As we say farewell to the month of May, the Chicago Cubs find themselves in fourth place in the National League Central Division.  Chasing the Brewers, Cardinals, and Reds won't be easy for the Cubs, but the veteran-laden and two-time defending N.L. Central champs appear to have nowhere to go but up.

The Cubs' season so far has been filled with injuries, suspensions, blowouts, nail-biters, missed opportunities, unknown players filling roster spots, and a partridge in a pear tree.

With the baseball season already two months in, pitchers are starting to really establish themselves as top candidates for the 2009 NL and AL Cy Young award. Here is the updated list of candidates for this prestigious award:

American League

1. Zach Greinke: Kansas City Royals,  8-1, 0.90 ERA, 88 K's

Although the Royals have recently struggled, Greinke has kept pitching beautifully. He gave up three earned runs today to raise his ERA to 0.90. He is still the top candidate for the Cy Young.

My original title for this article was "Luis Castillo: Accept My Apology." That would have been the title had he got a hit in his last at-bat today, giving him an 8-for-15 on this home-stand. But instead, he made out and my memory is long and forgiveness has to be earned.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/126490-a-new-york-mets-contest-you-wa...

The story of the past week for St. Louis Cardinals fans was twofold: the continued success of the starting pitching and the return of Rick Ankiel and Ryan Ludwick.

The week began with a Sunday finale against the in-state rival Kansas City Royals. Joel Pineiro was solid in his seven innings, giving up just three runs. The Cardinal offense could not produce, however, as the Royals' three runs proved to be enough for the victory.

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The Mariners started off the 2009 red-hot and gave us all a glimmer of false playoff hope when they were a top the AL West at one point with a 15-10 record. We seemed to forget this was a team that was supposed to be in a full-blown rebuilding mode.

He is pleased to meet you, baseball fan.

He obviously figures you must need the introduction, since not many of you caught him this spring representing Mexico in the WBC, nor have his major league-leading 20 home runs given him enough recognition to help him crack the top five in the NL first baseman All-Star ballot.

Oh, he's in the top 10 in walks, RBI, slugging percentage, and OPS in the NL too.

One-hit wonder, you say? Nonsense. Adrian's been consistently brilliant for a while now.

This time, it's the Dodgers feeling blue as the Cubs win 7-0.

Last season, the Dodgers spoke almost boastfully of how well they scouted Ryan Dempster, using advanced reports to help beat the Cubs 7-2 in Game 1 of the NLDS. Apparently, they've lost the playbook, as Dempster and the Cubs bullpen combined on a five-hit, 7-0 shutout of the Dodgers on Saturday afternoon.

Look, there are a lot of reason why one might say that the Cubs won this game, and frankly, why they looked so completely different than we've seen them over the last month.

Historically, the Texas Rangers have been one of the best clutch hitting teams in baseball. Michael Young has taken the lead in that department, especially in the All Star Game. For those that don’t remember Young has two game winning hits in the Summer Classic.

That’s all changed this year, much to my surprise.

Young is known as one of the best clutch hitters in baseball. Any baseball fan knows that.

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of Brad Penny. Come to think of it, that applies to Daisuke Matsuzaka and Tim Wakefield, too. Though they are radically different pitchers, they are the same in one awful, rotten sense: They throw it and pray—pray they hit the strike zone.

As a matter of fact, there is much NOT to like about this year's Red Sox team. Although Nick Green would be a decent backup, he's no Alex Cora! Neither Green nor Julio Lugo can field or throw better than most high school shortstops.

That's a problem.

The Mets had been on a roll so far this homestand, sweeping the Nats and taking the first one in extras against the Fish.

So it makes sense to send out their B squad to face Marlins’ ace Josh Johnson, who has manhandled the Mets so far this season, right? 

It seems like every player who has been on a hot streak got the day off. Sheffield was replaced in the lineup by Tatis, who hit clean-up and played third. David Wright sat because his last few games have been out of character for him.