Ranking Cubs players two months into 2018

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Every month throughout the 2018 season, we'll rank our top Cubs players based off trends and overall impact to the team's pursuit of another World Series.

As a refresher, here's what the power rankings looked like after April:

10. Kyle Hendricks
9. Jon Lester
8. Carl Edwards Jr.
7. Albert Almora Jr.
6. Anthony Rizzo
5. Willson Contreras
4. Brandon Morrow
3. Kyle Schwarber
2. Kris Bryant
1. Javy Baez

The weather has finally cooperated for the Cubs and they've been able to fall into a rhythm in May on playing essentially every day. 

That hasn't necessarily been a good thing for the rotation, as Tyler Chatwood still hasn't cracked the power rankings and Jose Quintana and Yu Darvish remain outside the Top 10. The rotation as a whole has been a weakness for this team and one of the top reasons why they've been unable to go on a run.

Here's how the updated power rankings line up heading into June:

10. Addison Russell
9. Kyle Schwarber
8. Ian Happ
7. Jon Lester
6. Kyle Hendricks
5. Willson Contreras
4. Javy Baez
3. Albert Almora Jr.
2. Anthony Rizzo
1. Kris Bryant

The Cubs bullpen has still been fantastic, but hard to put anybody on individual power rankings right now given it's been such a tremendous group effort. 

Morrow was still very good in May but also didn't pitch much and blew his first save of the year early in May in St. Louis.

Edwards had a really rough month that ended with him on the disabled list with a shoulder injury. I very nearly put Pedro Strop at No. 10 since he had a phenomenal month (0.84 ERA) and worked as much as any reliever, but opted to go with Russell instead.

10. Russell has sidestepped the trade rumors and continued to play his elite defense at shortstop while also turning in a solid month at the plate (.280 AVG/.359 OBP). His power will come and once it does, he'll be a heck of a valuable player to this team.

9. Schwarber only has 3 homers and 6 RBI in May, but he still boasts a very good OBP (.363) and BB:K (16:22) ratio while proving 2017's prolonged slump was an aberration.

8. Happ actually was the Cubs' most valuable hitter in May (1.042 OPS) and while the strikeouts are still a part of his game, he's also walked a ton and the power has shown up in a big way. He still struggles in the outfield, however, as evidenced by Tuesday night's misplay in the first inning.

7. With the prolonged issues of Darvish, Chatwood and Quintana, the Cubs have needed to lean on Lester more than ever this month and the wily veteran has responded in a big way.

6. The Professor just keeps doing his thing and flying under the radar.

5. Contreras has started to heat up offensively but still needs to find more consistency with his bat.

4. Baez still leads the NL in RBI and is third on the Cubs in HR and RBI this month (behind Bryzzo). But he also didn't draw a walk until the final day of the month and had the third-lowest OPS of any regular in May.

3. There's a serious case to be made that Almora is the Cubs' team MVP this year. After all, they're 21-11 when he starts, 8-7 when he enters the game as a sub and 0-5 when he doesn't play at all.

2. Rizzo has FINALLY started to heat up, driving in more than a run a game in May and changing the landscape of the Cubs offense.

1. Was anybody actually concerned about Bryant's power (only 2 HR) in April? He's hitting the ball out of the ballpark now and continues to be a steadying presence in the lineup every single day.

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