Jon

A friend spreading false injury rumors would be pretty unnerving. Either way, your case is pretty speculative. It seems more plausible that the team was less than forthcoming, especially in light of the very slow pace the Cubs took with him. It's all speculative, though, especially when they had seemingly no reason to push Prior if they knew he was injured (as has been claimed in this thread) and lying about an injury was risking an awful lot with his health.

And a flyout ends it. An odd game to say the least. Venezuela with just one hit all game. Z (and Blanco) are coming back to Mesa.

Nearly a Gipson-esque ending to this one as Castillo nearly picked the runner off of first after the pitch. But instead it's a 4-pitch walk. Bases loaded, two down. Now this is what I wanted to see.

HAHAHAHA. I love Z. They had a shot of him looking all buff in a black sleeveless t-shirt...then he starts picking his nose with his pinky finger for a good 2 seconds before they cut away. Wow. Tejada boots the game-ender. 2 on, 2 out.

Japan wins it 6-1.

The home plate ump didn't like Castillo throwing the ball down to first after what he thought was a strike out. He's really in Castillo's face. And yet they get the borderline call on the following pitch, which was 3-2 and nearly identical to the 2-2 pitch. That's been called most of the game, but still quite iffy.

And the DR takes the lead on a 2-out, bases loaded passed ball. Pujols was ahead 3-0 with a chance to break it open or bring Ortiz up with the bases loaded, but he grounds out to third to end the inning. So in this game we've seen runs scored on a weak chopper misplayed by Cabrera, an infield groundout RBI, and a bases loaded passed ball. Not what I was expecting.

If I was just given the interior, I couldn't pick that out from about 6 or so other stadiums. I don't get why they continue to go with those stadium styles.

After last night's Colbert Report, I'd put all of my money on Oral Roberts. There's just no way they can lose. Of course, I'm not a betting man. http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_colbert_report/videos/most_recent/index.jhtml Click on the Rock and Roll HOF link. It also includes a mention of the Cubs.

Definitely a pitching dominated game so far. Both runs scored on infield grounders (Alou's a slow chopper for a basehit, Abreu's a groundout to the right side). The pitchers have really been exploiting the outside corner. Hopefully, unlike the previous matchup, this one gets really exciting late.

RBI groundout for Abreu to tie it up 1-1 in the 6th. Cabrera is up with two outs and a runner on third.

Hm. They did it with Wood. At least in that case they had a doctor's assurance that he couldn't further damage it, as backwards as that sounds. And that was so the team could remain in the Wild Card race...even though they weren't really in it. Pushing Prior would only mean that he would be less healthy for the season. Thankfully, they're still in the Wild Card (and division) race at this point. Oh, and the Cubs still have some 300,000 tickets left, most of which are for the end of the season. Let's not forget that if Prior was healthy at the end of the year and the Cubs were in it, they'd sell just about all of those tickets.

How does Daisuke's stuff look? I know he only has 2 strikeouts to 2 walks. Does anyone know if he's much of a strikeout pitcher? And if he cracks out a crazy gyroball, please let us know. EDIT: well, he's definitely a strikeout pitcher. 1155 Ks to 468 walks in 1216.1 IP over his career.

That's ridiculous. What is? The fact that Tribune & Co. would put the bottom line in front of its fanbase? Not Tribune, they never screw anyone over to squeeze out every last dime they can...Not by scalping tickets, relocating street vendors, increasing ticket prices exponentially, lying about injuries repeatedly...I'm sure I'm forgetting a few... 1) Squeeze the last dime buy Hendry giving Neifi $5 million or funding one of the largest payrolls in baseball? Or by funding a $40+ million Wrigley renovation project without it affecting payroll? 2) Forcing Prior to pitch when hurt could mean he'd be out for the season instead of a few weeks. That's not going to help the Tribune Co.'s bottom line. 3) WFPTS sells few tickets and brings in an insignificant amount of money, for the most part 4) I don't think they had anything to do with the street vendors and that's not going to impact the Cubs really at all 5) If the Cubs have blatantly lied about injuries. Despite popular belief, rehab isn't an exact science. And if they have lied, they're not exactly alone. And ticket sales weren't going to take a nose dive if Prior was injured. Not even close. They broke their own record because capacity increased, yes (although ticket popularity looks to have decreased a bit from last year). The Cubs are coming off a horribly disappointing season, yet the convention sold out faster than ever year except from last year. that includes 2004. The Cubs selling a lot of tickets is just a fact of life right now. It's not going to change because of one player, especially considering that most fans aren't terribly optimistic about the team right now anyways.

First, we don't even know yet what, if anything, is wrong. And while he did progress slower than they hoped, the virus definitely pushed him back some. And let's not forget that from the very beginning they've been talking about how they're taking a different approach this spring (as a result of the virus, I don't know). It wasn't just after the Carroll article. This was when pitchers and catchers reported. If there was something wrong back then, what's going on now isn't enough to provide such a conclusion. Carroll wasn't very specific when he said "shoulder problems," but that was three weeks ago (after looking it up). You don't go forward with shoulder problems and start throwing off the mound and to hitters with shoulder problems. Perhaps there was a hint of soreness and it went away, but it couldn't have been present throughout those three weeks. They wouldn't have moved him forward if his shoulder was sore, especially not without having him see a specialist.

Well, Prior went to USC. So did OJ Simpson. And the USC marching band delivered their best performance ever at the end of the movie. Now that's a conspiracy.

He has thrown to hitters and has thrown off the mound several times.

"I don't care if you're 12-years-old and really good with your thumbs" Never thought I'd hear that during a baseball game. These balls are just dying in the outfield. Looks like this game is headed for a rain delay.

I'm usually not a chicken little, but the same bunch also had Wood pitch in relief after they decided he should have shoulder surgery. I'm really, really frustrated with my favorite team right now. Well, that's a different scenario. They believed that Wood pitching wasn't going to do any further damage. The main problem with that was that him pitching was delaying his surgery. Here, if they knew something was wrong before, pushing him could cause more damage. They would have just shut him down and sent him to see a specialist. I think they screwed up the Wood situation, but I don't think they're that incompetent.

Well, he definitely came into camp out of shape, including in his arm, thanks to the pharyngitis. That delayed his throwing program a couple of weeks, I believe. Well, more than delayed. I think he had to start over from the beginning. I don't see how they could have rushed him so far, so hopefully this is just some "minor" or "normal" soreness. Ah, the rotator cuff. Thanks. I'm trying to pretend to study right now.

That was what, two weeks ago? Something like that. That would mean the Cubs have had him pitch in bullpen sessions and a simulated game (would be two if he continued today) with pain in his shoulder. Carroll was also quite wrong about the towel drill. Hopefully we'll find out tomorrow what's up.

Cabrera probably could have gloved it and still have gotten Alou.

Pujols grounds out on the first pitch with runners at 2nd and 3rd and nobody out. Now they're going to give Ortiz the IBB. It's also starting to rain. A rain delay could really create havoc for the pitching.

No, the soreness doesn't necessarily mean much. Too lazy to look it up right now, but is there anything significant with the soreness being in the back of his shoulder?

Oooh. For some reason, I can watch archived WBC games with a normal gameday audio account, so maybe I'll just watch him tomorrow.