Boxing Day shopping

The Padres certainly got a Boxing Day deal when they inked Mark Prior to a one-year, $1 million deal. Prior may be oft (read: always) injured but has a ton of potential that he could tap in a place like San Diego. Seriously though, craptastic pitchers like Josh Towers make more money than a guy with huge upside like Prior? This is a risk/reward deal for sure but at a low price of $1 million in this day and age, there's no loser to be seen. If he hits all of the incentives in the deal, he can make up to $3 million which would be an even better bargain when you consider that he would be pitching well enough to earn that return. That is unless Prior bombs horribly, but then it's just a few games a few dollars lost. In his career, he's 42-29 with an ERA of 3.51; far better than any other pitcher to earn a contract of the little amount Prior signed for. And kudos to the Padres and Prior for giving me something to write about on an otherwise slow day.