Japanese home run king Sadaharu Oh paid tribute to Hideki Matsui after Athletics' outfielder hit his 500th homer on Wednesday night. "Five hundred is a figure that carries a lot of worth in the major leagues," Oh said Thursday. "To keep hitting home runs during a tough schedule while maintaining your conditioning is not easy." Matsui has 168 home runs in the majors and 332 for the Yomiuri Giants.

Hideki Matsui has fervently preached a team first belief throughout his entire career, making the A's 7-5 victory over the Tigers on Wednesday a win-win outcome for the DH. Matsui collected a pair of go-ahead hits in the game, the first coming in the form of his 500th professional home run between the U.S. and Japan, a solo shot off Detroit starter Duane Below in the sixth inning to untie a 2-2 game.

Derek Jeter on Saturday became the 28th player in major league baseball history, and first Yankee in franchise history, to reach the 3,000-hit plateau when he homered to left against David Price of the Rays in the third inning, according to an ESPN.com report.

The Opsera is a statistic RealGM Executive Editor Christopher Reina created in order to objectively rank teams by how well they hit (OPS) and pitch (ERA). In order to determine the Opsera rating for each, we take their OPS, multiply that number by 10 to move the decimal point over one place to the right and then subtract their ERA from that number. Below are the final rankings through the Thursday, July 7th games: The rankings from last week are in parenthesizes 1. (1) New York Yankees -- 4.36 The Yankees have lost three of four since Derek Jeter returned from his calf injury. It has much more to do with the attention surrounding his chase for 3,000 than anything else. The captain is 4-for-18 with a walk and two strikeouts since his July 4th return. 2. (2) Boston Red Sox -- 4.07 They have won seven of eight and regained first place in the American League East on Thursday night. Their rotation is in shambles, but Terry Francona and Co. have found a way to solider on. 3. (4) Atlanta Braves -- 3.97 Jair Jurrjens is my early favorite for the National League Cy Young award. 4. (3) Philadelphia Phillies -- 3.96 5. (7) Texas Rangers -- 3.79 The Rangers, winners of four straight, have a narrow lead over the Angels in the AL West and are entering the All-Star break with momentum. 6. (5) Los Angeles Angels -- 3.74 7. (6) St. Louis Cardinals -- 3.58 8. (8) Tampa Bay Rays -- 3.56 9. (10) San Francisco Giants -- 3.49 10. (9) Milwaukee Brewers -- 3.32 11. (11) Arizona Diamondbacks -- 3.32 12. (T12) Cleveland Indians -- 3.31 13. (21) Pittsburgh Pirates -- 3.30 The Pirates made the biggest jump this week. They are the only team in baseball with an even run differential and have won six of their last 10 games. Pittsburgh trails Milwaukee by just a game in the NL Central. 14. (T12) Oakland Athletics -- 3.28 15. (19) New York Mets -- 3.24 Believe it or not, the Mets have won four of five without Jose Reyes, who is on the disabled list with a hamstring strain. Not surprisingly, New York has won on the strength of their pitching. 16. (T15) Chicago White Sox -- 3.20 17. (T15) Cincinnati Reds -- 3.19 18. (T17) Toronto Blue Jays -- 3.18 The Blue Jays have a team OPS of .737. All-Star Jose Bautista has an OPS of 1.158, while only two only regular players have a total above .720 this season. 19. (20) Washington Nationals -- 3.18 20. (T17) Detroit Tigers -- 3.15 21. (14) Colorado Rockies -- 3.11 Having lost five consecutive games, Colorado dropped seven spots, the biggest slide this week. They have scored just eight runs in their last four games. 22. (22) San Diego Padres -- 3.11 23. (23) Seattle Mariners -- 3.10 24. (24) Florida Marlins -- 2.90 25. (25) Los Angeles Dodgers -- 2.88 26. (27) Kansas City Royals -- 2.69 27. (28) Chicago Cubs -- 2.62 28. (26) Baltimore Orioles -- 2.58 29. (29) Houston Astros -- 2.31 30. (30) Minnesota Twins -- 2.30

Gio Gonzalez of the Athletics and Jose Bautista of the Blue Jays have been named American League Co-Players of the Week for the period ending July 3rd. Cubs third baseman Aramis Ramirez took home the National League honors. In a pair of starts, Gonzalez went 2-0 with a 0.60 ERA and a Major League-leading 16 strikeouts en route to winning his first career A.L. Player of the Week honor. In addition to being the only pitcher in the league to record two wins last week, Gonzalez finished second in the league in ERA and innings pitched. On Tuesday, June 28th, the left-hander stymied the Florida Marlins over a season-high eight innings, allowing one hit and striking out nine as the A’s defeated the visiting Marlins, 1-0. Emilio Bonifacio of the Marlins led off the game with a single, but Gonzalez outdueled Javier Vazquez the rest of the way for his second one-hit performance of the season, last accomplishing the feat on May 17th with seven innings of one-hit ball against the Angels. Bautista, who finished the 2011 balloting as the leading vote-getter in All-Star Game history with more than seven million votes, batted .391 (9-for-23) with three doubles, four home runs and eight RBI in seven games for his fourth career weekly honor (last: August 30, 2010). Among the league leaders, the 30-year-old paced the A.L. with 24 total bases and a 1.043 slugging percentage, tied for first in homers and RBI and tied for second in runs scored (6), walks (5) and doubles. On June 28th, Bautista homered and drove in three runs as the Jays fell to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 7-6, at Rogers Centre. In eight games last week, the two-time National League All-Star (2005 and 2008) batted .393 (11-for-28) and led the Majors with six home runs, 10 RBI, a 1.071 slugging percentage and 30 total bases. The 33-year-old veteran also ranked among N.L. leaders with nine runs scored (T-1st) and 11 hits (T-2nd). Ramirez started the week by logging his 24th career multi-home run effort on June 27th vs. Colorado, going 3-for-4 with two homers, a double, three RBI and three runs scored in a 7-3 Cubs victory. On Thursday, June 30th, his game-tying blast in the bottom of the ninth against the San Francisco Giants helped the Cubs to an eventual 5-2 extra inning victory in the rubber match of a three-game set with the Giants at Wrigley.

First baseman Adrian Gonzalez of the Red Sox and first baseman Prince Fielder of the Brewers have been voted the American League and National League Players of the Month, respectively, for June. Gonzalez, who will be appearing in his fourth career All-Star Game and his first with the American League on July 12th in Phoenix, batted a Major League-best .404 (40-for-99) with eight doubles, two triples, six home runs and 25 RBI in 25 games during June to win his first career A.L. Player of the Month Award. It is the first monthly honor for the Red Sox since teammate David Ortiz took home the award in May 2010. Among the A.L. leaders, Adrian tied for first with New York’s Mark Teixeira in RBI and was second in the league in hits, runs scored, on-base percentage (.478) and slugging percentage (.707). In 27 June games, the fan-elected starting first baseman for the 2011 National League All-Star team hit .337 (28-for-83) and had a Major League-leading 27 RBI while tying for the lead in home runs with 10. Fielder’s .491 on-base percentage and 25 walks were tops among National Leaguers while his .747 slugging percentage and 19 runs scored both ranked third. His 70 total bases and 17 extra base hits were both tied for fourth in the league. The left-handed-hitting slugger earned his second N.L. Player of the Week award for June the week of 6th-12th (having won previously for April 4th-10th), after hitting .500 (10-for-20) and leading the Majors with six homers, a 1.500 slugging percentage, a .643 on-base percentage and 30 total bases while driving in 13 over a seven-game span.

Justin Verlander of the Tigers and Cliff Lee of the Phillies have been voted American League and National League Pitchers of the Month, respectively, for June. Verlander compiled a perfect 6-0 record with a 0.92 ERA, 54 strikeouts, six walks, two complete games and one shutout in 49.0 innings pitched over six starts in winning his second career A.L. Pitcher of the Month Award (previously accomplished in May 2009). The Tigers ace topped the Majors in wins, innings pitched and strikeouts, and paced the A.L. in ERA and finished second in the league with a .172 opponent batting average. In five June starts, the 2011 National League All-Star was a perfect 5-0 with a Major League-best 0.21 ERA and 0.69 WHIP. Lee led the N.L. in wins, ranked third in innings pitched (42.0) and was sixth in strikeouts (29). The left-hander tossed complete-game shutouts in three consecutive outings, becoming the first Major Leaguer to earn three straight shutouts since Brandon Webb in 2007 and the first Phillie since Robin Roberts accomplished the feat in 1950. In his first outing of the month, the Arkansas native threw 7.0 shutout innings in a 3-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers at Citizens Bank Park. Lee struck out 10 Dodgers, including his 100th strikeout of the season, marking the fastest (13 games) that he has reached the 100-strikeout threshold in his nine Major League seasons.

Twins outfielder Ben Revere and Athletics second baseman Jemile Weeks have been named the co-winners of the American League Rookie of the Month Award for June. Braves closer Craig Kimbrel has been voted the June recipient of the National League Rookie of the Month Award. Revere and Weeks finished in a tie atop the monthly voting. In 25 games, Revere batted .294 (30-102) with 14 runs, four doubles, a triple, nine RBI and seven stolen bases. In 21 games, Weeks batted .309 (25-81) with seven doubles, three triples, six RBI and six stolen bases. Kimbrel went 1-0 with eight saves and a 1.93 ERA in June over 14 appearances. In 14.0 innings pitched, the 23-year-old right-hander permitted three runs on seven hits with five walks and 25 strikeouts. Kimbrel tossed 1.0 inning in each of his games pitched during the month and collected a strikeout in 13 of the 14 outings, including four with two strikeouts and four three-strikeout performances.