Over at Ivy Chat, Chuck doesn't believe Prior is healthy:

Notice Dusty trying to set expectations that "somebody" (read: Prior) could get hurt in camp. This way, there's no shock when it's finally announced that Prior is hurt.

I'll make the sapredicationion I made a few years back. If Prior doesn't throw in a game by the second time through the spring rotation, he's a lock for the DL to start the season.

This is a near dead repeat of what they did two years ago.

It seems to me there are two dynamics at work here:

1. The fans want to know the extent of injuries right away to make decisions on buying tickets and drafting fantasy players.
2. The clubs want to keep injuries as quiet as possible to sell more tickets and keep the competition guessing.

With fantasy baseball as big as it is, lots of people outside of Chicago have a stake in the health of Mark Prior. You're going into your draft, and you hear a rumor that Prior is hurt. What do you do? Healthy, he's a valuable player. Do you draft him early and hope for the best, or do you wait to see if he can be picked up at a lower cost? You'd like good information for the deal, but the baseball clubs in general have no reason to help you.

On the other hand, you have trying to build teams to win a division. If you're the St. Louis Cardinals, building your team to try to beat the Cubs, you might spend more money if the Cubs have Mark Prior than if they don't. It's to Chicago's advantage to get the Cardinals to spend more now so they have less maneuvering room come the trading deadline. They want the all the teams in the division to think Prior is healthy, so they waste resources preparing for that possibility.

So don't be too tough on the Cubs management. They want to sell tickets. They want to keep the competition guessing. They don't care about fantasy drafts. The way they are handling the Prior situation is exactly the way any team should be expected to handle a potential injury. Keep it as quiet as possible until the player goes on the DL.

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