Prior on an "accelerated" schedule

[Guest]

A question to all the people here criticizing Prior: Have you ever pitched? I'm just curious because I know that when I used to pitch my shoulder would be sore every time. But when I injured my shoulder I knew right away that something wasn't "right".

 

We worry about Mark & Carlos' pitch counts because they're health is the future of this franchise. We want the Cubs to be very protective of those arms and we rightly criticize them when they play too loose with their health.

 

I'm quite sure that all the pitchers on the staff, but particularly those guys (along with Wood) are under strict orders to report any pain they feel outside of normal soreness and the Cubs take it very seriously. I'm not happy that Prior had shoulder pain. I am happy with how the Cubs reacted and I'm happy that Prior reported the pain instead of being an idiot and trying to "tough it out".

[brinoch]

Well, I offered the alternative conclusion that he is weak bodied. The proof is that you cannot find one pitcher who has pitched during Prior's career that has had 5 similar injuries to the ones I linked.

 

Well, in the past two years of playing soccer, I've had a lot of injuries. Not counting the inevitable scrapes, bruises, and burns, here's the list:

 

1. strained left hamstring

2. broken upper right right rib

3. strained left groin

4. severely strained lower back (spasms included)

5. bruised right rib cage

6. sprained/torn right rotator cuff

7. Hyper-extended right elbow

8. severely sprained left ankle (re-"tweaked" twice in last three weeks)

 

With the broken rib, I played, but out of position. I missed time for the back. I played with bruised ribs, though I took myself out of the game it occurred. The torn rotator cuff prevented me from throwing the ball, and I missed significant time. I missed one game with the sprained ankle after I reinjured it landing on another player's foot. In baseball terms, I've had the equivalent of at least 4 DL stints (probably 5) in two years.

 

Can you find a soccer player with a similar list? And if not, what the heck does that mean?

 

So, am I injury prone? Getting too old? Klutzy? Reckless? A wimp? Unlucky?

 

The fact is that you simply don't know. You don't have a clue -- and you'll never know. Only I know, and perhaps my doctor. I feel the pain, and I can track the healing. I know when I can play, and when I can't. If I'm unsure, I ask my doctor and he lets me know. I have a game on Sunday, and I'm not sure I'm playing -- though I want to play. Am I pushing my recovery too quickly? Or am I ready to go back and play? How would you -- how could you -- know?

 

Bill Frist tried to diagnose Terry Schiavo from a television screen. He was wrong. Let's not make the same mistake with Prior. Only he knows how his shoulder is healing. Calling him soft, injury-prone, and criticizing him for being injured so often doesn't mean anything. Pointing out his injuries doesn't make your assertion a fact.

 

By the way, I'm a goalie -- for both indoor and outdoor teams. If you've never played goalie, it's both challenging and dangerous. My team calls me the suicide goalie. Why? Because I give up my body for the team. Here's how I was injured:

 

1. Unknown. Running to cut off a run, the hammy popped.

2. Kick to ribs. Came out to make a diving save, earned a kick in the ribs, breaking one.

3. Unknown. Came out to punch a cross out of the box.

4. Deep mud. Goal mouth was a deep mud pit, and my cleats stuck as I tried to push off and run.

5. Kick to ribs. Same side same place, same kind of play as #2.

6. Unknown. Probably on a dive.

7. Collision. Came out on a corner cross to punch the ball and the player headed my elbow as I was extended to deflect the cross.

8. Rolled ankle. Landed funny on an easy play.

 

Being a major league pitcher is hard work. It's tough on the body. It's very hard on the elbow, the shoulder, the back, and it takes a lot of stamina. I doubt that Prior is soft. If anything, I suspect he tries to play through pain and the Cubs -- like my wife -- won't let him.

 

Is my comparison anecdotal? You're damn right. But not more anecdotal than your injury evidence.

[Andy]

Mark Prior is scheduled to throw off the mound on Friday for the first time since March 12. Two days after that March session, Prior felt pain in the back of his right shoulder and had to be shut down. He was diagnosed with a moderate strain in one of his rotator cuff muscles. Rothschild wanted to wait and see how Prior responds after the session before announcing the next step.

 

 

Cubs.com

That's great news. Keep up the progress, Mark. We need you!

[brinoch]

I have no problem with him being checked out, none whatsoever. I have no problem with him being shut down for 10 days. But as someone with a fair bit of experience with these types of injuries, I know you have some idea of what the problem is before you go to the doctor.

 

What I am sick of is the fact that we are never given an indication of the severity. Even immediately after an injury, most athletes can tell between "not normal, but probably minor" and "not normal, and possibly serious". That early differentiation is absolutely not unreasonable to expect.

 

When I tore my rotator cuff, I had no idea what was wrong. It was sore the next day, but overly sore. I figured that something happened a little out of the ordinary and it would be fine. Well, it only got worse -- but I still didn't know what it was. It felt like a burning knot in my shoulder. Finally (a day or two later) I went to the doctor who ran the usual tests. He thought it was bursitis, and prescribed me some meds to calm it down.

 

It didn't get better at all until extended rest, a cortisone injection and then lots of physical therapy and exercise. It's still not 100% back and this was like 9 months ago.

 

On the other hand, with my ankle I knew right away. Sometimes you know, sometimes you don't.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Of course not. That's what the tests are for. They correctly recognized it was not normal soreness and took the proper precautions. The tests confirmed that it was not normal. It turned out to absolutely be the right thing to do. How can he be criticized for doing the right thing?

 

Pitching through pain is almost always a pretty bad idea. Don't forget what trying to pitch through such an injury could do. If they didn't shut him down, he'd be putting his rotator cuff in danger and at the very least would almost certainly be behind where he is now.

 

Well, I think it has been made pretty clear that Prior misses more time to minor injuries than any other pitcher in the league. Until someone can present a pitcher who has had 5 injuries like Prior had, I conclude it to be true because I have a pretty good memory of every player and MLB season I've watched and I can't think of any. So whether it is right for the Cubs to shut him down each time he gets one of these injuries or he could have just played through some of them and never had any problems, there is a problem. He doesn't pitch enough.

 

You think having 5 minor injuries in 4 years is more than any other pitcher in the league?

 

How much time did he actually miss with those injuries? I count 1 each for two of the injuries, 5 for missing September of '02(games didn't matter, could've been back for his last 2 starts if necessary), and 10 for the 2004 beginning of the season, and this year.

[Jon]

Of course not. That's what the tests are for. They correctly recognized it was not normal soreness and took the proper precautions. The tests confirmed that it was not normal. It turned out to absolutely be the right thing to do. How can he be criticized for doing the right thing?

 

Pitching through pain is almost always a pretty bad idea. Don't forget what trying to pitch through such an injury could do. If they didn't shut him down, he'd be putting his rotator cuff in danger and at the very least would almost certainly be behind where he is now.

 

Well, I think it has been made pretty clear that Prior misses more time to minor injuries than any other pitcher in the league. Until someone can present a pitcher who has had 5 injuries like Prior had, I conclude it to be true because I have a pretty good memory of every player and MLB season I've watched and I can't think of any. So whether it is right for the Cubs to shut him down each time he gets one of these injuries or he could have just played through some of them and never had any problems, there is a problem. He doesn't pitch enough.

Nobody has had the same collection of injuries like Prior has had, but countless pitchers have had more non-fluke injuries than him. Since he was mentioned recently, how about Gagne? And Burnett's injury history has been more serious. How about Kerry Wood?

 

There are plenty.

[srbin84]

I really don't care about anything other than whether he makes most of his starts or not. If if he isn't, is he missing more time than the other pitchers in the league? Yes. Are most of his injuries considered relatively minor for pitchers by doctors? Yes. Is it the right thing to do to shut him down everytime he has one of these injuries? I don't know. I'm not a doctor. You can't dispute the fact that he misses way more starts and goes on the DL more often than other pitchters. This is bad because it forces us to play bums like Rusch, Koronka, etc. That's bad because it makes the Cubs lose games.

[Guest]

I have no problem with him being checked out, none whatsoever. I have no problem with him being shut down for 10 days. But as someone with a fair bit of experience with these types of injuries, I know you have some idea of what the problem is before you go to the doctor.

 

What I am sick of is the fact that we are never given an indication of the severity. Even immediately after an injury, most athletes can tell between "not normal, but probably minor" and "not normal, and possibly serious". That early differentiation is absolutely not unreasonable to expect.

 

When I tore my rotator cuff, I had no idea what was wrong. It was sore the next day, but overly sore. I figured that something happened a little out of the ordinary and it would be fine. Well, it only got worse -- but I still didn't know what it was. It felt like a burning knot in my shoulder. Finally (a day or two later) I went to the doctor who ran the usual tests. He thought it was bursitis, and prescribed me some meds to calm it down.

 

It didn't get better at all until extended rest, a cortisone injection and then lots of physical therapy and exercise. It's still not 100% back and this was like 9 months ago.

 

On the other hand, with my ankle I knew right away. Sometimes you know, sometimes you don't.

When I tore up my ankle the first time, I stepped on someone's foot playing basketball, rolled it waaayyyy over, heard the pop, let out a huge scream (manly scream, though!) and plunked to the court. When I tore up my shoulder, I just felt it go and knew it was over. I wasn't even pitching that day. I was playing OF in softball and showing off my arm strength by heaving the balls from the OF to the catcher during practice. "Pop!" and that was it. Now I pretty much throw like a girl (no offense, ladies).

 

No real point to this, but it's late and I felt like sharing. :D

[XZero771679666304]

A question to all the people here criticizing Prior: Have you ever pitched? I'm just curious because I know that when I used to pitch my shoulder would be sore every time. But when I injured my shoulder I knew right away that something wasn't "right".

 

We worry about Mark & Carlos' pitch counts because they're health is the future of this franchise. We want the Cubs to be very protective of those arms and we rightly criticize them when they play too loose with their health.

 

I'm quite sure that all the pitchers on the staff, but particularly those guys (along with Wood) are under strict orders to report any pain they feel outside of normal soreness and the Cubs take it very seriously. I'm not happy that Prior had shoulder pain. I am happy with how the Cubs reacted and I'm happy that Prior reported the pain instead of being an idiot and trying to "tough it out".

 

Yes, I pitched. And even in ths short time I did, I learned to differentiate between normal soreness, strains and tweaks, and a tear. I strained my shoulder, wrist and elbow with unfortunate regularity because I overthrew a lot. I tore a ligament in my wrist, and I knew instantly that it was not just a strain.

 

Unlike some of the others here, I am not bothered that Prior got checked out and was shut down. What bothers me is that a ML pitcher like Prior doesn't know his own body well enough to say outright whether something feels serious or not. Is he going to have to be sent to a specialist for every tweak he ever has?

[Jon]

I have no problem with him being checked out, none whatsoever. I have no problem with him being shut down for 10 days. But as someone with a fair bit of experience with these types of injuries, I know you have some idea of what the problem is before you go to the doctor.

 

What I am sick of is the fact that we are never given an indication of the severity. Even immediately after an injury, most athletes can tell between "not normal, but probably minor" and "not normal, and possibly serious". That early differentiation is absolutely not unreasonable to expect.

I don't think it is reasonable. And even if they do have a pretty good idea after an injury, it would be irresponsible to make a public statement about a diagnosis before tests are even conducted. If people have blasted the Cubs for a bad diagnosis in the past, just imagine what would happen if they made such a statement.

 

I don't see how the Cubs could've handled this any better.

[Guest]

What bothers me is that a ML pitcher like Prior doesn't know his own body well enough to say outright whether something feels serious or not. Is he going to have to be sent to a specialist for every tweak he ever has?

You know, if I had 10's of millions of dollars riding on it and I had the access...I think I'd go to Andrews and Jobe every time I felt something that wasn't right, too.

[brinoch]

A question to all the people here criticizing Prior: Have you ever pitched? I'm just curious because I know that when I used to pitch my shoulder would be sore every time. But when I injured my shoulder I knew right away that something wasn't "right".

 

We worry about Mark & Carlos' pitch counts because they're health is the future of this franchise. We want the Cubs to be very protective of those arms and we rightly criticize them when they play too loose with their health.

 

I'm quite sure that all the pitchers on the staff, but particularly those guys (along with Wood) are under strict orders to report any pain they feel outside of normal soreness and the Cubs take it very seriously. I'm not happy that Prior had shoulder pain. I am happy with how the Cubs reacted and I'm happy that Prior reported the pain instead of being an idiot and trying to "tough it out".

 

Yes, I pitched. And even in ths short time I did, I learned to differentiate between normal soreness, strains and tweaks, and a tear. I strained my shoulder, wrist and elbow with unfortunate regularity because I overthrew a lot. I tore a ligament in my wrist, and I knew instantly that it was not just a strain.

 

Unlike some of the others here, I am not bothered that Prior got checked out and was shut down. What bothers me is that a ML pitcher like Prior doesn't know his own body well enough to say outright whether something feels serious or not. Is he going to have to be sent to a specialist for every tweak he ever has?

 

After going what I went through with own shoulder injury, I wouldn't mess around with it. If I feel anything odd, I'm heading to the doc.Seriously, my shoulder injury was the most serious thing to happen to me from sports and I didn't feel it until the next day. I thought maybe I slept funny, or there was a draft, or something. I wasn't sure. I should have gone to a doctor. Instead, it only got worse and worse as the inflammation around the tear grew.

 

Two days later I couldn't sleep, do a push up, write, or even lift anything.

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

 

Well, I think it has been made pretty clear that Prior misses more time to minor injuries than any other pitcher in the league. Until someone can present a pitcher who has had 5 injuries like Prior had, I conclude it to be true because I have a pretty good memory of every player and MLB season I've watched and I can't think of any. So whether it is right for the Cubs to shut him down each time he gets one of these injuries or he could have just played through some of them and never had any problems, there is a problem. He doesn't pitch enough.

 

I think we could find some pitchers who from 2002-2006 have missed comparable time as Prior.

 

If my memory is correct, Jeremy Affeldt has been disabled more than five times over the same time frame and some of those times with merely blisters.

 

There was a time when Beckett was missing time every few months as well. Just because he is healthy now, doesn't mean he hasn't missed time. In fact, Beckett has yet to start 30 games in a season or top 200 IP as a starter.

 

John Thompson also seems to miss a lot of time due to injuries. I'm not sure of the number, but he's currently out now with elbow soreness.

 

There's likely many more, but the fact is, most of the guys who may have a lot of injuries don't have the talent of Prior. Their teams don't count on them the way we count on Prior, so their injuries aren't magnified like Prior's happen to be.

 

But to suggest that Prior misses more time because he's soft or is sitting out and isn't really hurt is pretty ridiculous and assinine.

 

Furthermore if an average pitcher without Prior's talent missed 5 times with injury, he could end up out of baseball as teams would feel the investment isn't worth the effort. That in itself is part of the reason it's difficult to find comparables.

[srbin84]

 

Well, I think it has been made pretty clear that Prior misses more time to minor injuries than any other pitcher in the league. Until someone can present a pitcher who has had 5 injuries like Prior had, I conclude it to be true because I have a pretty good memory of every player and MLB season I've watched and I can't think of any. So whether it is right for the Cubs to shut him down each time he gets one of these injuries or he could have just played through some of them and never had any problems, there is a problem. He doesn't pitch enough.

 

I think we could find some pitchers who from 2002-2006 have missed comparable time as Prior.

 

If my memory is correct, Jeremy Affeldt has been disabled more than five times over the same time frame and some of those times with merely blisters.

 

There was a time when Beckett was missing time every few months as well. Just because he is healthy now, doesn't mean he hasn't missed time. In fact, Beckett has yet to start 30 games in a season or top 200 IP as a starter.

 

John Thompson also seems to miss a lot of time due to injuries. I'm not sure of the number, but he's currently out now with elbow soreness.

 

There's likely many more, but the fact is, most of the guys who may have a lot of injuries don't have the talent of Prior. Their teams don't count on them the way we count on Prior, so their injuries aren't magnified like Prior's happen to be.

 

But to suggest that Prior misses more time because he's soft or is sitting out and isn't really hurt is pretty ridiculous and assinine.

 

Furthermore if an average pitcher without Prior's talent missed 5 times with injury, he could end up out of baseball as teams would feel the investment isn't worth the effort. That in itself is part of the reason it's difficult to find comparables.

 

Well, I'm more inclined to believe he is weak bodied/brittle. He has a lot of talent and is a great pitcher, but when you average his numbers with the Ruschs and Koronkas of the world, it doesn't look great.

[SouthSideRyan]

Somebody mentioned the serious air around Prior's early injury, with nobody saying it was just a strain.

 

1. I don't think there was any sign from anyone in the Cubs organization that it was something serious.

 

2. Could you imagine the backlash if the Cubs went out and said it was just something minor and he'd be fine? You still had people jumping down the Cubs throat when they didn't give any indication about how serious it might be. Everybody ASSUMED the worst. Even today you have people complaining about the way the Cubs handled it, hinting that it's worse than they're saying.

[brinoch]

Well, I'm more inclined to believe he is weak bodied/brittle. He has a lot of talent and is a great pitcher, but when you average his numbers with the Ruschs and Koronkas of the world, it doesn't look great.

 

You're entitled to your opinion, of course, but I see no evidence that he is weak-bodied, frail or brittle. You've done nothing to persuade me. He's a healthy young man who places an enormous strain on his arm in the course of pitching. Is Josh Beckett a wimp because of his blisters? What about Gagne and his multiple elbow surgeries (I believe he's on #3)? Kerry Wood? Jason Isringhausen?

 

Injuries happen. Patricularly to pitchers.

[XZero771679666304]

I have no problem with him being checked out, none whatsoever. I have no problem with him being shut down for 10 days. But as someone with a fair bit of experience with these types of injuries, I know you have some idea of what the problem is before you go to the doctor.

 

What I am sick of is the fact that we are never given an indication of the severity. Even immediately after an injury, most athletes can tell between "not normal, but probably minor" and "not normal, and possibly serious". That early differentiation is absolutely not unreasonable to expect.

I don't think it is reasonable. And even if they do have a pretty good idea after an injury, it would be irresponsible to make a public statement about a diagnosis before tests are even conducted. If people have blasted the Cubs for a bad diagnosis in the past, just imagine what would happen if they made such a statement.

 

I don't see how the Cubs could've handled this any better.

 

Regardless, you shouldn't have to be sent to a top specialist to diagnose a moderate strain. Maybe that reflects more poorly on the training staff than Mark. And with all due respect, a pitcher saying "I think it's bad" or "I don't think it's bad" is hardly a public diagnosis. Besides, it's not like the Cubs have even an iota of credibility left to damage in this department.

[srbin84]

Well, I'm more inclined to believe he is weak bodied/brittle. He has a lot of talent and is a great pitcher, but when you average his numbers with the Ruschs and Koronkas of the world, it doesn't look great.

 

You're entitled to your opinion, of course, but I see no evidence that he is weak-bodied, frail or brittle. You've done nothing to persuade me. He's a healthy young man who places an enormous strain on his arm in the course of pitching. Is Josh Beckett a wimp because of his blisters? What about Gagne and his multiple elbow surgeries (I believe he's on #3)? Kerry Wood? Jason Isringhausen?

 

Injuries happen. Patricularly to pitchers.

 

No, they're not wimps, they're liabilities at their contracts. Prior isn't at that point yet, but he will be in a couple years. Better to trade him before that happens.

[XZero771679666304]

What bothers me is that a ML pitcher like Prior doesn't know his own body well enough to say outright whether something feels serious or not. Is he going to have to be sent to a specialist for every tweak he ever has?

You know, if I had 10's of millions of dollars riding on it and I had the access...I think I'd go to Andrews and Jobe every time I felt something that wasn't right, too.

 

Let me say that I am probably as big a Prior fan as anyone on this board. But the league has a lot of high priced pitchers, and I would wager not too many of them rush to see the top specialists in the countery to diagnose a freaking strain. I fail to see why the Cubs doctors couldn't handle it. I think Mark panics when he experiences pain.

[XZero771679666304]

Well, I'm more inclined to believe he is weak bodied/brittle. He has a lot of talent and is a great pitcher, but when you average his numbers with the Ruschs and Koronkas of the world, it doesn't look great.

 

You're entitled to your opinion, of course, but I see no evidence that he is weak-bodied, frail or brittle. You've done nothing to persuade me. He's a healthy young man who places an enormous strain on his arm in the course of pitching. Is Josh Beckett a wimp because of his blisters? What about Gagne and his multiple elbow surgeries (I believe he's on #3)? Kerry Wood? Jason Isringhausen?

 

Injuries happen. Patricularly to pitchers.

 

No, they're not wimps, they're liabilities at their contracts. Prior isn't at that point yet, but he will be in a couple years. Better to trade him before that happens.

 

I'm not where you are. I wouldn't trade Mark because I don't think he is fragile. I think that he might be starting to believe he is though. I fully believe Prior will be a consistently dominant pitcher again, and if anything the injury fiasco of the past couple years will allow the Cubs to afford both he and Z by keeping his price down.

[SouthSideRyan]

Well, I'm more inclined to believe he is weak bodied/brittle. He has a lot of talent and is a great pitcher, but when you average his numbers with the Ruschs and Koronkas of the world, it doesn't look great.

 

You're entitled to your opinion, of course, but I see no evidence that he is weak-bodied, frail or brittle. You've done nothing to persuade me. He's a healthy young man who places an enormous strain on his arm in the course of pitching. Is Josh Beckett a wimp because of his blisters? What about Gagne and his multiple elbow surgeries (I believe he's on #3)? Kerry Wood? Jason Isringhausen?

 

Injuries happen. Patricularly to pitchers.

 

No, they're not wimps, they're liabilities at their contracts. Prior isn't at that point yet, but he will be in a couple years. Better to trade him before that happens.

 

That's if you think this will happen every year. I do not.

[Jon]

I have no problem with him being checked out, none whatsoever. I have no problem with him being shut down for 10 days. But as someone with a fair bit of experience with these types of injuries, I know you have some idea of what the problem is before you go to the doctor.

 

What I am sick of is the fact that we are never given an indication of the severity. Even immediately after an injury, most athletes can tell between "not normal, but probably minor" and "not normal, and possibly serious". That early differentiation is absolutely not unreasonable to expect.

I don't think it is reasonable. And even if they do have a pretty good idea after an injury, it would be irresponsible to make a public statement about a diagnosis before tests are even conducted. If people have blasted the Cubs for a bad diagnosis in the past, just imagine what would happen if they made such a statement.

 

I don't see how the Cubs could've handled this any better.

 

Regardless, you shouldn't have to be sent to a top specialist to diagnose a moderate strain. Maybe that reflects more poorly on the training staff than Mark. And with all due respect, a pitcher saying "I think it's bad" or "I don't think it's bad" is hardly a public diagnosis. Besides, it's not like the Cubs have even an iota of credibility left to damage in this department.

A strain in the rotator cuff? Of course they should, especially when it's a new injury. And even if they were to somehow know exactly what it was, they needed to seek medical advice about how to treat the injury and what kind of program they should put him on when he started throwing again.

 

Cubs.com[/url]"]The reason Prior stopped his session was because he was experiencing pain, not soreness. There's a difference.

 

"There isn't a pitcher out there who we don't treat for soreness," O'Neal said. "Unfortunately, Mark was describing it as pain."

 

Not getting tests for reported pain (which turned out to be consistent with the diagnosis) would be nothing short of irresponsible in this case, especially when you have the resources that the Cubs do.

[srbin84]

I'm not where you are. I wouldn't trade Mark because I don't think he is fragile. I think that he might be starting to believe he is though. I fully believe Prior will be a consistently dominant pitcher again, and if anything the injury fiasco of the past couple years will allow the Cubs to afford both he and Z by keeping his price down.

 

Well, each year his numbers are getting worse and his number of starts just haven't been there. I don't know if he is pitching different to avoid injury or something, but I'm not on board with paying a pitcher 10+ million to make 20 starts with a 3.50 ERA. We just went through that with Wood and now we can't trade him even if we wanted to or could get something valuable in return for him.

[brinoch]

1. http://espn.go.com/mlb/news/2002/0902/1426202.html

 

Ah, yes the hamstring injury from running the bases. Indeed, he strained his hamstring. The one in his leg.

 

2. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1783863

 

The achilles injury was sustained in late 2003, but the effects carried into '04. Since we know that the elbow injury in #3 is the same as in #2, we can easily remove that from consideration as a strain. The achilles injury was inflammation in the tendon. Potentially a strain, and definitely something that caused problems.

 

3. http://cbs.sportsline.com/mlb/story/7502140

 

As discussed in #2, the elbow wasn't a sprain, it was an inflammation in the bone lining and nerves in the elbow. Missed a start.

 

4. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2012934

 

Some form of inflammation in the elbow. Missed one start.

 

5. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=mlb&id=2388000

 

Shoulder strain. Will miss a month, and a goodly amount of time -- four starts at least.

 

There are a lot of pitchers who miss a start every now and then, and a lot of guys who hit the DL once or twice a season. None of this means he's frail or brittle as you term it.

[brinoch]

Well, I'm more inclined to believe he is weak bodied/brittle. He has a lot of talent and is a great pitcher, but when you average his numbers with the Ruschs and Koronkas of the world, it doesn't look great.

 

You're entitled to your opinion, of course, but I see no evidence that he is weak-bodied, frail or brittle. You've done nothing to persuade me. He's a healthy young man who places an enormous strain on his arm in the course of pitching. Is Josh Beckett a wimp because of his blisters? What about Gagne and his multiple elbow surgeries (I believe he's on #3)? Kerry Wood? Jason Isringhausen?

 

Injuries happen. Patricularly to pitchers.

 

No, they're not wimps, they're liabilities at their contracts. Prior isn't at that point yet, but he will be in a couple years. Better to trade him before that happens.

 

Guess what? Every pitcher is a liability in his contract. At any point, a pitcher could blow out his elbow. Pitching, by its very nature, is extremely hard on a human body. Injuries and breakdowns will happen. That's why you invest in additional pitching capability and develop young pitchers as much as you can.