Ubaldo Jimenez

The Milwaukee Brewers pulled the trigger on a big-time trade Sunday, and no it wasn't the much talked-about Prince Fielder move, as they acquired disgruntled Kansas City Royals ace Zack Greinke.

That begs the question, where does Greinke fall in amongst the best of the National League? Between the St. Louis Cardinals duo of Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright, the Philadelphia Phillies "Big Four" and the San Francisco Giants duo of Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain, among others, the NL is not short on great starting pitching.

Cliff Lee just shocked the baseball world by going back to the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Texas Rangers and New York Yankees were widely thought to have been the front-runners for his services, but they're now left in the dark after his signing.

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The Colorado Rockies watched the San Francisco Giants celebrate a World Series championship, then watched the Los Angeles Dodgers solidify their pitching staff and second base spot within the month since the season ended. Now, they are doing their own moving and shaking.

This is an extremely rough first draft of my pitching rankings and faces a lot of changes as the offseason progresses (as well as being expanded significantly).  Keep that in mind as you look things over.

Rocktober has never felt so far away.

The Rockies fell to the Los Angeles Dodgers by the score of 3-1 on Monday night, losing their second straight and their seventh in their past eight games. 

The Rockies won ten in a row earlier this month, but never were able to eclipse or tie the teams that were in their playoff path.  Now, with just six games remaining, the Rockies sit four games out of the Wild Card, and five out of the top spot in the National League West.

After dropping two of three from the Giants in Colorado, the Rockies are likely out of playoff contention.

Frankly, after the season the Rockies had, they are lucky to still be in playoff conversation. At the All-Star Break, they were 49-39. Just 15 days later, on July 28, they were 51-50.

From then until late August and early September, they were simply a mediocre team. They then went on a conveniently placed 10-game winning streak which put them right back into playoff contention.

As the 2010 Major League Baseball regular season begins to wind down, it is time to start to think about candidates for the annual awards.

After years of hitters dominating the league, this season has been all about the resurgence of the pitcher.  That is why this year's NL Cy Young race is filled with a lot of pitchers who have had great individual seasons.

Here are the top five candidates for the 2010 NL Cy Young award.

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In the past couple weeks, baseball has begun to see its annual class of 20-game winners emerge. First was CC Sabathia, who will be going for win number 21 on Thursday. Second was Roy Halladay, who won his 20th game yesterday. Now, Jimenez is looking to win his 20th game.

With the 2010 baseball season nearly coming to a close, it's time to take a look at the National League Cy Young candidates.

As the calendar turns to September, baseball races are really starting to heat up.

The NL Wild Card has a few possible candidates: the Phillies lead the Giants by two games and are 5.5 up on the fading Cardinals.

The Rockies find themselves 6.5 games out of the Wild Card lead after a seemingly season-killing, eight-game losing streak at the end of July. They are still 7.5 games out of the NL West, despite the Padres' continued slide.