, and you may want to sit down for this news – Wood is also sidelined indefinitely right now.
This division is wide open – again.
HMZ
Yeah, I’m not worried about the Cubs. At least they’re not relying on Prior and Wood like they have in years past. It was a complete waste to resign Wood, but “complete waste” seems to have been the modus operandi for the Cubs in the offseason.