Well it can go one of two ways you'll either have a huge pay off or you'll have a rodney hamptonesque deal where he is out for 2 years and collects a huge pay day.
Didn't read the contract. One year deal is the best. I don't think he has it anymore though. Wasn't he a junk baller for a long time?
The Pads missed the playoffs by 1 Trevor Hoffman blown save last year (and possibly a blown call at home by the ump). They'll be fine even without Prior, they have a very good 1,2,3 in Peavy, Young and Maddux. The Rockies haven't done anything to make them better and although the DBacks added Haren they still have a very young line-up. The Giants are terrible but don't count out the Dodgers who got rid of Grady Little which gives them a huge edge. The West should be a very close race all year.
Prior had a Hall of Famer arm since he's been born and threw a very hard mid 90's fastball and a good curve and change up before injuries killed his career (thank Dusty Baker for some of them). He was never a junk ball pitcher.
The padres need to get another out fielder, and hopefully it is a good hitting outfielder. They are supposed to be talking with the Pirates in a trade that would bring Nady back to the Padres. Next they need to get some bench players. I think the Dodgers will be better also.
Yeah the Padres line up is brutual. A trade for Jason Bay might help a bit, unfortunately they don't have a great farm system so they don't have a lot of blue chip prospects to make a major deal.