Spring Training: A Time To Dig For (Mostly) Non-Existent Stories

    The papers are filled with reports of results of spring training games which, people seem loathe to learn after all these years, are completely meaningless. Over and over again we read and hear about how <blank> pitched two scoreless innings; or <blank> hit a 400 foot home run over some ubiquitous advertisement for a department store. What does it really mean?
    It's not all that often that players who are dominant in the warm weather of spring training----when pitchers are notoriously ahead of the hitters for the first couple of weeks----has any bearing on what happens during the season. Because of this reporters are desperately digging for stories. Such meaningless things as Jimmy Rollins boldly announcing that he thinks that the Phillies are the team to beat in the division; or Jeff Suppan pitching well in his first game action as a Milwaukee Brewer; or Shawn Green discovering some hitch in his swing that was robbing him of his power, are mentioned ad nauseum.
    I hate to put a damper on the romantic notions of the "courageous leader heroically declaring victory before the fact and delivering on that promise with historic performance", but looking at it logically, what do people expect an athlete to say? That he thinks his team is going to lose? When Joe Namath made his famous "guarantee" of victory in Super Bowl III, what would have happened to him had the Jets lost? Would he have been strung up and chased from town by mobs holding torches and truncheons? When Mark Messier guaranteed that the New York Rangers were going to win game six in the NHL Eastern Conference finals series against the New Jersey Devils and then scored a hat trick to exacerbate the point, was he really going out on any kind of a limb? Do people expect these men to say that they're going to lose? It wasn't all that outrageous for Messier to be expected to be the man to carry his team; he was on the ice for every power play and a substantial amount of time otherwise. He was the man who received the puck to take the shots; and his third goal was into an empty net. I don't want to diminish these men's accomplishments, but does anyone sit and remember when someone guarantees a victory and then watches his team lose?
    So Jimmy Rollins thinks that the Phillies are the team to beat in the NL East; so what? So Jeff Suppan pitched well in his first outing as a Brewer; does that mean he's going to win 18 games? So Shawn Green found a hitch in his swing; is he going to return to his 40+ home run form? I wouldn't expect anything based on spring training performances or pronouncements.

    That being said, there are things that need to be watched for in spring training. Pitchers recovering from illness (Jon Lester); injuries (Mark Prior and Kerry Wood); position changes (Alfonso Soriano; Bill Hall); comebacks (Sammy Sosa); role changes (Wood, Adam Wainwright); are all important gauges for the upcoming season.
    Right now, the one thing that stands out in all of this is Prior. For a pitcher to have so many problems as the once coveted phenom has had, and then to get yanked from a spring training start in which it was reported that a majority of his pitches were waist high and above, should be a major source of concern for the Cubs. Spring training results are, of course, irrelevant; but Prior's struggles indicate a larger problem. I stated last season after watching Prior several times that he looked afraid to let loose and throw the ball. When a pitcher is leaving his pitches high in the strike zone without pop, he's not following through and is not unleashing with his energy directed toward the plate. Cubs pitching coach Larry Rothschild and Lou Piniella undoubtedly know this; only Prior knows if the problem is due to his health or fear of re-injuring himself. Until this problem is corrected, the Cubs are not going to have the Prior who was so dominant in 2003. Whether or not it's mental, mechanical or physical will determine what, if anything, they get out of Prior this season. For team with so much money invested in free agents and a new manager; a shaky bullpen and a average to mediocre back end of the starting rotation, Prior may be the key to the Cubs hopes this season. One thing that can be taken out of yesterday's game is that Prior still has something wrong; and the Cubs have the next three weeks to figure it out because their entire season may hinge on it. That's my guarantee.