The Check Swing: April's Over, What's May Got In Store?

The first full month of the season is over, at this point most teams are around 30 games played give or a take a few. Andre Ethier is making a run at history after making history in April, Lance Berkman has resurrected his career in St. Louis and Alex Avila is quietly becoming one of the best offensive and all-around catchers. Let's go through this week's check swing!

Arizona Diamondbacks: 12-15, 5.5 GB 4th NL West. After losing 23 times in a team's last at-bats last year, the D'Backs finally had their first loss of that kind in 2011. Closer J.J. Putz gave up 2 runs in the 9th inning of Saturday's game against the Cubs. Sunday he bounced back and got the save making Putz a perfect 6 for 6 on save opportunities this year.

Atlanta Braves: 15-15, 4.5 GB 4th NL East. Thursday starting pitcher Derek Lowe was arrested for a DUI. This came following news earlier in the week that pitching coach was to take a leave of absence following a homophobic slur incident in San Francisco last weekend. For what it's worth, Lowe went 5 innings allowing 4 runs on 6 hits in his start Sunday, the first since his DUI.

Baltimore Orioles: 13-14, 4.5 GB 3rd AL East. Rookie left-handed starting pitcher Zach Britton is making a strong case for rookie of the year. On Sunday he turned in another quality start in the O's 6-1 win improving to 5-1 on the season. But the impressive number this season for him would be his outstanding 2.63 ERA, not bad for a kid who was supposed to start in triple A this season.

Boston Red Sox: 13-15, 5 GB t-4th AL East. Much to Marco Scutaro's disliking he's been relegated to the bench in favor for the hot hitting Jed Lowrie, who's off to a .342 start going in Tuesday's game. But now the pressure in on Lowrie to keep hitting or else he runs the risk of losing the job back to the scuttling Scutaro.

Chicago Cubs: 12-16, 3.5 GB 5th NL Central. After setting a franchise record for home runs in April (10) the slugging Alfonso Soriano is back at, homering in Monday's game to give him 11 on the season. Those 11 home runs separate him from Ryan Braun for the lead in all of baseball. At this rate 50 isn't out of the question, assuming he can keep this up.

Chicago White Sox: 11-19, 9.5 GB 4th AL Central. Manager Ozzie Guillen was ejected from Wednesday's game in New York, which saw him promptly fire off two tweets about the ejection. Those actions got Ozzie a two-game suspension and easily more Twitter followers. Unfortunately for Ozzie, the move didn't fire up the troops as they lost the next four games after his ejection.

Cincinnati Reds: 14-14, 1.5 GB 2nd NL Central. The Reds got rained out on Monday scheduled to play the Astros. Now they'll play the makeup game on Thursday since both teams have an off day that day. But the bigger news is the return of starting pitcher Homer Bailey, which means Sam LeCure goes back to the bullpen.

Cleveland Indians: 19-8, 1st AL Central. In case you missed it, the Indians are for real... right now. They've won 13 games in a row and had a six sweep of the two teams closest to them in the Central right now, the Royals and Tigers. Cleveland's record at home is 13-2 best in the bigs.

Colorado Rockies: 17-9, 1st NL West. The Rockies can't be happy that ace Ubaldo Jimenez is 0-2 with a 7.20 ERA on the season and the the team is 0-4 in starts but they should be happy that they're still in first. But Jimenez isn't the only guy in a slump, CarGo is hitting .232 this season and Troy Tulowitzki hasn't homered in his last 56 at-bats.

Detroit Tigers: 12-17, 8 GB 3rd AL Central. Not much is going right in Detroit right now as the club is on a seven game losing streak. Joaquin Benoit is getting lit up, Austin Jackson and Magglio Ordonez are batting under .200, Will Rhymes has been optioned to Toledo because of his lack of offense and Jim Leyland has begun to manage his way into losses, a common theme the last few years under Leyland. The Tigers however, have to be happy about the production their getting from second year catcher Alex Avila. Avila is hitting .309 with 5 HR and 21 RBI.

Florida Marlins: 18-9, t-1st NL East. While Hanley Ramirez hit his first home run of the season he's still hitting a meager .191. Ramirez continues to slump but the good news is Mike Stanton might be heating up. Sunday Stanton crushed a homer off the back wall in center field in Cincy and Monday he belted one 426 feet over Big Mac land in St. Louis.

Houston Astros: 11-17, 4.5 GB 6th NL Central. The Astros caught a break this week when X-rays and a CT scan came back negative for fractured ribs on slugger Carlos Lee. Lee stayed in Houston on Sunday and joined the team Monday in Cincy, Lee is considered to be day-to-day for the time being.

Kansas City Royals: 15-13, 4.5 GB 2nd AL Central. The Royals are the only other team besides the Indians to have an above .500 record. They've done so without Jeff Francis picking up a win this season as he's 0-3 with a 5.03 ERA, tonight he goes up against Baltimore.

Los Angeles Angels: 16-13, t-1st AL West. Jered Weaver was looking to be the first pitcher to go 7-0 in his first seven starts of the season for the first time since the late 1800s. He was scratched from Sunday's start due to a stomach virus and said he lost nine pounds during his illness. He made his start last night, in Boston and looked like a guy who had sick. Weaver didn't have his best stuff and suffered his first loss of the season.

Los Angeles Dodgers: 15-15, 4 GB 2nd NL West. Andre Ethier is trying to catch the hardest record in maybe sport to be caught, Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hit streak. He's currently at 28 but it was his 26-game streak in April that made history for the longest streak in April. Ethier has eight infield hits during the streak which is surprising considering he had only nine all of last season.

Milwaukee Brewers: 13-15, 2.5 GB 4th NL Central. Nyjer Morgan should be activated off the DL before today's game in Atlanta and if he stays hot like he did before going on the DL then Carlos Gomez could possibly be out of a job. Gomez is hitting .236 with an on-base percentage of .278.

Minnesota Twins: 9-18, 10 GB 5th AL Central. Not much is going right for the Twins these days, especially on Sunday when Carl Pavano failed to break a bat in his tantrum following his yanking from the game. Pavano is 2-3 with a 5.84 ERA on the season.

New York Mets: 12-16, 6.5 GB 5th NL East. If you missed it Sunday, Philly fans broke into a USA chant following the news of Bin Laden's death. David Wright summed it up best saying, "I don't like to give Philly fans too much credit but they got this one right." Yeah David, they did.

New York Yankees: 17-9, 1st AL East. The good news for the Yankees and Phil Hughes is that all his tests for thoracic outlet syndrome came back negative. Now the fun of diagnosing what is the problem starts for the Yanks.

Oakland Athletics: 15-14, 1 GB 3rd AL West. Kurt Suzuki has been one of the hottest hitters for the A's since the birth of his daughter on Thursday. Suzuki has gone 6 for 14 with two home runs and five runs batted in.

Philadelphia Phillies: 18-9, t-1st NL East. Sunday provided a great act of patriotism as fans united in a USA chant leaving the players on the field clueless as to why. The fans were rallying around the news of Bin Laden's death.

Pittsburgh Pirates: 14-15, 2 GB 3rd NL Central. Good news for the Pirates and their fan base, stud center fielder Andrew McCutchen is willing to negotiate a contract extension through 2015 taking him through his arbitration years. McCutchen has said he wants to stay in Pittsburgh, they need to get this deal done for their sake!

San Diego Padres: 11-18, 7.5 GB 5th NL West. The Padres players decided that they wanted to wear their camouflage jerseys for Monday's home game in honor of the capture of Bin Laden and to show their support for the troops. Good move on their part.

San Francisco Giants: 13-15, 5 GB 3rd NL West. The Giants are 3-4 on their current 10 game road trip and wrap up in New York. What's surprising is their ability to make the pitching of the Pirates and Nationals make look very very good.

Seattle Mariners: 13-16, 3 GB 4th AL West. Justin Smoak returned this week to the Mariners following the death of his father and he seems to be playing with a heavy heart. Smoak hit two home runs and 10 RBI in his first four games back.

St. Louis Cardinals: 16-13, 1st NL Central. Lance Berkman seems to have things figured out, he's hitting .406 with nine home runs and 27 RBI. He's slowly been making people forget about the Pujols struggle but he'll need to keep it up now that third baseman David Freese is out at least a month due to a broken hand.

Tampa Bay Rays: 15-13, 3 GB 2nd AL East. Tampa Bay has some good news coming their way... Evan Longoria is expected back today and thinks he's close to 100 percent. Imagine how much scarier this team gets with the return of Longoria.

Texas Rangers: 16-13, t-1st AL West. The Rangers have been able to piece together their bullpen with closer Neftali Feliz on the DL, good news for them is they might not have to do it much longer. Feliz could be back as early as Friday which means Arthur Rhodes and Darren Oliver can return to their normal duties.

Toronto Blue Jays: 13-15, 5 GB t-4th AL East. Jo-Jo Reyes hasn't won in his last 23 starts, a streak that dates back to 2008 when Reyes was a Brave. Reyes is 0-2 with a 5.48 ERA this season, but his ERA could be higher. Reyes needs a good start Tuesday in Tampa if he hopes to stay in the rotation.

Washington Nationals: 14-14, 4.5 GB 3rd NL East. The Nats wore their dark blue jerseys with the W that looks like the American flag on Monday. What was more surprising was the effort they got from Tom Gorzelanny, going eight innings of shutout ball. The Nats are .500 despite their offense hitting a weak .228 this season.

Will Andre Ethier still be the talk of baseball come next week? Check back and find out with the Check Swing.