The interesting part about Will Carroll's Baseball Prospectus report on Feb. 20 that "[r]eliable sources--the same ones that tipped us early to Mark Prior's Achilles problem--now tell us that Prior is having shoulder problems" is no longer the status of Prior's health. It is the Chicago media's criticism of Carroll and the amount of copy they're getting out of the report.

Yesterday, Mike Kiley of the Sun-Times wrote that the Cubs' and Prior's denials of shoulder problems "flies in the face of an Internet report Monday that cited an anonymous source who insisted Prior is experiencing right shoulder problems." Kiley followed up with another article today that is fairly balanced, and concludes with this gem of a quote from Dusty Baker: "You can't believe a report unless it comes from us. If it doesn't come from us, it doesn't count."

Both Kiley and Bruce Miles of the Daily Herald appropriately mentioned Baseball Prospectus in their articles. That's more than what Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune was able to muster. Sullivan just cited an "internet report." And then he threw a jab at Carroll, indirectly: "[A]nyone with access to a Web site can pretend to be a journalist." Sullivan is generally dismissive of online media (see here and here), and he writes this as if he has never been wrong before. He has (see, e.g., here, here, and here).

Finally, only the Sun-Times' Chris de Luca was bold enough to stand up and say: "I'm more inclined to believe Baseball Prospectus over the Cubs."

On the actual status of Prior's health, I'm with Al Yellon: "Patience." This just isn't worth getting worked up over yet.

Elsewhere:
Will Carroll's follow-up note, in which he notes that he offered the Cubs the chance to respond to the report before publishing it (just like a real journalist!), but they did not. (HT: Cub Reporter.)