Baseball

ESPN's Enrique Rojas tweets that the Cubs have called up Starlin Castro. 

As I wrote in a recent article, my main concern with calling up this 20-year-old shortstop phenom is that the manager, Lou Piniella, will simply do to him what he's done to Tyler Colvin.

That is, sit him on the bench.

Look, the only reason to bring Castro up is to play him every day as your starting shortstop.

Period. End of story.

But again, we all know that this is potentially Lou's last season in Chicago so he tends to go with the hot hand.

Its being reported by ESPN Deportes that the Chicago Cubs have called up top prospect short stop Starlin Castro. I heard the Score just report this on the Danny Mac show.

If it does get confirmed as truth it is a very odd move as current shortstop Ryan Theriot is playing well, and the fact he's not here already was widely believed to save his service time. There's only about three weeks left till his service time eligibility isn't a factor. Stay tuned.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Welcome to a series on the Cleveland Indians entitled "The Problem" where we examine one issue surrounding the current club. Although there is probably more than one problem with the Indians, you have to fix issue at a time.

Today's problem is Matt LaPorta and the horrific numbers he's put together offensively. Not only is the power not there, he flat out is one of the worst overall hitters on the club.

He's been a dependent rally killer when in the lineup and the reason for a lot of run-producing failures.

Early Wednesday afternoon, while many people were celebrating Cinco De Mayo by pounding down Corona's, New York Yankee outfielder Nick Swisher was pounding this second inning pitch for a solo home run.

It was Swisher's fifth home run of the year and his 17th RBI.

Nick is slashing .295 BA/.380 OBP/.547 SLG/.927 OPS right now.

You may be saying what is the big deal. Swisher was slashing .312/.430/.714/1.144 OPS at the end of April last season, but went into a big funk and ended up with a .249/.371/.498/.869 OPS.

Willie Harris's bottom of the ninth walk-off single wasn't one of the most exciting moments of the Nationals 3-2 victory last night. No, that came from the Nationals starting pitcher, Scott Olsen.

Olsen's previous two starts had been an indicator that perhaps the 26-year-old starting pitcher was bound for a strong comeback this season. But no one expected what happened last night.

The Nationals left-hander who had been left off the opening day roster took the mound in the top of the eighth after having struck out eight Braves batters.

I didn’t have high hopes for the Cleveland Indians this season.

I understood that this year was about seasoning our young core of prospects and sorting out our jumbled rotation. I even opposed the few veteran signings we made out of fear that their presence would jeopardize our rookies’ playing time.

For every young center fielder like Colby Rasmus who is blossoming, there are center fielders who are slow out of the gate. Let’s look at four up-and-coming center fielders who are really struggling so far.

Drew Stubbs, Cincinnati Reds: .174 with two home runs, a .267 OBP, a 32.6 K percentage in 26 games

Cameron Maybin, Florida Marlins: .238 with a home run, a .304 OBP, a 34.3 K percentage in 25 games

The injury bug has been taking out Yankees one at a time. Is the Sports Illustrated cover curse taking its place in the Yankees locker room? The core four appeared on the cover this past week and three of the four have been battling injuries.

Jorge Posada is day-to-day with a calf strain, Mariano Rivera has missed a few games because of stiffness in his arm, and Andy Pettitte had to leave Wednesday's game with stiffness of his own in his left arm.

The Yankees finished up a series with the Baltimore Orioles yesterday afternoon. Here are some thoughts recapping the series.

How Sweep It Is

The Yankees swept the three-game series from Baltimore and improved their record to 19-8 on the year. New York has won all but one series this season, but this is their first sweep.

The New York Mets finished up their series with the Cincinnati Reds yesterday. The Reds took two out of three from the Mets as New York continues to struggle on the road this season.

The Mets are now 15-13 on the season and in second place in the National League East. They are 1.5 games behind the Philadelphia Phillies in the division standings.

Here are some thoughts on the series between the Mets and Reds:

Keep It Close