Is there any news on when Prior will be back?

[McKain]

Or is it still all speculative at this point?

I know he was supposed to throw a simulated game, and I know he was also supposed to have a side session yesterday, but I could find no results about either of them. Did they even happen? Anyone know?

[love_that_reefer]

Mark Prior (shoulder) threw 50 pitches during a simulated game on Sunday.
Prior's next step will be to either throw another simulated game or pitch a few innings in an extended spring training game. "The arm strength is not altogether there right now,'' pitching coach Larry Rothschild said. "He felt good, though, after he got done, which is a big thing. Hopefully, it can continue.'' The Cubs continue to hope Prior will return by the last week in May. May. 17 - 9:22 am et

[McKain]

Sweet, thanks reefer.
The pitch count is really what I was looking for. That signals how close he is more than anything else, I'd say.

[love_that_reefer]

Yeah he is a few games away and of course the infamous setback is to come!

[McKain]

It seems possible that he'll run into another problem but I certainly hope not; dude is way too talented to spend his career never even getting to pitch.

[DirtyKash]

Watch him go back to doing towel drills tomorrow.

[McKain]

It's looking up.

He's making his first rehab start at single-A Peoria on Monday or Tuesday, and then he is to make another one or two rehab starts before reporting to the majors.

[SF Kid]

Mark Prior..will this get ever live up to expectations?

[Giants666]

Wood-Prior reunion in rotation getting closer

The prospect of Kerry Wood and Mark Prior together in the Cubs rotation again might become reality in the next two weeks.



Prior, who is recovering from a sprained right shoulder, will be at Wrigley Field today to throw a side session. If he has no problems, he will make his first minor-league rehabilitation start with Class A Peoria on Monday or Tuesday.

Wood also made his first rehab start at Peoria earlier this month and a second at Class AAA Iowa, but Prior's schedule will depend on how he performs and how he feels.

''Two [starts] is a figure we choose because that's what it usually is,'' manager Dusty Baker said.

Pitcher Wade Miller, signed in the offseason after undergoing elbow surgery, also has been tracked to be following Wood and Prior within a two- to three-week period.

Wood also gave the team a measure of positive news Friday after throwing a side session without distress.

''He felt good and had a much quicker recovery [after his Tuesday start against Florida] than the first time,'' pitching coach Larry Rothschild said.


WOMACK BACK: Tony Womack used to offer apologies to Baker for not being able to play much for the Cubs after he was traded to the team in mid-August of 2003. ''I was hurt and didn't know it, and I felt bad about it,'' he said Friday. ''Now I get the opportunity to come back here and play for this organization and play for [Baker] again.''

Womack, 36, signed to a minor-league contract two weeks ago after being released by the Cincinnati Reds, will likely get a long look at second base now. ''Tony is a guy who gives us speed and another left-handed bat,'' Baker said. ''He'll play.''

Womack is the fourth second baseman on the roster, which includes Jerry Hairston Jr., Neifi Perez and Todd Walker, who has been playing first in Derrek Lee's absence.

The Cubs sent down Ryan Theriot to make room for Womack.


A CAST OFF: Lee expects to have his short cast removed within the week, with his rehab to follow.

[SF Kid]

666, how do you feel about the Dodgers?

Right on bro!

[SF Kid]

Hmmm...guess we're wrong. According to this article Baker's job is not in jeopardy...(for now)

CHICAGO -- Chicago Cubs general manager Jim Hendry said Saturday manager Dusty Baker's job was safe in the wake of the team's jaw-dropping slump.

The Cubs had lost 19 of their last 23 games before facing Atlanta on Saturday.

After losing three straight to the last-place Marlins, the Cubs suffered perhaps their worst loss of the season Friday when closer Ryan Dempster gave up three ninth-inning runs as second baseman Neifi Perez made two errors on the same play in a gut-wrenching 6-5 loss.

But Hendry said Baker, who is in the final year of a four-year contract, will get a chance to haul the team out of its slump and then manage it once injured players Mark Prior, Derrek Lee and Wade Miller are back on the roster.

"I'm hearing a lot every day, every time we lose a ballgame Dusty is going to get fired," Hendry said. "If we lose three to the White Sox ... and people are reporting the other day that Dusty was going to get fired after the last Marlins game. That's not going to happen, OK?

"Dusty is going to get every opportunity to manage the club and get us out of this hole, and he's going to get an opportunity to manage this club when we get healthy the next couple of weeks also," he said.

Hendry, who got a two-year contract extension in early April, will be the one who decides if and when Baker gets one.

"I'm the one in charge of that situation. Dusty knows the process I'm going to take, it will be obviously a continual process, but I'll do it at the pace I choose," Hendry said.

"But speculation that he would go because we lost three games in Florida or if we lost last Sunday to the White Sox is certainly not true and was never given any thought," Hendry added.

In his first season in Chicago, Baker led the Cubs within five outs of their first World Series appearance since 1945 before an eighth-inning collapse in Game 6 of the NLCS undid them. And they led the NL wild card in 2004 until another collapse, this one during the final homestand of the season.

But last season, again battling key injuries and some poor fundamentals, they slumped to 79-83. And after starting 13-8 with Prior and Kerry Wood on the disabled list to start the season, they have gone into a mammoth slump without Lee, who broke his wrist April 19.

Despite the struggles, Hendry said he and Baker have a good relationship.

"Speculation in the past that Dusty wanted out last year and was going to the Dodgers and was going to the Nationals, that was all totally untrue," Hendry said. "His and my relationship has been very solid from the time he got here."

One of Hendry's major offseason moves, the acquisition of leadoff hitter Juan Pierre, hasn't worked out so far. Pierre was struggling with a .230 average before Saturday.

And the fans are growing restless. Another offseason acquisition, Jacque Jones, has been booed often and was nearly hit with a baseball thrown by a fan from the stands earlier this month.

"I feel certainly responsible and I feel we are going to keep working as hard as we can until we get it right," Hendry said. "No fans in the world deserve to win more than we have. And when it doesn't happen, I look at myself first."

But many of the fans are looking at Baker, a three-time manager of the year while with the Giants, who took San Francisco to the World Series in 2002 and then nearly got the Cubs there the next season.

No one is taking the Cubs' troubled times harder than Baker.

"This is not a man who sits on his laurels. He was a heck of a player and has been a heck of a manager for a long time," Hendry said.

"I think people need to understand it's bothering him just as much as anybody who works here. ... It's a very tough time. He's got it in him to help pull us out."

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2460505

[rockin500]

Hmmm...guess we're wrong. According to this article Baker's job is not in jeopardy...(for now)

this isnt ANY surprise since i knew that this was the case. considering that as far as a week ago they were talking about an extension.

i really wish people would pay more attention. Talk radio and newspaper people arent going to make the decision. Hendry will

[redsfan28]

I ask again, what has Baker done to deserve an extension? Quite frankly, what has Hendry done to deserve his extension?

[rockin500]

I ask again, what has Baker done to deserve an extension? Quite frankly, what has Hendry done to deserve his extension?

well neither one has deserved it, but if hendry got his extension, and he was the one who hired baker, and hendry has performed worse than baker.......

i'd say baker deserves it more than hendry did. the problem is, even if he was fired this year, how would that help the team?

[Rufio181]

Update on Prior:

Chicago Cubs SP Mark Prior (shoulder) will make at least three minor league rehab starts before being recalled by the parent club, according to the Associated Press. His first two rehab starts will come with Single-A Peoria, while his third start will be with a farm team that has yet to be determined. Prior threw 30 pitches from the Wrigley Field bullpen Saturday, May 27, and will make his first rehab start with Peoria Monday, May 29. "I feel good and the arm is coming around," he said. "The timing is off ... it will come."

So about early-mid June?