MLB FanHouse on Prior

Check out this article from MLB FANHOUSE about Mark Prior's comeback. Prior joined the Flyers on August 3 in his first time back onto a professional diamond since playing with the Cubs in 2006. So far this season, Prior has struck out 10 batters over 5.0 innings and allowed two hits without surrendering an earned run.

There's Relief in Mark Prior's Fresh Start
8/15/2010 8:15 PM ET By Tom Krasovic

FULLERTON, Calif -- Mark Prior has a reminder for everyone.

"I'm still 29," he says.

Drink that down with your daily orange juice. Mark Prior is still on the sunny side of 30. See? Life doesn't always move at warp speed and leave us dumbstruck that so-and-so got to be so old. How can Prior be so young? Wasn't it a lifetime ago that he carried all of Cubdom on his right shoulder? Don't lay all that crazy and clunky history on him now. He's still a lad. A twentysomething. Not a hint of gray in his dark brown hair, either.

Then you wonder how old his shoulder is. Like an ancient redwood tree, its core may have rings dating to the Romans.

The shoulder took Cubs Nation on a thrilling ride, then the cosmic bill came due, and it was a doozy. That's Prior's story in a nutshell.

When Prior threw his explosive fastballs, the Cubs seemed capable of winning their first World Series since Teddy Roosevelt was president. The year was 2003, and the former University of Southern California star with the bulging calves was winning 18 games and WHIPping up a 1.10, and then snuffing the Braves in the playoffs. The universe had done a backfiip. The Cubs reached the National League Championship Series and then, as easily as Prior zipped fastballs past hitters, jumped ahead three games to one. Cubs fans watched the invincible Prior and almost felt like fans of the Yankees. You know, the franchise that Prior had spurned upon being first drafted in 1998.

It was all a tease, of course. Who started the Bartman Game? Prior. With the Cubs ahead by three runs and one victory from a World Series date with the Yankees, he took a shutout into the eighth. You know the rest. The foul ball. Poor Bartman. Moises Alou. The eight runs scored by the Florida Marlins. I was underneath the stands in Wrigley Field, a few feet away when Cubs security brought Bartman past the screaming fans. Felt like a Yankees crowd. Foul words. Bulging eyes. And the men were angry, too.

I guess we should've known, even here on the Best Coast. If Ted Williams, another San Diego Kid, couldn't lead the cursed Red Sox to a World Series title, how could Prior free the Cubs from an even more powerful spell? He couldn't. He ended up with a bum shoulder. And it wasn't just any bum shoulder. Life dealt Prior a hat trick that even the Blackhawks wouldn't fathom. Three separate procedures within one surgery were needed to repair his shoulder in April 2007.

Attempting a comeback, he returned home to the San Diego Padres. He rehabbed endlessly, threw off the mound a dozen times or more, then threw a practice pitch that sent him back to Dr. James Andrews for a fourth procedure.

"I felt something like a firecracker going off in my shoulder," Prior said in May 2008.

West Coast Bias figured at that time that Prior's career was over, and until this past Saturday, I hadn't asked Prior about the shoulder. Didn't have the stomach for it. Maybe Prior would get on his with his life, and everybody would let it go.

Except there was Prior on Saturday, pitching in a professional ballgame and saying afterward there's still sand left in the hourglass. His brown eyes appear determined. He smiles more than he did for an entire spring training two years ago.

"I'm having a blast," he says after throwing two innings for the Orange County Flyers, a team in the independent Golden League.

"It's been a lot of fun, just getting back out there and just playing the game," he adds.

Even when he pitched three days earlier in Yuma, Ariz., a griddle in the desert, he was in his bliss.

"A lovely place to be this time of year," he says. "I had fun. It was a good time."

"I don't think I'm going to come back as a starter right now. ... Once I can show everybody that I'm healthy as a reliever, maybe get a full season under my belt as a reliever, maybe I'll go back to that road (as a starter) and see what's up."
-- Mark Prior He had last pitched in 2006, although "pitched" isn't quite right. His shoulder was paining him so badly that he often doubted he could make it through his bullpen sessions. Lasting for nine starts, he was 1-6 with a 7.21 ERA for the Cubs.

Middle relief is his best ticket back to the major leagues, he says. In his new gig, he's tossed five innings over three outings. He's yet to allow an earned run and has 10 strikeouts. He plans to pitch in consecutive games later this month. He hopes to pitch for a major league team next year as a reliever. By 2012, he'd like to start.

"I've got a lot of work to do," he says.

The radar guns register some progress. When he threw in front of major league scouts three weeks ago, his fastball touched 90 miles per hour only once. The scouts were less than dazzled, so the Flyers came calling. Saturday at California State Fullerton's ballpark, Prior entered in the sixth inning and sat on 91 for an inning. He weakened in his next inning, losing about 2-3 mph, but still struck out the side. In all, he threw 39 pitches, touching 92 mph once. Twenty-seven pitches were strikes. He threw only four warm-up pitches before his second inning. Afterward, he didn't apply ice.

The 6-foot-5, 225-pounder could've built a spacious igloo with the ice he required from Padres trainers in March 2008.

"It's taken me awhile to get my arm healthy," he says. "I think it's healthy. I think I'm starting to show that to people.

"Now I need to refine and retool everything after three or four years away from competitive games."

A starter for all of his baseball years, Prior is getting a crash course in relief work. Here is what he's learned:

• "It's better to be not warmed up enough than to be overwarmed," he said. "The other day, I kind of warmed up a little too early, and especially in the heat, you lose that little edge that you need."

• Adrenaline can be his friend. "I have that extra little bit of adrenaline of, 'Uh oh, here we go' type of thing," he said, sounding like a California dude. "You might not necessarily feel ready, but you are ready."

• The spontaneity of relief nudges the analytical Prior out of his head, in a good way. "You can really map everything out to the minute as a starter," he said. "As a reliever, you're all over the map, and there is no map. It's fun, though. It keeps you on your toes."

Three relief outings, even against ham-and-eggers, have affirmed the decision to try middle relief.

"I don't think I'm going to come back as a starter right now," he said. "Right now my best goal and my best chance is to come back as a reliever. I think my body will handle that better than trying to go out there and throw 110 pitches or 120 pitches every fifth day. Once I can show everybody that I'm healthy as a reliever, maybe get a full season under my belt as a reliever, maybe I'll go back to that road (as a starter) and see what's up."

While Prior pitched in the twilight on Saturday against a rag-tag team from Tijuana, fewer than 10 miles away at Angel Stadium the Los Angeles Angels were playing the Toronto Blue Jays. The ballpark where Prior pitched was mostly empty. Among the some 200 spectators were two men who wore Cubs jerseys. One had Prior's name on the back. The best part of the game came when another former big leaguer, Cha-Seung Baek, struck out the designated "beer batter," thus allowing fans to buy beer at half price for one inning. Baek's fastball was clocked at 83 mph. "I'm feeling pretty good," said Baek, who chose rehab, rather than the surgeon's scalpel, after arm ailments slowed his fastball.

Baek said Prior has improved with each outing. "It's good to see him here," he added.

A few minutes after his final pitch, Prior signed autographs for fans near the Flyers' dugout. Later, he signed for several others while walking down the right field line.

When asked why he's still pitching, he answered without pause.

"Because I want to play," he said. "I'm still 29."