Deja Vu

Well, this all seems familier. The Cubs announced yesterday that Mark Prior would be shut down indefinitely due to an ulnar nerve problem in his pitching arm. This means Prior will basically have to start spring training all over, and there's pretty much no way he'll be ready to pitch by the start of the season. To add to the worries, both Ryan Dempster and Glendon Rusch got rocked in a spring training game yesterday, giving up 6 home runs combined. This doesn't worry me that much though, as both guys are still trying to stretch out their arms, and Rusch had such a bad spring last year that the Rangers released him outright. My main concern is Prior. To be honest, with a guy like Kerry Wood, I expect injuries, because his mechanics are horrible and his arm was abused during his early years (I believe the story goes that the day after the Cubs drafted him, the brass went to see him play, and Wood's high school coach started him in both games of double header). But Prior was supposed to be different. He was in a bubble since he was a kid, his pitches and innings watched closely, his supposedly perfect motion constantly monitored by Tom House and his giant calfs providing the drive behind his pitches and taking the stress off his arm. And yet, he's had two arm injuries in two years. So why is it that this perfect pitcher can't stay healthy, while a guy like Zambrano (who has piled up the most pitcher abuse points-whatever those are-in the last two years) can seemingly throw as hard and as often as he wants with no ill effects? Could it be that we really don't know anymore about how pitching affects the human arm than we did back in the 1960's?