Prior's Minor League Outing

Mark Prior gave up seven runs on nine hits in five innings in his spring training outing. That's not much of an outing, unless one considers that the outing took place in Albuquerque. The Albuquerque Isotopes play in the minor league equivalent to Coors Field. The city of Albuquerque's elevation is 5,314 feet, which is even higher than Coors Field in Denver (which is 5,200 feet above sea level). To make matters worse for pitchers, the thin air caused by the elevation, the air in Albuquerque is very dry due to the surrounding desert conditions.

According to Baseball America's 2004 Minor League Park Factors (I'd use Baseball Prospectus' but they don't list them online), Albuquerque had a park factor of 1313, which is an absolutely staggering number. This means that Albuquerque allowed 31.3% more runs than a "neutral" park.

I'm not trying to make excuses for Prior's performance. He didn't pitch well. However, the most important thing is that he did pitch five innings despite giving up a lot of hits, and that he felt strong.