That's What the Atlantic League Is For

I saw a blurb on mlbtraderumors.com today that Mark Prior still wants to pitch professionally, even though he has not done so since 2006.  The Padres recently gave up on him because his arm wasn’t coming around this year as they had hoped it might.

Still, Prior thinks he’s got something left and claims he’s going to work hard to prove it.  Well, that’s what the Atlantic League is for.

I can’t see another major league organization wasting its time with Prior at this point, but an Atlantic League team would, I’m sure, love to give him a shot.  He’s still a name player, and the Atlantic League would be the ideal stage for Prior to show that he can still pitch professionally over the course of a season without having his arm fall off.

Speaking of good candidates for the Atlantic League, the Mets released former Giant (and former just-about-everyone-else) Livan Hernandez today to make room on their roster for Billy Wagner, who is finally ready to come off of the DL.  Livan is still only 34 years old, but having pitched his way off three teams in the last two seasons (the Twins, Rockies and now Mets), there probably aren’t too many more major league teams willing to give him a shot.

Once again, the Atlantic League would be perfect.  Livan’s still young enough that I suspect he still believes he can (and wants to) pitch.  However, he’s old enough (and has pitched badly enough the last two seasons) that he may not get another major league shot, at least until he’s gone and dazzled Atlantic League hitters for a few months.

It sounds to me like two matches made in Independent A League Heaven.