PHOENIX -- Mark Prior wasn't ready for the start of the regular season, but he will be the Opening Day pitcher Thursday for the Triple-A Iowa team when it faces the Albuquerque Isotopes at Isotopes Park.

"I got my first Opening Day," the Cubs pitcher said Tuesday. "This is their first game. They want to win. I want to help them out as much as I can."

Prior threw 31 pitches in a side session on Tuesday in his final tuneup before the Minor League start. The right-hander, on the disabled list as a precautionary measure to give him time to build up arm strength and endurance, will throw about 80 pitches.

He's been to Albuquerque once as a collegian at USC but didn't pitch there. Apparently, it's very much like Coors Field. Balls have a tendency to fly.

"Coors Field, get ready for it, I guess," Prior said. "I'm not worried about it. If the ball goes out, it goes out. I would hope it doesn't. Thursday, I'll just let it out and see what happens."

Besides showing he's healthy, Prior has some other goals in mind.

"More than anything, I'll try to establish my fastball and, not so much trying to get it by guys, but location-wise," he said. "Obviously, that was a problem on Saturday [against Minor Leaguers]. That's what I worked with a lot today was my fastball. I need to get first-pitch strikes. That's what you have to do at this level to be successful, so I want to make sure I'm ready on that."

Matchup: Michael Barrett was behind the plate for Greg Maddux's first start of the season on Tuesday. Last year, Barrett caught Maddux once and Paul Bako was the right-hander's regular backstop.

"I talked to Greg and he feels that Michael is going to be a heck of a catcher, and feels he can help his game-calling and progress by catching Greg," Cubs manager Dusty Baker said.

There will be times when Henry Blanco catches Maddux, too, Baker said. Blanco and Maddux were matched up in Atlanta in 2002-03. Blanco's first start will be Saturday when he's behind the plate for Carlos Zambrano's second start.

"I really have enjoyed getting to know Greg," Barrett said. "What I do is give him information -- he's like a 'calling a game type' psychologist. I spit out information that I have and I'll let him interpret it and give it back to me in how I should call the game.

"Last year, he was like that during the game," Barrett said. "I'd say, 'Hey, this is what I'm seeing, the guy's doing this, the guy's doing that. I don't want to throw him this, I don't want to throw him that. What do you think?' He'll lay out an easy game plan."

Baker wants the two to have a good relationship, and had Barrett catch Maddux this spring.

"The catcher has to know the pitcher so the pitcher can stay in his rhythm and call the right pitch that the pitcher wants called so he can stay in his tempo," Baker said. "There's nothing worse than a pitcher shaking off a lot or having to call a guy out to determine why he called this or didn't call that."

Carlos Zambrano  /   P
		Born: 06/01/81 Height: 6'5" Weight: 255 lbs Bats: S / Throws: R More info: Player page Stats | Splits Gallery Team Site | Shop

Tongue in cheek: Zambrano is animated, he is emotional and apparently he's an optometrist, too. Zambrano told home plate umpire Dale Scott on Monday he needed glasses after Zambrano walked two batters in a row, including one with the bases loaded.

"It was just frustration," Baker said. "He thought there were quite a few balls that were strikes. I was trying to give him an opportunity to stay in the game and win the game, but it gets to the point where the game's in jeopardy and they're coming back. At that point, I thought it was enough pitches for him. One big blow and the game is in jeopardy."

Zambrano was pulled after throwing 106 pitches over 4 2/3 innings. He was ejected once last year for hitting St. Louis' Jim Edmonds.

"I talked to him about it, and Larry [Rothschild, pitching coach] talked to him about it," Baker said. "He's not very proud of it.

"He's grown up a lot and he'll still be a big winner," Baker said. "He's still very young and still very emotional, which isn't all bad. I'd rather have a guy with over-emotion and calm him down than a guy with no emotion and try to inject him with some."

Opening Day: It was a strange season opener since the Cubs did so just a few miles from their Spring Training headquarters in Mesa.

"It was more an extension of Spring Training than Opening Day since we've been here for so long," Baker said. "It'll really feel like Opening Day when we get home because we haven't been there in so long."

That will be Friday, when the Cubs open the home portion of the schedule against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Just the facts: Before Monday's game, in which the Cubs tallied 23 hits, the most hits by the Cubs on Opening Day was 18 on April 14, 1936, in a 12-7 win over St. Louis. Fourteen of the hits were off Dizzy Dean in six innings. Billy Herman set an Opening Day record with five hits in the win.

The most hits by the Cubs since the start of divisional play was 16 on March 31, 2003, in a 15-2 win over New York.

Extra bases: Joe Borowski will have another X-ray taken of his right wrist on Thursday in Chicago. He suffered a non-displaced fracture of his wrist on March 21 while fielding a comebacker.

Did you know? Of the current Cubs, which player was the first to hit a home run in the Major Leagues? It was Maddux. He homered off Jose Melandez in San Diego on June 16, 1991, and hit another one April 20, 1992, off Kyle Abbott, before Jeromy Burnitz hit his first big league blast on June 29, 1993.

Sing-along: Ryne Sandberg, Billy Williams, Ernie Banks and Ron Santo will sing the seventh-inning stretch on Friday for the home opener. Sandberg also will throw out the first pitch.

On Saturday, actress Bonnie Hunt will lead the Wrigley Field crowd in "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" followed on Sunday by actor Jeremy Piven. The Girls 2A state volleyball champs, Mother McAuley, will sing on Monday, and the Boys 2A state basketball champs of Glenbrook North High school will sing Tuesday. Libertyville High School's 7A state football champs will close the homestand on Wednesday.