Mark Prior sees the obvious similarities between himself and Stephen Strasburg. ?Obviously,? Mark Prior said, ?this is all eerily similar.? They were both phenom pitchers from the San Diego area, taking a quick path to the majors. Prior offers no cautionary tales for Strasburg, whom he?s met only once in passing and with whom he?s shared only a few words of encouragement. He makes no suggestion that there?s an absolute right or wrong timetable for the introduction of a player to the majors, gives no sense of warning that such a skyrocket-ride through the minors will result in the kind of health issues that brought Prior?s pitching career to a grossly premature halt. ?All I told him was to make sure you have fun and take time to appreciate wherever you?re at, whether it?s Double-A or Triple-A or whatever,? Prior said, ?because it?s gonna go fast.? Prior believes he might have come up too quickly. ?The one thing I might say now, so many years later, is that maybe I should have spent two months or three months in the minor leagues,? Prior said. ?It?s not from a competitive standpoint. (Strasburg?s) going to dominate physically, going to go out and overpower these guys. It?s just learning yourself, learning how to pitch every five days and handling the days in between. It?s not college anymore. It?s not pitching every Friday night and having maybe a couple classes earlier in the day. ?My second start, we got into Pittsburgh something like 4 in the morning. It?s the travel, being in different ballparks, facing different types of teams. Those are the things you pick up in the minor leagues. You learn how to go out and pitch when you?re not feeling that well, maybe coming off a 12-hour bus ride and pitching that way. ?In college, every seventh day, you felt like a million bucks. After about 15 starts in the big leagues, you don?t feel like a million bucks. You go through dead spots, three games where you can?t figure out which way is second base and which way is home plate.?