The Parsing Full Mosaic

It's almost predictable down to the minute. Mark Prior now admits to having a sore shoulder.

Lest you are foolish enough to think this is new and not the problem all along, check the careful wording of this quote:

Prior was playing long toss before a scheduled bullpen session at Cubs camp Tuesday when he complained of discomfort in the posterior of his right shoulder.

General manager Jim Hendry said it was the first time this spring that Prior had complained of soreness.

No word if he complained about shoulder soreness BEFORE spring. And to all those "completely healthy" statements he made? Easily dismissed as the soreness did not indicate a lack of health, rather just "normal" soreness.

It's very clear that Prior is in pain and has been in pain for several weeks. That's why he hasn't been throwing very much. Dusty and Rothschild clearly wanted to stretch out his arm without aggravating the injury.

Well, it's not like Cubs fans are fooled by this crap. It's not like they lemmingly snapped up a record number of tickets.

Oh.

My money says Prior does a replay of last year. A DL stint to start the season and at least 1 turn skipped in the rotation.