Friday, May 1st, 2009: Fans, friends and family were cheering today when Dustin Pedroia received April’s American League Batter of the Month Award.

Pedroia stung the ball all month, posting a .424 batting average with 1 home run, 19 RBIs and 20 runs scored.

April’s standout hurler was Zack Greinke of Kansas City. He muzzled American League hitters and held them in check the entire month to capture the Pitcher of the Month award.

To win the honor Greinke compiled an impressive 4-1 mark and 1.59 ERA in 5 starts. The Royals star hurler also rung up 32 strikeouts in 39.2 innings.

Friday, May 1st, 2009:  Jonathan Broxton put together a very solid month to take home the National League’s top pitching honor in April.

“The kid had it all working last month,” a veteran teammate told reporters. “He keeps up those kind of numbers, we may have to start inviting him out with us after the games.”

The 24-year-old reliever threw like a veteran. In 11 relief appearances he raked in 7 saves and 13 strikeouts in 11.2 innings as he put together his 2-0 record and 0.77 ERA.

On the batting side, seasoned by several years of professional experience, 29-year-old Adam Dunn put together a solid offensive month for Washington and was crowned April’s top batter in the National League.

He batted .310 with 8 home runs, 22 RBIs and 22 runs scored.

Saturday, April 11th, 2009: Tim Lincecum and the San Francisco Giants got a bad break in today’s game against the Cubs as the team confirmed he will miss 4-5 months with shoulder inflammation. The Giants starting pitcher suffered the injury throwing a pitch. The team doctor is confident he’ll make a full recovery.

Lincecum is the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner.

While Giants staff was unavailable for comment at press time, it is believed that they will initially pursue internal options in order to fill the void created by his departure.

Monday, April 6th, 2009: As speculation mounted into the morning, rumors over a final agreement between Ben Sheets and Atlanta became a reality, with the star opting for a $60,030,000 deal over 5 years.

Sheets is currently injured with a torn biceps, and is likely to miss the next 4 months.

Some insiders among the league question whether or not Sheets will regain his All Star form.  

To the potential critics,  Atlanta GM Alan Tee responded.   ”We viewed adding Sheets as a move that will significantly improve our position in the second half of the season.   While his health is a concern, we viewed it in the same light as a trade deadline move to bring in an allstar calibre pitcher. We expect to be in the race still then, and adding his arm to the rotation could be the extra boost that we need.  You rarely get a player of this calibre for merely money, with no other compensation of any kind required”

Monday, April 6th, 2009: Arizona fans celebrated as word of a signing became reality. Brandon Webb won’t be pulling up stakes anytime soon, as he has signed a 3-year extension at a pay rate of $12,180,000 per annum.

Since he is widely seen as an integral part of the club, Arizona officials had to keep Webb from jumping ship.  Arizona GM Bergey says “Webb is a critical part of the future of the DBack franchise we wanted to lock him into a long term deal as soon as we could. He has proven that he is a winner and a strong leader of our franchise, we are very happy to invest our future into such a player”

Absent an extension, Webb, 29, could have tested free agency following this season.