Alex Rodriguez joined an elite group of men who have hit 600 in baseball history. Congratulations A-Rod!

Unfortunately, Shaun Marcum joined an exclusive group as well. For every 600th home run that's hit, someone has to serve it up. Here are the men who became famous by throwing the ball that ended up in Cooperstown.

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The Tampa Bay Rays went 106 games into the season before starting a pitcher not named James Shields, Matt Garza, Jeff Niemman, David Price, or Wade Davis.

This kind of consistency in the rotation doesn't quite play into the managing style of Joe Maddon. 

If you watch the Rays two days in a row, you will rarely see Joe put the same lineup card out those two days. However, this rare occurrence has been a great thing to rely on for the Rays.

As April and May flew by, the White Sox were sitting at nearly 10 games back and well under .500 in the American League Central Division.

Countless fans did not seem to notice the depressing White Sox team, with the Chicago Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 1992. 

The Mets have an uncanny ability to not rise to the occasion.

Good teams find ways to win and bad teams, like the Mets, find ways to lose. Although, Mets fans can't pretend they didn't know this was coming. 

In probably the most important game so far this year (in terms of attempting to make the rest of August relevant) the Mets never showed up. They did not field (four errors including three infield errors in one inning), they did not hit (per usual), and of course they did not pitch (Mike Pelfrey was on the mound).

We've reached a milestone in the 2010 MLB season.

As of this morning, 16 of baseball's 30 teams have played at least 108 games.

(Philadelphia, PA) - With Ryan Howard on the 15-day disabled list and the Phillies still without a viable right handed bat off the bench general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. made a move yesterday acquiring veteran Mike Sweeney from the Seattle Mariners.

The Phillies acquired Sweeney for a player-to-be named or cash consideration, the teams have yet to agree, and Sweeney will fill in at first base until Howard returns from the DL.

In an earlier post, I pointed out that the Pittsburgh Pirates were showing signs of life against the three weaker opponents of the National League Central. This was because the Pirates could actually win, in some cases, and came within a run or so in other instances, suggesting that a stronger version of the team could win such games outright.

Once regarded as the next "next big thing", Mark Prior had expectations set so high, one could always wonder if those highs could ever be met.

Compared to 2010's newest phenom Stephen Strasburg, Prior's ascension to fame peaked during his junior year at USC as he went 15-1, 1.70 ERA in 18 starts with 202 strikeouts in 138 innings.

All signs pointed to Prior as a success—unspoiled mechanics with the stamp of approval from pitching Guru Tom House.

As we approach the stretch run, in what has been a banner 2010 season thus far, much has been made of the struggles of Drew Stubbs and Jay Bruce, and how their trials and tribulations may affect the Reds chase for the postseason.

Oh, if I had a dollar for every Stubbs strikeout, or every time Bruce was badly fooled by offspeed stuff...

Seemingly lost in these struggles is the third man in that outfield, Jonny Gomes.  Because his at bats are frighteningly quick, we are not given much time to psychoanalyze him.