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In his first start after coming off the minor league disabled list, Mark Prior left the extended spring training game after only two innings on Thursday after supposedly experiencing shoulder discomfort.
His shoulder will be examined by orthopedic specialist Lewis Yocum in the next few days. But will Yocum find anything wrong with Prior's shoulder?
All spring, Prior and the Cubs have maintained he was healthy in spite of has reduced velocity following stints on the DL for shoulder problems last year. Is he still injured? Is this a new injury? Or just buying time while trying to salvage his career?
Chicagoist recently got a juicy tip from a source that the real reason for Prior's reduced velocity this spring has more to do with his going off steroids than recovering from any injury. The ‘roids use would sure help explain the countless freak injuries – steroid use is known to make users prone to injury. Remember Sammy Sosa’s sneeze-induced back injury? When baseball enacted tougher testing policies, Prior got clean and that is the reason for the noticeable lack of pop on his fastballs. Our source's story came from people within Cubs management within the past few days, and seems to be credible.
With his velocity now 7-8 mph lower than in the past, he can no longer cut it at the major league level unless he’s able to develop an incredible curveball. Again, these words supposedly came from within the Cubs organization. So is another injury just his covehir to go into hiding while trying to relearn how to pitch?
Chicagoist would be willing to bet that we won’t ever be seeing Mark Prior back pitching in Wrigley, at least for the Cubs…
Image via.fanforhire.com
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For the record, I predicted April 9th for Prior's first non-injury injury.
www.chicagoist.com/archives/2007/02/19/the_surest_sign_spring_is_just_around_the_corner.php
Steroids? Wow. Not that I don't think everyone used to be on them.
I hate the Cubs, I'm a Sox fan and all, but man do I feel sorry for Wood and Pryor. I really hope for them, as people, if they go on to somewhere else, they can get a fresh start. They are two of the most talented pitchers I've ever seen, but they also have the worst bad-luck of anyone since...I don't even know.
So, per your "source" Prior was on steroids his whole career before steroid testing kicked in.
Real testing started in 2004, so he had to be clean before that season started, right?
So, a loss of velocity in 2007 is because of what he was doing before the 2004 season? That doesn't make any sense.
Another thing, Prior was on the 2000 Olympic baseball team. He had to be tested for steroids to compete on the team.
Real testing may have started in 2K4, but under the terms of the MLB CBA, the positive results are kept under lock-and-key. Also, 2K4 would have been the only year steroids were tested for, if less than five percent of all major league baseball players tested positive. The stricter testing wasn't implemented until last year, after continued media outcry. Even then, it still isn't really "strict," per se, so long as Barry hit ball hard.
Additionally, testing procedures for blood and urine samples weren't as advanced as they are today, and still lag behind the advancements in PEDs. So it's conceivable that, assuming Prior was taking PEDs, that he could have been on enhancement suplements that the IOC weren't equipped to detect, at the time.
That isn't to say that Prior was juicing. It's all just speculation at this point.
But... But... But... He has such "great mechanics"!
Anyway, I think the steriods thing is pure conjecture. Like woodlawnchuck, I'm a big time Sox fan and enjoy as much schadenfreude towards the cubs as I can handle.
But come on, this guy just has real bad luck. He can't help it, I think it's because he's a cub. I'm beginning to think both he and Wood could benefit from a change in scenery.
Sounds like someone should take up botany.
Why why why do the Cubs have to incubate such injury-prone talent? Wood and Prior should have gone out with Baker. Pay off their contracts and cut your losses. It's not like the club doesn't want to spend money.
Jerry,
I think the recent "drunken sailor on payday" style spending from the Tribune Company was to acquire attractive assets for a potential selling of the franchise, not to write assets off.
And yes, Prior and Wood ARE assets in the Trib's eyes. I think they cater WAY too much to the casual drunk frat boy (and his girlfriend in a pink hat) who doesn't follow baseball that hardcore and just wants familiar faces to cheer for. (My theory as to why they held on to Sammy for WAY too long when he essentially swung at everything that moved)
This is yet another reason why I think the selling of the franchise could end up being nothing but positive for actual cub fans that live and die for the team. Provided Wrigley Field is included in the package as well.
Sammy might have been on 'roids, but don't make fun of a guy throwing his back out by sneezing. It's happened to me (and many others) with chronic disc problems. A sneeze is a violent act.
Anonymous sources and steroids? Does the SF Chronicle or Sports Illustrated know about this?
I determined long ago that both Mark Prior and Kerry Wood are like the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus: something fantasitical that Cubs fans tell their children.
"Listen up kids. Once, there was this pitcher who could strike out anyone..."
The saddest part about that, Kevin, is that it was true. Prior was poetry. Wait, yep, that's the fastball you knew you were getting and you still couldn't hit it.
I don't know why the Cubs kept them this long since their injuries.
... because the worst thing that would ever happen is the reverse-Sosa: the Cubs releasing their star pitchers and having them somehow find rebirth on the South Side - or worse - StL
I knew we couldn't have a Cubs discussion without some Sox fans using their non-opposable thumbs to type that Wrigley is full of cellphone-addicted Chads and Trixies who don't care about the game. So surprising.
As for Prior, I totally believe he was on the 'roids. Just look at his body. He used to be called Calfzilla because his calves were so huge. Now, his legs are all spindly, and his uniform just hangs off of him--he looks like Gary Coleman wearing Dave Parker's Pirates uniform. And how else do you explain losing so much heat on his fastball? Shoulder problems? He's had it looked at repeatedly, and no one can find anything wrong. It could be that Prior has some undiagnosable internal problem, and his body has just changed over the years, and his psyche has never recovered from Game 6 of the 2003 playoffs... or you could look at another answer. At a certain point, you have to go to occam's razor here: "the simplest solution tends to be the best one."
If you're going to accuse someone of a felony, you damn well better back it up with more support than this.
Wrong... if you are going to accuse someone of a felony, you damn well better back it up with an "anonymous source." Obviously any good media person can't release their source... but unfortunately it results in wild speculation backed up by an "anonymous source in the know." That said, I am a believer in Prior having been a juicer... not Wood. Prior did previously have tree trunks for legs and though that doesn't make him an automatic juicer, the fact he continually is hurt and has lost so much on his fastball certainly would point to juicing.
Lets stop pretending like Benjy has 'sources'