What Mark Prior Needs
According to Chicago Sun-Times columnist Greg Couch, it's a trip to Des Moines. Writes Couch:
"Please, not extended spring training for Mark Prior. Use the right words, Cubs: Des Moines. Those are the words he needs to hear. Not intrasquad scrimmage. Not disabled list. Not recovery time or arm-strength buildup. Minor leagues. The Cubs sent down Sean Marshall and Carlos Marmol on Wednesday and didn't have any trouble saying what that really meant. Wade Miller is clearly the Cubs' No. 5 starter. Yet Prior is going to start the Cubs' spring-training game today. And for some reason, the Cubs keep trying to avoid saying the obvious with Prior.
The minor leagues are not the plague. They are not a disgrace. They are not punishment, not hell. They're the place where people go to learn or to grind out their problems. They're the perfect place for Prior. What's so hard about saying it? Too hard on his delicate ears? We're really going to find out about Prior now. What he's made of. I predict he won't make 10 more major-league starts in his career. But as soon as he and the Cubs are done pretending, he gets his chance."
What's Couch getting at? Wait, a little more:
We've accused him of being soft. Scouts have accused him, too. The Cubs surely wonder. This is no secret."
Oh. Well. I had not heard that before. But now that I have, hmmmmm. Talk about a label that is hard to get rid of when it sticks, "soft" has gotta be right up there. Couch is on the "it has come too easy" to Prior train. Which is fine, I guess. But when you have the kind of stuff that Prior used to have, it actually IS kind of easy. I guess I am more prone to wonder, where has that stuff gone? I can't believe that it disappeared because Prior is "soft", but maybe I just don't have the proper respect for Couch and the Cubs' keen insight on the matter.
I am still guessing "injury" as what has apparently killed Prior's career, as opposed to some reference to a lack of toughness.