Dreaming Over Reality For Mark Prior

You’ve got to admire him for trying. Mark Prior, a decade removed from being the phenom that the Chicago Cubs fell in love with, signed a minor-league contract with the Boston Red Sox the other day, a marriage that speaks of desperation on both sides of the aisle.

It would be a fairy tale on the grandest scale if anything comes of this to soothe Prior’s wounded soul, or to help Boston’s wounded pitching. But those who would crush hope are the worst type of iconoclasts, so let us hush and allow these two sides to imagine great things together.

It’s going on a decade since life was sweet for Prior, now 31. He was a whiz at the University of Southern California, the Cubs’ No. 1 pick in the 2001 amateur draft and second overall. The 6-foot-5, 230-pound righthander was in the majors by 2002.

Prior had the look and delivery of a Hall of Famer. In 2003 he went 18-6. Between 2003 and 2005, Prior went 41-23 for Chicago. He has a 2-1 post-season record for the Cubs, and you have to sift through the names of long-dead players to find too many other pitchers who appeared in three post-season games for the Cubs.

And then the young thrower, defined until that time by brilliance, began falling apart. In 2006 Prior’s season stats read this way: 1-6, 7.21 earned run average. Compared to the last six years, that’s the good news. During that time Prior has been property of the Cubs, the Texas Rangers, the New York Yankees and the San Diego Padres.

His spaghetti arm has not permitted Prior to throw a pitch in the majors for any of those teams. Both he and they were ever-hopeful. The kid once had the greatest of talents, flashed them for a little while, and now he is no longer a kid and pretty much out of chances.

The Red Sox motivations are clear. Their rotation is imploding. Their bullpen is as shaky as San Francisco during a 5.4 earthquake. The Sox can afford to take risks.

Prior’s career barely scratched the surface of his potential, didn’t even last long enough to earn him an MLB pension. Still, he made millions of dollars and even put up a good overall record of 42-29 with a 3.51 earned run average. So it is inapproriate to call what has transpired in his career a tragedy. A disappointment, yes, an athletic might-have-been, yes.

Certainly this is not the way Mark Prior envisioned his baseball life unfolding. He was on the cusp of greatness and should have a storehouse of special memories. But he is not that rosy-eyed kid anymore. Clearly, he must possess superior determination and will to lift himself above the constant letdowns of his recent past to even take this chance with the Red Sox.

It was something to hear Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington say that Prior has shown good velocity. Wonder when the last time anyone offered Prior a compliment like that. For all of this, however, Prior will be working out in extended spring training for a while before even being assigned to a minor league team.

If he looks good in workouts, then the Red Sox will find Prior a team. Maybe Class A. From there? Class AA possibly, unless he is overwhelming, and then he would get a stop in AAA.

Perhaps it will all go well and come September Mark Prior will find himself standing atop of the mound in Fenway Park, a humbled, but proud and resolute man who beat incredible odds.

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