Prior San Diego Ties Wanted

The Union-Tribune reports that Kevin Towers is seeking native San Diegan and one-time Vanderbilt University student Mark Prior via trade over the upcoming winter meetings in Nashville, TN (ironically, the location of Vanderbilt). Prior has averaged just over 14 games for the last four seasons and is now know as much for his injury prone nature as his once-dominant form. That said, both he and Matt Clement may view Petco Park's spacious confines as a way to boost their value for future contracts.

The U-T also quoted Towers expecting Michael Barrett to return as Josh Bard's backup. This news is disturbing to FF, as we grew increasingly tired of watching singles, walks and errors result in doubles and triples due to the complete lack of ability of the Friars to hold folks on base. Granted, this is not solely the problem of the 2007 club's catching staff, but we long for the defensive catcher to at least keep the games close. We also challenge the notion that it is unimportant to hold runners as this seems to largely cancel positive home-field affect of Petco Park.

In unrelated news, FF would like to congratulate Point Loma High School on beating Saints to earn its third consecutive trip to the San Diego Division III final at Qualcomm stadium. PLHS has produced awe-inspiring baseball players with last names like Wells, Ashcraft and Finneran; it's always nice to seem their programs succeed.