Starting pitchers come and go, and while talent is a given there’s no real explanation behind the art of pitching (and pitching is just that, a work of art), at least, the reason why certain pitchers all of a sudden put it all together after disappearing from the game or spending years struggling.

A desire to succeed can be an explanation, and I suppose that’s why we are constantly in awe of the random collection of arms that make it to a club’s big league rotation.

Here are some names that two years ago you would have taken one look at and most likely laughed if someone told you they were starting in the major leagues...and having a somewhat successful run at it.

Bruce Chen

I just can’t get over the fact that Bruce Chen is still in the big leagues, yet somehow he has won 20 games over the past two seasons for the Kansas City Royals (wait…the Royals won more than 20 games over the last two years?), and he doesn’t appear to be in danger of losing a rotation spot.

PHILADELPHIA, PA - AUGUST 12: Starting pitcher Livan Hernandez #61 of the Washington Nationals delivers a pitch during the game against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park (Photo by Drew Hallowell/Getty Images)

Bartolo Colon

Last we saw him was in 2009 for the Chicago White Sox. He made 12 starts, had a WHIP of 1.44, gave up 13 HRs and opponents batted .280 (which was actually lower than the past three years at .282, .320, and .306). Back then he was 36, overweight, washed up and retired…that is, until the Yankees needed a bunch of former pitchers to fill out their roster this year.

Livan Hernandez

Livan is pretty much now famous for his 65-MPH curveball and the fact that the best hitters in the world cannot make solid contact with the pitch. His other weapons are still mediocre enough so that his WHIP is still near 1.40, but somehow he still throws nearly 200 innings a year and has an ERA around 4. Maybe the Yankees will come calling soon.

Phil Humber

A former New York Mets prodigy no longer with the club (a shocker), Phil has turned up in Chicago and, for most of the year, has pitched like he was always expected to. He has fizzed off a bit, but considering his career minor league ERA is 4.48, his 3.67 ERA with Chicago is an anomaly but one that is more than welcomed. Like all the aforementioned names on this list, Humber isn’t an arm you build your club around, but he is a nice surprise on a team filled with bad ones.

ARLINGTON, TX - AUGUST 23: Colby Lewis #48 of the Texas Rangers throws against the Boston Red Sox at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

Ian Kennedy

Kennedy shouldn’t be on this list for two reasons. The first is because he was traded from New York to Arizona in the beginning of 2010 and was still only 24. The second was that he was still considered a prospect, even though he had flatlined at the major league level in 2008 and in Yankee Land….that’s all the opportunity you get.

But he is on this list simply because if you ask Yankee fans if they knew he’d be pitching like this….they would tell you to stop lying, and then punch you in the face. The moral of the story is if you struggle in New York, you’re a young pitcher, ask to be traded, because then a 15-win season for your current team will be a really nice stat to throw in the face of your former employers, especially if it’s a year where THEY need as much pitching help as they can get (i.e., see above, Colon, Bartolo).

Colby Lewis

Another former No. 1 pick, finally sent away to Japan where he thrived and began to live comfortably, Lewis returned to the big leagues (to the club that originally drafted him 38th overall in 1999) and pitched beyond anyone’s expectations. It has continued into this year (for the most part….he has given up nearly 50 HR over the past two seasons) but he has won 23 games and has a WHIP under 1.2.

Ryan Vogelsong

The epitome of this list, Vogelsong was not only a forgotten name (last appearing in 2006 for Pittsburgh and posting a 6.39 ERA), but he never was much of a name in the first place. His greatest season was 2004 when he started 26 games for those same Pirates and had an ERA of 6.50. Ouch. So, wherever this 10-2 record, 2.47 ERA, 127 IP, 102 SO, 1.25 WHIP is coming from he needs to let everyone know.

Tim Wakefield

Wakefield appears here because, well, he has been around so long he probably can pop up on every baseball list ever made for some reason or another. Every year for the past seven years (when he was 38!), it seems like he is the six-man in the rotation, only around to throw BP and be an arm to eat up innings.

And every year everyone expects him to be done at the end, but it never happens. Now, whether he needs to be forced to retire (a negative WAR each of the past two years) is another story, but the pitching version of Julio Franco will apparently go on until his knuckleball dancing arm falls off within the next 50 years or so.