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Mark Prior May Be 21st-Century Tom Seaver!
JackWESQ
Posts: 2,133 ✭✭✭
in Sports Talk
... of course, this is old news and the only reason I bring it up is that similar things are being said about Stephen Strasburg. Below, you will note the following about Prior ...
"His performance has been otherworldly, his statistics unbelievable."
"That's basically unheard of."
"I've never seen anything like it."
"Prior 'is the best pitcher they've ever seen at the amateur level.'"
"Baseball prodigy."
Now, will Strasburg follow the same route as Prior? I have no idea. But I think he is far from being a guarantee.
/s/ JackWESQ
Mark Prior may be 21st-century Tom Seaver.
06/05/2001
Prior may be 21st-century Seaver
By David Leon Moore, USA TODAY
LOS ANGELES - Mark Prior rides up on a bicycle wearing shorts, and the first thing you notice is his calf muscles are the size of soccer balls.
They're the legs of a cyclist or a speedskater.
Eric Heiden legs.
Or, closer to the point, Tom Seaver or Nolan Ryan or Roger Clemens legs. Legs that can drive a power pitcher through a long career built on fastball after fastball, strikeout after strikeout, victory after victory.
That's what people say is in store for Prior, 20, a 6-5, 220-pound pitcher whose right arm also reminds people of Seaver, Ryan and Clemens.
If Prior someday does things in the major leagues those superstars did, it won't surprise some scouts, college coaches and college hitters. Prior has been giving notice this entire college baseball season that he is something special, which is why he is likely to go first or second today in baseball's annual amateur draft.
Prior, a junior for College World Series-bound Southern California, has turned USC's Dedeaux Field into a field of dreams this season. His performance has been otherworldly, his statistics unbelievable.
He is 14-1, including a 5-1 NCAA super-regional victory Friday against Florida International, with a 1.50 ERA. In 131 2/3 innings, he's given up 91 hits.
But the numbers that define his season as something for the ages are these: He has struck out 189 batters, a USC and Pac-10 record, while walking 17.
Seventeen.
In the major leagues, a 2-to-1 strikeouts-to-walks ratio is considered pretty good. Prior's ratio is 11-to-1. That's basically unheard of.
Seven times this season, he has not issued a walk. In the 57 innings of those starts, he has 86 strikeouts. In his two playoff starts, he has 23 strikeouts and no walks.
"I've never seen anything like it," says USC coach Mike Gillespie.
Some scouts haven't, either.
"The more and more I know about what scouts are saying, I hear that somebody of Mark's talents hasn't come out in many a year; some people say 'decades,' "says San Diego-based agent John Boggs, who will represent Prior in contract negotiations.
Gillespie has heard veteran scouts say Prior "is the best pitcher they've ever seen at the amateur level."
Baseball prodigy
Prior grew up in San Diego, the youngest of three children. His father, Jerry, a former Vanderbilt football player, is a financial consultant. His mother, Millie, is a vice principal at a middle school.
His older brother and sister played college tennis, but he was identified as a baseball prodigy. Since his junior year in high school, he's been working with former major league pitcher Tom House, a private pitching consultant based in San Diego.
After a tremendous senior year in high school, he was the 43rd pick in the 1998 draft but declined to sign with the New York Yankees and enrolled at Vanderbilt because he wanted to experience college.
As a freshman, he was 4-8 in 13 starts and was named a second-team freshman All-American. But he didn't feel the fit was right for him at Vanderbilt, and he transferred to USC, where, last year, he was 10-7 with a 3.56 earned-run average for the Trojans.
This year, he's been simply flabbergasting, which is why he's a USA TODAY Baseball Weekly first-team All-American and Collegiate Baseball's Player of the Year.
"It's been a pretty remarkable season," Prior says. "I'm just grateful things have worked out the way they have, that I was able to pitch this way.
"I think the big reason was that I just felt confident I could go out and compete at a high level. The continuing improvement of my breaking ball has helped a lot in keeping hitters off-balance. Plus, I've had better command of my fastball."
Prior throws a 92-95 mph fastball, a hard-breaking curve and, occasionally, a changeup. "He's basically a two-pitch pitcher, but they're two very special pitches," Gillespie says.
'Workout warrior'
Those pitches didn't just come to him out of thin air. Prior is a tireless worker, on the mound and in the weight room.
"He's a workout warrior, bordering on a fanatic," Gillespie says.
When the Trojans go on road trips, if the hotel gym isn't up to Prior's standards, he finds one somewhere else. His enormous legs are proof of that.
"One GM told me he reminds him of Seaver, the way he gets such leg drive," Boggs says.
Seaver was ahead of Prior's time, but Prior has long admired Ryan and Clemens.
"Those are my idols, so it's tough for me to feel I could ever be at their level," he says. "But I'd like to have that type of style, the no-fear attitude, 'Here it is; see if you can hit it.' "
The budget-conscious Minnesota Twins have the first pick in the draft. Whether they are willing to open the vault for Prior, who might command a deal of $10 million or more, remains to be seen.
Boggs says the Twins have not tipped their hand. He says if the Twins pass on Prior, he expects the Chicago Cubs, who have the No. 2 selection, to pick him.
Prior, who hopes to lead Southern Cal to its 13th NCAA baseball title at the College World Series that begins Friday in Omaha, says he's not too concerned about whether he ends up being the No. 1 pick.
"The main thing is getting an opportunity to play," he says.
That, by all accounts, should come soon - and last for a very long time.
"His performance has been otherworldly, his statistics unbelievable."
"That's basically unheard of."
"I've never seen anything like it."
"Prior 'is the best pitcher they've ever seen at the amateur level.'"
"Baseball prodigy."
Now, will Strasburg follow the same route as Prior? I have no idea. But I think he is far from being a guarantee.
/s/ JackWESQ
Mark Prior may be 21st-century Tom Seaver.
06/05/2001
Prior may be 21st-century Seaver
By David Leon Moore, USA TODAY
LOS ANGELES - Mark Prior rides up on a bicycle wearing shorts, and the first thing you notice is his calf muscles are the size of soccer balls.
They're the legs of a cyclist or a speedskater.
Eric Heiden legs.
Or, closer to the point, Tom Seaver or Nolan Ryan or Roger Clemens legs. Legs that can drive a power pitcher through a long career built on fastball after fastball, strikeout after strikeout, victory after victory.
That's what people say is in store for Prior, 20, a 6-5, 220-pound pitcher whose right arm also reminds people of Seaver, Ryan and Clemens.
If Prior someday does things in the major leagues those superstars did, it won't surprise some scouts, college coaches and college hitters. Prior has been giving notice this entire college baseball season that he is something special, which is why he is likely to go first or second today in baseball's annual amateur draft.
Prior, a junior for College World Series-bound Southern California, has turned USC's Dedeaux Field into a field of dreams this season. His performance has been otherworldly, his statistics unbelievable.
He is 14-1, including a 5-1 NCAA super-regional victory Friday against Florida International, with a 1.50 ERA. In 131 2/3 innings, he's given up 91 hits.
But the numbers that define his season as something for the ages are these: He has struck out 189 batters, a USC and Pac-10 record, while walking 17.
Seventeen.
In the major leagues, a 2-to-1 strikeouts-to-walks ratio is considered pretty good. Prior's ratio is 11-to-1. That's basically unheard of.
Seven times this season, he has not issued a walk. In the 57 innings of those starts, he has 86 strikeouts. In his two playoff starts, he has 23 strikeouts and no walks.
"I've never seen anything like it," says USC coach Mike Gillespie.
Some scouts haven't, either.
"The more and more I know about what scouts are saying, I hear that somebody of Mark's talents hasn't come out in many a year; some people say 'decades,' "says San Diego-based agent John Boggs, who will represent Prior in contract negotiations.
Gillespie has heard veteran scouts say Prior "is the best pitcher they've ever seen at the amateur level."
Baseball prodigy
Prior grew up in San Diego, the youngest of three children. His father, Jerry, a former Vanderbilt football player, is a financial consultant. His mother, Millie, is a vice principal at a middle school.
His older brother and sister played college tennis, but he was identified as a baseball prodigy. Since his junior year in high school, he's been working with former major league pitcher Tom House, a private pitching consultant based in San Diego.
After a tremendous senior year in high school, he was the 43rd pick in the 1998 draft but declined to sign with the New York Yankees and enrolled at Vanderbilt because he wanted to experience college.
As a freshman, he was 4-8 in 13 starts and was named a second-team freshman All-American. But he didn't feel the fit was right for him at Vanderbilt, and he transferred to USC, where, last year, he was 10-7 with a 3.56 earned-run average for the Trojans.
This year, he's been simply flabbergasting, which is why he's a USA TODAY Baseball Weekly first-team All-American and Collegiate Baseball's Player of the Year.
"It's been a pretty remarkable season," Prior says. "I'm just grateful things have worked out the way they have, that I was able to pitch this way.
"I think the big reason was that I just felt confident I could go out and compete at a high level. The continuing improvement of my breaking ball has helped a lot in keeping hitters off-balance. Plus, I've had better command of my fastball."
Prior throws a 92-95 mph fastball, a hard-breaking curve and, occasionally, a changeup. "He's basically a two-pitch pitcher, but they're two very special pitches," Gillespie says.
'Workout warrior'
Those pitches didn't just come to him out of thin air. Prior is a tireless worker, on the mound and in the weight room.
"He's a workout warrior, bordering on a fanatic," Gillespie says.
When the Trojans go on road trips, if the hotel gym isn't up to Prior's standards, he finds one somewhere else. His enormous legs are proof of that.
"One GM told me he reminds him of Seaver, the way he gets such leg drive," Boggs says.
Seaver was ahead of Prior's time, but Prior has long admired Ryan and Clemens.
"Those are my idols, so it's tough for me to feel I could ever be at their level," he says. "But I'd like to have that type of style, the no-fear attitude, 'Here it is; see if you can hit it.' "
The budget-conscious Minnesota Twins have the first pick in the draft. Whether they are willing to open the vault for Prior, who might command a deal of $10 million or more, remains to be seen.
Boggs says the Twins have not tipped their hand. He says if the Twins pass on Prior, he expects the Chicago Cubs, who have the No. 2 selection, to pick him.
Prior, who hopes to lead Southern Cal to its 13th NCAA baseball title at the College World Series that begins Friday in Omaha, says he's not too concerned about whether he ends up being the No. 1 pick.
"The main thing is getting an opportunity to play," he says.
That, by all accounts, should come soon - and last for a very long time.
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Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Now it is the Rangers laughing with taking Teixeira fifth, or is it the Angels, Braves, or Yankees laughing, LOL?
But I guess it is the Mets laughing last with David Wright with the 38th pick in that draft.
<< <i>or perhaps Boston with #243, a third baseman out of Cincinnati
I can't believe the Reds passed on him 7 or 8 different times. Puke.