The first month of the 2009 season is in the books.

There is a lot of baseball left to be played, of course, and it is important to avoid getting too worked up on performances over a rather small sample size. But it is time to honor the noteworthy individual performers from April.

American League

Player of the Month: Evan Longoria, Tampa Bay Rays

Forget about any sophomore slump. Longoria has picked up right where he left off during his Rookie-of-the-Year performance in 2008, hitting .365/.422/.703 and 186 OPS+ through his first 83 plate appearances. The 23-year-old infielder is also leading the American League with 10 doubles, ranks fourth in RBIs (20), fifth in slugging percentage and seventh in OPS (1.080). His .458 wOBA is good for seventh on the circuit as well.

In addition, Longoria has continued to play excellent defense at third base. In fact, the former first-rounder is well on his way to establishing himself as one of the premier defenders at the hot corner in the game. In 159.2 innings to this point, he has posted a 2.8 UZR rating-third in the majors at the position, behind Joe Crede and Adrian Beltre. His corresponding UZR/150 is an impressive 21.2.

Longoria is just an exceptional player on both sides of the ball, and, considering his age, is only going to get better. When accounting for defense, offense and positional factors, he has already been worth 1.5 value wins, according to FanGraphs; only Kevin Youkilis, who is leading the league in numerous offensive statistical categories, has produced a higher mark. The Rays have gotten off to a slow start as a team, winning just a single series in the month; the Tampa Bay offense, outside of league home run leader Carlos Pena and a few others, has really struggled to score runs. Do not put any blame Longoria, though, as he has been the most productive third baseman in the game in the absence of Alex Rodriguez. By the way, the nine-year, $44-M contract that he signed last April is going to end up as a major bargain for the Rays. The sky is the limit for this kid.

Honorable Mention: Youkilis, Boston Red Sox; Ian Kinsler, Texas Rangers

Pitcher of the Month: Zack Greinke, Kansas City Royals

There is no room for debate here. Greinke, who has already gone through so many ups and downs in his young pitching career, has been sensational for the Kansas City Royals. The headline-grabbing unearned innings streak came to an end on Wednesday night, but the Sports Illustrated cover boy still pitched well enough to earn a win over Roy Halladay and the Toronto Blue Jays. The 25-year-old right-hander was unquestionably the premier pitcher on the circuit all month, going a perfect 5-0 with a league-best 0.50 ERA and diminutive 1.48 FIP in 36.0 innings pitched.

Greinke has been unhittable so far, holding opponents to an anemic line of .188/.241/.250 and .491 OPS. Opposing hitters have registered just 24 hits total, with only seven going for extra bases. Not surprisingly, his 0.89 WHIP is tops in the league. Equally impressive, he has produced rates of 11.0 K/9 (first in the A.L.), 2.00 BB/9 and 5.50 K/BB (second behind Halladay), having struck out 44 against only eight walks. He has yet to surrender a home run, either, doing what any manager wants out of a pitcher: missing bats and avoiding bases on balls and homers. His .294 BABIP is a bit below his career average, but his fast start has more to do with his ability to control those forces, not luck.

Greinke has showcased nasty stuff all spring. He has thrown his fastball 57.0 percent of the time, averaging 93.2 MPH; only six pitchers in the A.L. rank higher in average fastball velocity. The rising ace has relied on more than just heat, though, mixing in a mid-80s slider (85.5 avg. velocity) 21.8 percent of the time and, of course, his sometimes-amusingly slow curve ball. He once famously threw a 59-MPH breaking ball, telling his teammates that he would do so before the start of the inning. Greinke will still hang up an occasional breaking ball in the 60s, with the pitch coming at 74.0 MPH on average so far; the difference between his fastball and slow curve has proved to be a lethal combination. His arsenal also features a change up. One of the major reasons for his success, though, is his ability to effectively command all four of his offerings.

Greinke has been worth 17.4 value runs and 2.0 value wins, according to FanGraphs. He is the first player, including hitters, to pass the 2.0-win mark; essentially he has already been worth $9.0-M for the Royals. With his personal issues behind him, there is no telling how good he can become. Dayton Moore has made some mistakes, but he deserves a lot of credit for how he handled Greinke when the talented youngster needed a break from baseball and for locking him up to a team-friendly contract extension.

Honorable Mention: Gil Meche, Royals; Felix Hernandez, Seattle Mariners

National League

Player of the Month: Chase Utley, Philadelphia Phillies

Utley is a stud, plain and simple. Despite injury concerns over the offseason, he has continued to swing a potent bat in the middle of the Phillies' lineup. Through Thursday, he is batting .342/.461/.644 with seven home runs and 20 RBIs. The Philadelphia second sacker also currently ranks among N.L. leaders in several categories: home runs (2nd), RBIs (3rd), runs scored (18, 4th), wOBA (.479, 4th), on-base and slugging percentage (5th in each category), OPS (6th), batting average (7th) and Isolated Power (.301, 8th). Outside of the homers, he surprisingly has only one extra-base hit, a double, but he has been one of the most dangerous hitters around overall. Although his ISO and current walk rate (15.1%) are well above his career averages and unsustainable, look for him to stay in the M.V.P. race if he can stay healthy.

Utley is also an excellent defender at the keystone. He posted impressive UZR totals of 15.7 and 20.2 at the position in 2007 and '08, respectively, and finished first among second basemen in Baseball Info Solutions' +- system with a +47; a lot of his high total resulted from his positioning, according to John Dewan. With the ability to turn the double play, above-average range, soft hands and a strong arm, he is a fine glove man. Through his first 20 games, however, he has actually graded out as exactly league average, with a 0.0 UZR; the advanced defensive stats do have some flaws, though, and the sample is relatively small. So, odds are, he will get that number up considerably over the next few weeks.

Although there are several middle infielders off to excellent starts with the bat, Utley is the most likely to maintain his current production level, and, outside of perhaps Kinsler, has been the best of the bunch so far. In fact, when accounting for defense, offense and positional factors, he has been worth 1.3 value wins; his new teammate, the hot-hitting Raul Ibanez, and outfielder Mike Cameron are the only N.L. players to rank higher.

Honorable Mention: Ibanez, Phillies; Adrian Gonzalez, San Diego Padres

Pitcher of the Month: Johan Santana, New York Mets

Santana put up another great month, posting a 1.10 ERA and 2.10 FIP in five starts. The New York ace is leading the league with 44 punchouts against nine walks in 32.2 innings pitched; he ranks third in the league with a 12.12 K/9 rate and fourth with a 4.89 K/BB ratio. Although his 88.7 LOB% will come back down to earth, he is a safe bet to remain in the Cy Young mix throughout the summer.

Santana has been pretty much the same pitcher from a stuff standpoint as he was in '08. He is throwing his fastball a bit more (64.7% up from 59.6%), but his average fastball velocity of 91.2 MPH is exactly the same as it was last year. He has thrown his slider a little bit less, but the velocity has also remained constant; his avg. velocity on the pitch was 83.5 in '08 and is 83 .6 through April. As well, his excellent change up has remained a weapon; the dominant southpaw has gone to the pitch 27.4 percent of the time.

The Mets have had some starting rotation issues as a whole-handing a job to Livan Hernandez a job will do that-but Santana has continued to pitch brilliantly and earn his paycheck. He has been worth 1.2 value wins in FanGraphs' metric, which puts him third among N.L. pitchers.

Honorable Mention: Tim Lincecum, San Francisco Giants; Dan Haren, Arizona Diamondbacks

Tyler Hissey is the editor of Around the Majors and writes about Major League Baseball at his blog. You can email him by sending an email to TylerHissey(at)gmail.com.