MLB

Washington Nationals top prospect Stephen Strasburg successfully completed his first Triple-A start Friday night in front of a sold-out Syracuse Chiefs crowd.

The 21-year-old simply dominated the Gwinnett Braves on the mound, and even drove in two runs at the plate. Dave Shenin wrote in Nationals Journal:

I am mad as hell right now.

After the way Josh Beckett tried to injure three Yankees tonight, I almost hope Mike Cameron sneezes and his fractured ribs puncture his lungs.

Or maybe I'd almost feel better if Joe Girardi gave struggling Javier Vazquez a chance to boost his fortunes with the team's fans and work on his control at the same time. Give him a surprise start to open the next game in this series and let him aim at every Red Sox head he faces until he's tossed, thus sparing the regular starter disciplinary action.

Almost, but not quite.

At seven o’ clock this morning, Chicago Cubs top prospect Starlin Castro , a 20-year-old shortstop, received a call from the big club. His baseball life was about to change, and his dream was about to come true. He was told to travel to Cincinnati, where Chicago were to take on the Reds that afternoon, and did so giddily to find out he was in the starting lineup batting eighth.

Finally, it appears that the Chicago Cubs are willing to show some backbone in the dugout after the promotion of Class AA shortstop Starlin Castro to the Major League roster. Castro made his highly anticipated MLB debut on Friday—after a series sweep by the Pirates left the rotation gasping for run support. 

For the first time in four years, Ryan Theriot was moved over to second base to supplement the promotion of Castro. 

When the Chicago Cubs called up 20-year-old shortstop Starlin Castro from Double-A Tennessee early yesterday afternoon, many had their doubts as to whether or not the Cubs were making the right move.

It took about 45 minutes into his major league debut to erase any doubts that the Cubs made the right move.

In his first major league at-bat, Castro took a hanging curveball from Cincinnati Reds’ starter Homer Bailey and deposited it into the right field stands for his first major league hit and obviously his first major league home run.

On Friday night at Alliance Bank Stadium in Syracuse, NY, Stephen Strasburg made his first AAA start on his road to the big leagues. With a sellout crowd in attendance to see his Chiefs debut, Strasburg continued to show why he is rated by Baseball America as the top pitching prospect in baseball.

From the first pitch, it was clear Strasburg was far superior to his competitors. He displayed a healthy mix of velocity and location, hitting 99 mph on the radar gun while only walking one. Strasburg also featured a 90 mph change-up and a curve ball ranging from 80 to 85 mph.

Joe Girardi refused to endorse Javier Vazquez. This was in response to his lousy outing last Saturday afternoon.

Not surprisingly, Girardi skipped Vazquez's turn last night. The Yankees manager realized Boston was not the place for Vazquez to fix his mechanical issues.

The beleaguered Yankee starter will start Tuesday evening against the Tigers.

The Tigers are salivating at that thought. Even the Twins feel optimistic about their chances against Vazquez when they play at New York next weekend.