David

Oh, man. Reading crap like this annoys the hell out of me.

PICTURES!! Thanks, nav.

I was going to post this earlier but I figured it'd be better (funnier) if I waited. I guarantee you someone is not going to get the sarcasm and is going to try to flame you for this.

I think he's steps beyond himself, not the other pitchers. So you're not disputing the suggestion that you think he's quite a few steps behind the other pitchers? I certainly don't think that's the case and haven't seen a thing to suggest as much.

I know I can't argue with your own subjective analysis of 2005 Prior, but stastically, Prior was a very good pitcher in 2005. About as good as he was for most of 2002-2003, outside of the two month stretch where he was flat out absurdly dominant. August and September of 03 gave us a glimpse of what he's capable of when he's really on, and also made his 2003 stats look as unreal as they did. 2005 Prior looked more or less like the Prior we saw from 2002 through July or so of 2003, though. Also, that year, before the Hawpe incident, Prior was about as dominant as he was in the 03 stretch run (admittedly, not a huge sample size). He wasn't quite the same afterwards but still pitched quite well.

I think the big difference is that Perry wants guys to look for a pitch that they can make solid contact on, regardless of whether it's a strike or not. Baker wouldn't acknowledge that sometimes pitches can be strikes and also be more or less unhittable (unless you're looking for Juan Pierre quality contact), and wanted them swinging at anything that was close enough for blind Angel Hernandez to call a strike. That, and he didn't' seem to acknowledge that there was any value, at times, to taking pitches for the sake of taking more pitches (i.e. getting a better look at a pitcher's stuff and how he's attacking you, tiring the pitcher out a little over the course of a game, etc.).

I don't know that he has...but we've already heard reports from Will Carrol's sources (who have a history of bringing forth negative Prior news) that he's throwing very well. We also have a couple of first hand accounts from fans there that say he looks like 2003 Prior. Admittedly, though, these are only fans...so we can't really know how credible they really are.

Jason Marquis for starters. Alfonso Soriano...but that's a whole other can of worms.

And for a Cub fan, that's usually it. Touche

I personally don't see the "not ready until June at the earliest" as very likely. If Prior isn't going to be ready until June, then I just don't think he'll be ready at all. I think he's either going to start the season relatively healthy, or not be of much use at all this year. It's not like he's recovering from TJS, where you would put a likely date and timeframe out there. At this point, the most likely scenario seems to be early April. If something happens to push that back this spring, then I think we'll ultimately just see another lost season. Exactly.

I know you're just doing this to protect yourself from being let down, but what's the point? I'd say it's extremely likely that that won't be the case. Granted, something could come up, but you could say that about anybody. Given Prior's history, I can see how there's cause for concern, but nothing that has actually happened leading up to this spring and so far in camp could lead you to believe that. If I had to put money on Prior either starting on time, or not making his first start until June, based on what we know right now, I'd have to go with the former. I'm not criticizing you or anything. I just don't understand it. It reminds me of the guy on the Score (I think it's Offman) who refuses to put the Cubs anywhere above 3rd place in his predictions this year even though he openly concedes that the Cubs are probably a better team than the rest of the division. He just "can't" put them ahead of the Cardinals or Astros. Whatever. He claims they were too bad last year and that it's too hard to go from worst to first, which really makes no sense. Besides, where's the fun in setting yourself up for the worst case scenario? Sports would be absolutely no fun for me if I started out every season expecting my team to finish in last place. Half the fun is the preseason anticipation/optimism, for me, at least.

Yep. How many times did the Cubs give the opposing pitcher easy 1-2-3 innings by swinging early in the count? Baker openly encouraged that crap.

Stop nitpicking. The key is always putting the ball in play. Juan Pierre just hit very weakly. When DLee puts "a ball in play", that is much different than a "pierre ball" put into play. . Putting the ball in play for the sake of putting the ball in play is never a good thing, no matter if it's Pierre, Derrek Lee, or Barry Bonds. Therefore, putting the ball in play should never be anyone's "key" to anything. Fortunately, I don't think Perry said any such thing nor do I think he believes any such thing.

Reading that bothered me too. Nothing in the Perry quotes said anything about putting the ball in play, though. That's just Muskat interjecting like any other crappy beat writer who thinks strikeouts are the devil. (I know she attributes that information to Perry by writing, "Perry says," but I think that's more a result of her misinterpreting what he was talking about). I think she has no idea what she's talking about, since she goes on with a quote where Perry seems to imply that his philosophy involves taking pitches even if they're strikes if they're not the pitch that the hitter is looking to drive. I can't wait till I see the day where the mainstream is past this "strikeouts are worse than any other out" crap.

Cobs. We can only hope. Can we stop calling them the cobs? Do they deserve that now? Or do they have to go win the 90 games first. :?:

Cobs.

Seconded.

Again, be sure to report back on how Ted looks. Yup.

I don't find it remotely alarming that the Cubs, given Prior's history the past couple ST's, are using some precaution in handling him and Wood, both of whom are coming off offseasons in which they've been rehabbing their shoulders. It's not like they're talking about having him throw simulated starts instead of real ones. People were freaking out this morning because he didn't throw BP yesterday with the rest of his group and instead elected to throw today. Guess what, he threw today, and threw well. I understand that people are a little jumpy about the guys, but this is a little ridiculous. He's slated to start on March 7th or 8th and you're going to flip out because it's not March 3rd or 4th?

35 pitches................ so about 1 inning? Yeah, that's about what they are all doing in Mesa (at least I haven't seen an article where more pitches were thrown). 35 pitches would be a rough one inning.

not really. when he throws harder, his fastball straightens out and he gets hit. in 03, he threw his 2-seamer more often than not, which is an 89-93 type-pitch that sinks. when his 2-seamer is working, he can throw his 4-seamer at 95 occasionally so as to keep hitters on notice. when he's not throwing his 2-seamer effectively for strikes, it makes the 4-seamer pointless and hittable. This is true. I guess I was referring more to his 4 seamer than his 2 seamer. But you're right. I also recall a lot of hitters referring to how even though his velocity itself wasn't that crazy, with his delivery, it just seemed a whole lot faster when they were actually at the plate. Anyone remember when they had the camera and mic on Chipper and I forget who else (DeRosa maybe?) in the Braves dugout in Game 2 or so of the 03 NLDS?

i think prior is pitching well when he's at 89-93. that's what i remember from 03. To me, Z was the guy who did better when his velocity was in the low 90's. He'd keep the ball down and barely gave up HRs back then. I always picture Mark to be at his best in the 93-95 range...

35 pitches................ so about 1 inning? Sarcasm I'm guessing?

I think that's why he's asking. ;)

Um, wow. Ward looks like a giant.