Mark Prior and Kerry Wood

[Plainview1981]

These two are really good. The thing that is killing the

Braves is they are not able to take advange of Prior

and Wood's mistakes...The problem is that those two

aren't making mistakes over the plate. It's amazing that

Prior went out there and killed the Braves with fastballs.

The Braves will beat Matt Clement, but it be awesome to

see a game 5! Good series without a doubt.

[chillzatl]

Because I dont' think he's capable of being that dominant in back to back games in this series. Hes' a damned good pitcher, make no mistake about it. But historically he's always been pretty damned good and we've always hit him pretty well. Unlike prior he "can" be dominant, but he's not a dominant pitcher and his season stats seem to back that up.

Prior is just sensational! I haven't really seen him pitch this year. But the cubs have something to be excited about in him.

I definitely agree we will win this game and force a game 5. Clement should probably get roughed up. Hopefully that will wake the bats up enough to get us through the series.

Poor maddux got robbed last night. His defense cost him the game. If it had not been for Fick screwing up that bunt and all the errors, it would have been a 1-0 game with braves leading, going into the 9th. He pitched an exceptional, old school maddux game.

[Plainview1981]

I hope the Braves keep J.Franco. He came up big tonight

with a really good night in favor of the scrub Robert Fick.

Why the Braves got Fick is not understandable. Mike Hessmun would be more productive on a regular basis

and most likely cheaper aswell. I think Franco is a good

bench guy with alot of experience who doesn't get fooled

all that often.

Time will tell about Kerry Wood. The Braves couldn't hit

Prior simply because he doesn't leave much over the plate.

He's won 11 out of his last 12 starts with a era of 1.4 and

he's the next top pitcher in the league.

[KB21]

Prior will be the top pitcher if Dusty Baker doesn't wear his arm out. Dusty has no clue when it comes to his use of pitchers. He can't keep sending Prior out there and asking him to throw 130-140 pitches game in and game out. He's doing the same thing with Wood, and Wood has already had arm problems in his young career.

Young pitchers need to be limited to 90-100 pitches a game. Their arms just aren't strong enough to handle the workload 130-140 pitches a game brings. Dusty is going to kill his young pitchers' arms. Considering that Prior was a college pitcher and very likely was overused then, there is probably some wear and tear in that shoulder/elbow that hasn't come to the forefront yet.