A-Rod Still Stuck On # 599

It's been seven games, 34 plate appearances and 136 pitches since Alex Rodriguez last went yard for home run number 599.

Crowds form, specially branded baseballs are put in play and major sports networks digress from regularly scheduled programming in hopes that A-Rod will create tainted history.

Love or despise A-Rod, one cannot help but mention that his next home run will simply be adding to baseball's heap of contaminated numbers. No, Alex is not the only one to admit to taking performance enhancing drugs, but that has never been a valid excuse -- from grade school on up.

When A-Rod does launch number 600, he'll be the seventh member to join what was once a prestigious and exclusive club. However, A-Rod will also be the third known PED user, along with Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa, in the group.

To give A-Rod credit, he's been saying all the right things in the pursuit of the milestone dinger. But he's been one to say, especially lately, that he does his talking on the field.

Granted Alex hasn't struggled at the plate, he has nine hits in 30 official at-bats, but there's been a suspicious lull in home runs. A-Rod can claim all he wants that it's not affecting him, but his "talking on field" leads to a very different conclusion.

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"Where would the Mets be without knuckle-balling sensation R.A. Dickey?" Is not a query GM Omar Minaya wants to ponder.

Although the Mets are merely 7-7 in Dickey's 14 starts, several of the defeats have been of the hard-luck variety. The 35-year-old is 7-4 with a 2.32 ERA after his most impressive performance of the season yesterday against the Cardinals -- 8.1 innings of shutout ball allowing just four hits and two walks.

Beginning the season at Triple-A Buffalo, Dickey made his first major league start on May 19. With two-fifths of the rotation, Oliver Perez and John Maine, no longer viable options, Jerry Manuel faced a dearth of starters.

Dickey has plugged the Queens version of the leaky BP oil well with a dancing knuckler. Surprisingly, he's kept free passes to a minimum -- no small feat for a knuckleballer.

Another legitimate dilemma Minaya wouldn't like to consider: Where the club would be without rookie Ike Davis?

The first baseman's batting average has plunged of late, but his 15 homers have filled a significant power void in the lineup. Of the 15 long balls, there hasn't been a cheapy among them. When Ike gets a hold of pitch, the ball oughta have a stewardess on it, to paraphrase Kevin Costner as Crash Davis in Bull Durham.

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One stiff shoulder, ultimately resulting in a trip to the DL, and already the Kerry Wood and Mark Prior comparisons have begun for Stephen Strasburg.

In an interview with MLB Network Radio, and reported by the New York Post's Joel Sherman, White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper said, "I am not wishing this guy bad, but for him to be having problems right now when they are really, really watching him what are they going to see when they are trying to get 220 innings from him?"

Referring to Strasburg's odd "arm action," Cooper drops the two names that frighten organizations that employ young hard-throwing hurlers. "It reminds me a little bit of Kerry Wood, a little bit of Mark Prior."

The Nationals likely only agree with this one statement from Cooper: "I hope I’m wrong about this."