Prior to start Wednesday
Big crowd expected for phenom's debut
By Carrie Muskat / MLB.com
Mark Prior has refused to allow the hype over his debut affect his approach on the mound. (Charlie Neibergall/AP)
CHICAGO -- Mark Prior has tried not to read all the stories hyping when he would make it to the big leagues.
"Obviously, people have been talking about it, things have been said," Prior said Tuesday. "I didn't really pay attention to it. I didn't want to know until it was time. I wanted to be called up when it was right."
It's time.
The 21-year-old remarkably poised right-hander will make his big league debut Wednesday night for the Cubs against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The Cubs' 2001 No. 1 draft (No. 2 overall) pick sprinted through the minor leagues, compiling a 5-2 record in nine games, beginning at Double-A West Tenn and finishing at Triple-A Iowa. He struck out 79 over 51 innings. To put it in perspective, Cubs starter Kerry Wood, a No. 1 draft pick in 1995, spent three years in the minor leagues before his debut in 1998. He totaled 57 2/3 innings just at Triple-A Iowa in 1997.
Mark Prior / P
Height: 6'5"
Weight: 220
Bats/Throws: R/R
More info:
Player page
cubs.com
2001 First-Year Player Draft
"He's probably gone through more than what I've gone through," Wood said when asked to compare the two. "He's been dealing with this since college. He's got a great head on his shoulders and he knows what his job is and he knows what he has to do."
A standout at USC where he was 15-1 his senior year, Prior was greeted in the Cubs clubhouse with some good-natured ribbing. Someone had taped the back page of the Chicago Sun-Times onto the wall. The headline on the full-page photo of Prior was "The Can't Miss Kid."
"It's fun. The game is meant to be fun," Prior said. "If I came in and didn't have fun, I'd think something would be wrong.
"These guys are a great bunch of guys," he said. "They're guys I've looked up to growing up, watching Sammy (Sosa) and Fred (McGriff) and Moises (Alou) play and watching Woody the latter part of high school and college. Finally meeting them and kind of getting their respect, and not so much being one of their peers but now being one of their teammates, one of the guys to go to battle with them, just the fact that they respect me right away has meant a lot to me."
Prior's locker was once again next to Jon Lieber, a veteran who was Prior's unofficial mentor in Spring Training.
On Tuesday, Prior, who is not officially on the roster, stretched with the other pitchers and then stood in left field to shag during batting practice. Television and still cameras followed his every move.
"He was going to be faced with (expectations) regardless just because of what he's done in his college career," Cubs manager Don Baylor said.
"I don't really pay attention to (the hype)," Prior said. "I try to go out and do my job. My goal every time I go out is give six to eight innings of solid work. If I can go nine, great.
"For me it's try to go out and improve every outing, try to put up zeros or win the inning," he said. "That's what I was taught at a young age. If you win every inning, you're going to win the game. That's the way I approach every game."
It would've been nice if the Cubs were over .500 and not under.
"I wish the circumstances were a little bit different," Prior said. "On paper we've got a great team. We've been playing with some injuries. You wish it was a different situation and you wish they were winning more.
"I'm not here to try to do anything special," he said. "I got called up to do one thing and that's just do what I've been doing. I'm just going to go out and do what I can and give them some good innings and give them a chance to win at the end."
The right-hander worked out at Wrigley Field on Monday's off day to get used to the mound.
"He's going to have enough butterflies roaming around (Wednesday)," Baylor said. "I don't think it'll hit him until (Wednesday)."
His plans for Tuesday night included a little dinner, some shopping, picking up his girlfriend at the airport and then get some sleep. And Wednesday?
"Usual day. I'll sleep in, get some breakfast, get some lunch and come to the park," Prior said. "I'm not going to change what I've done and I'm just going to go out and have some fun.
"Two things can happen -- I can either do well or I'm going to do bad," he said. "Either, or, I'm going to come back the next day. They called me up to do a job, and hopefully I can get it done."
"I'm pretty sure he's probably had (pressure) before at a different level," Baylor said. "All the real young good ones that I've been around and played against, (like Roger Clemens), he felt that was his responsibility. If he was the No. 1 guy, that's what he wanted to live up to, being the No. 1 guy."
Wood doesn't think Prior will have any problems.
"He's not going to come in and we're going to roll off 15 (wins) in a row just because he showed up," Wood said.
"To say this is a high pressure game, I don't think so," Prior said. "But the stakes are a little bit higher. I'm just going to go out there and do what I do."
