What's the Cafe consensus on Mark Prior?

[pokerplaya]

I'm buying. He's my favorite fantasy player despite the injuries and I want him on all of my teams. That's why I have him on none.

[RynMan]

I wouldnt want him on my team. Until he shows me that he can stay healthy for at least 20 starts, I'm not interested.

Well Prior has had 2 years where he pitched more then 20 starts, so I guess you are interested after all.

Guess I should have checked before I made that comment. I could have sworn he didn't make 20 starts last year. Maybe it just felt like forever seeing as though I used a first round pick on him....

Point is I stay away from guys like Prior, but then again which pitcher hasn't been injured the past 3 years?

[wrveres]

I have picked him up on a few teams within the last couple of weeks. I think I own him on a total of 5 rosters now. Not sure if I would call it bouncing back though.
I think we will know more about his health after next week, since he draws @ Cin and @ STL, two of the leagues top scoring teams.

The reason I don't see it as "Bouncing Back" is because he never really sucked, and ALL of his injuries have been freakish in nature.

2003 - Ran into Marcus Giles.
2004 - Injured achilles in spring trianing running wind sprints, and then a sore elbow due to inactivity.
2005 - Hit in the elbow by a line drive

IMO ... Mark will be fine.

[Kingctb27]

prior should definitely be top 5 SP from here on out this year..... he has looked good all year save 2 bad starts and the injury...... i would try to get prior for the stretch run especially if you can get him cheaper than pedro and the gang.......

Exactly what I was thinking.

[Registered_Guest]

Agree with the Top 5 overall.

[chadlincoln]

When healthy, he's a monster. Go Cubs!!!

[nuggets]

The reason I don't see it as "Bouncing Back" is because he never really sucked, and ALL of his injuries have been freakish in nature.

2003 - Ran into Marcus Giles.
2004 - Injured achilles in spring trianing running wind sprints, and then a sore elbow due to inactivity.
2005 - Hit in the elbow by a line drive

IMO ... Mark will be fine.

Unfortunately this Cubs fans isn't confident as you that Prior isn't going to have some freak accident again.

[tracey518]

his Yahoo sticky note today should help people looking to buy low:

Jul 25 Cubs pitcher Mark Prior gave up five hits, three earned runs, and three walks while striking out two in six innings against the Cardinals on Sunday. He did not factor into the game's decision.

Views: Prior has won only four of his last 10 starts and by no means has he been dominant in most of those starts. If there is one thing this year has tought us, it's you can no longer depend on Cubs pitching to be dominant, lights-out type pitchers. They'll sprinkle in dominant starts from time-to-time, but it's far from the guaranteed result it seemed to be when Prior first arrived on the scene in 2002.

[StudentOfTheGame]

Guys. Do i have to remind you that Prior just got back into the rotation? He suffered a partially broken bone IN HIS ElBOW. Its pretty impressive that he is even throwing right now. I'm giving him a little time before I start expecting starts reminiscent of 2002. I'm hoping he can be my ace for the playoff run..