Tim Hudson

Moneyball is a baseball film starring Brad Pitt and Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman, and it's set to open sometime in 2011.

Hoffman will perform as former big league manager Art Howe, and Pitt -- one of the most famous people in the universe -- will be playing Billy Beane, the "mastermind" general manager of the Oakland A's.

The Atlanta Braves are once again looking like a championship-caliber team. The Braves have held first place in the National League East for nearly three months and show no signs of slowing down. In fact, they are showing signs of improvement. (see: Derrek Lee)

Atlanta's success has undoubtedly been a 25-man effort, but that does not mean that the incredible individual performances should go unnoticed. Here are the handful of Braves that are amongst the top candidates to win some of Major League Baseball's most coveted awards.

When talking about the favorites to win the National League Cy Young Award, the most common names mentioned are Ubaldo Jimenez, Roy Halladay, Josh Johnson, and Adam Wainwright.

Let’s take a look at some of the biggest stories from yesterday’s games:

American League:

As the MLB season trudges along through the late months of the summer, the CY Young candidates in the National League are becoming clearer by the day. 

All five of the guys that I have selected are currently tops in the National League in wins, strikeouts, ERA, and innings pitched.

Tim Lincecum has won the award the past two seasons, but the way it looks he will not win his third consecutive.

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On getaway day, the Braves concluded their first post All-Star break homestand with an 8-0 shutout of the San Diego Padres at Turner Field. With Tim Hudson leading the way on the mound, and Alex Gonzalez's four-hit day leading an offense that had six different players drive in runs—this was the epitome of a Braves quality win.

Atlanta currently owns a 7.0 game lead in the NL East, with an NL-best 56-39 record, as both Philadelphia and New York look up at the Braves with identical 49-46 records.

When a town's citizen receives the call to the Bigs, his hometown usually goes crazy.

He gets a parade, streets are named after him, the whole deal.

But what happens when the local neighborhood kid is playing for the local favorite team? Everyone goes crazy.

The standard for a hometown hero was set long ago, when Lou Gehrig, a young man from the Yorkville neighborhood of New York City, began his career with the New York Yankees.

The Atlanta Braves continued their winning ways as veteran right-hander Tim Hudson outdueled rookie sensation Stephen Strasburg.

The Braves threatened in the first two innings but were unable to score against Strasburg. Melky Cabrera was thrown out trying to score in the first, and Blanco grounded into an inning-ending double play in the second with two men on.

It's been a while since Atlanta Braves fans have had much to cheer about. Long gone are the days of Maddox, Glavine, and Smoltz, the Jones boys broke up after 2007, the streak of 14 consecutive NL East Championships ended five seasons ago, and the 1995 World Series is but a distant memory.

We all knew that their reign atop the NL East couldn’t last forever.