Prior to Henry

I was reclining on the couch this afternoon, watching Mark Prior pitch a gem, when all of a sudden Len Kasper said, “He’s really getting it up there. He just hit 95 on the gun.”

I froze.

A grand slam and a three run homer followed in short order.

Prior tends to kick butt when he moves the ball around, but he’s a target for a shelling when he over-throws—the same can be said of Wood, but Wood doesn’t seem to move the ball as well (which is starting to look like a major problem). When Prior first came up, he could just power past the opposition. But as he matures as a pitcher, and learns to rely more on control and movement, this guy is going to do some great things.

And, if his elbow hurts so much, why aren’t the coaches reminding him that 89 can be just as effective as 96?

What do I know? Bases loaded, one out, one run lead, opposition's park going nuts. A strikeout, an infield popup, or an easy grounder—those were his only hope. I think the adrenaline got the best of him, and he couldn’t resist laying up a fat fastball. And it almost blew foul. If it had, I bet he would have pitched 7 innings. Instead, he was yanked after giving up 8 over 5. It's a shame.

When he’s on, Prior is nothing short of overwhelming. Watch how many superstars get the heebie-jeebies from his curveball.

One more thing: I get really pissed when I read crap comments like this from Dusty Baker: "Everything's kind of up in the air. We had it set with the off-days and skipping somebody. Now we don't know. We just don't know." Well, maybe as the manager of the club, you should figure it the fuck out. Just an idea.

Random baseball query: who are the 2.17% of baseball writers who didn’t think Hank Aaron qualified for Cooperstown? Do they allow idiots to vote for the Hall of Fame? Oh yeah...Ron Santo...I forgot...