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=== Core Exercises, Dept. ===

The M's being obsessed with core strength and whatnot, you'd think they'd be giddy over stumbling into baseball's Ultimate Core Specimen with Stephen Pryor.  Oh, wait.  Maybe Jay-Z and Tommie Mac drafted Pyror BECAUSE he's got the core power of a Van Helsing monster?

Pryor is not fat, but his waist and abdomen are almost freakishly wide.  Would be nice to hear Gordon or Dr. Grumpy or somebody explain what is occurring when a male is wider than he is tall.  Is this an over-development of obliques, or is it a wide pelvis, or are all the organs proportionately larger, or what happens when a person has a shape like Pryor's?

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=== Horsepower, Dept. ===

Pryor looks scary, as much as he throws scary.  Pryor was visibly hyperventilating when Wedge threw him into the fire on June 2, but after one pitch it was (we kid you not) the Chicago White Sox who were frightened.  A single invisible 100-MPH from this Van Helsing monster, and Paul Konerko had his eyebrows up, blinking fast, mouth open, jittery hands, every aspect of his expression radiating genuine alarm.

That was the way with each White Sox hitter following.  Even Viciedo, early in the at-bat, radiated panic.  Pryor did him a favor and dialed it down to 88 MPH, but the effect was palpable.

This is going to sound funny, but even around the locker room it will take some doing for Pryor to truly fit in.  You're in a closed space with somebody like that, you've got to figure out a comfort zone.  That dude is seriously unnerving.

...............

The Seattle Seahawks won the NFL championship in 2005, but ..... long before that, the milestone was passed at which nobody in the NFL wanted to play the Seahawks.  

In 2004 and during the reg season of 2005, you knew that your right defensive end was going to be engulfed and emasculated by Walter Jones - whoever your right end was.  You knew that Steve Hutchison was going to hurt somebody on your team, maybe a few people, maybe a lot of people.  You knew that the Seahawks were going to throw for 250 yards and were going to run for first downs whenever they felt like it.

Long before a Mariners team wins a championship, you're going to feel like you want the Yankees in here to take their medicine.

Stephen Pryor is going to be part of that.  Y'feel me?

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=== Durability ===

Pryor has a Clemens-, Gossage-like ability to drive a fastball from his keister first.  This of course takes the pressure off his arm; Clemens and Gossage (among many others) threw effortlessly until they were 40 years old.

Ordinarily you'd think, put him in the rotation and let him throw his 250 innings per.

In Pryor's specific case, though, there is a point of accelerated returns once the fastball hits 97, 98, 99 MPH.  If you let him go one (1) inning, tell him to get in there and throw 15 pitches at 99 miles an hour, you've got a superstar.

The M's can exploit Pryor's natural power, but they may want to exploit it by letting him throw 90 innings per year for 15-20 years.  All pretty much one inning, or 1.1 innings, at a time.

Looks like a Longoria-Moore contract candidate to Dr. D.