Mark Prior

Mark William Prior (born September 7, 1980) is an American former professional baseball pitcher and current coach. A onetime top prospect of the Chicago Cubs, he pitched for the team from 2002 to 2006 in a career that was marred by injuries. In his prime, his repertoire of pitches included a mid-90s mph fastball, a curveball, and a changeup. He is the pitching coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Born and raised in San Diego, California, Prior engaged Tom House as his pitching tutor in high school.

A career at the University of Southern California, where he won the Golden Spikes Award, saw him become one of the top prospects in the 2001 MLB draft, when he was the second overall pick by the Cubs. He made only nine appearances in the minor leagues before debuting with the team in 2002. In 2003, he finished third in National League (NL) Cy Young Award voting, ranking among the leaders with 18 wins, a 2.43 earned run average (ERA), and 245 strikeouts.

Helping the Cubs win the NL Central title, he outpitched Greg Maddux in the NL Division Series and won Game 2 of the NL Championship Series, but he was on the mound for Game 6 when Steve Bartman prevented Moisés Alou from catching a foul ball. Prior had pitched a scoreless game up to this point, but the Florida Marlins went on to win the series in seven games after an eighth inning eight-run rally in that game, in which Prior received the loss.

In 2004, he was on the disabled list twice but finished the season with a 16-strikeout performance against the Cincinnati Reds.