Elephant Rumblings: Yoenis is Longing for Oakland and Max Schrock’s Fringiness

Trades & Trade Rumors:

• Michael Baumann of the Ringer wrote 10 Things You Need To Know About The Trade Deadline. It includes a synopsis of why the market for Sonny Gray hasn’t developed yet, a retrospective on what the rate for a rental ace usually is, and other fun notes.
• In today’s edition of “don’t believe everything you hear”, 24 hours after reports surfaced that a trade sending Jaime Garcia from the Braves to the Twins was basically done, Garcia dazzled last night for the Braves, holding the Dodgers to three runs over seven innings. And he can a hit a little too...
• The Giants are bringing back the Panda...

ICYMI:

• The A’s dealt with both injury and insult last night: Ryon Healy left the game after a bad hop caught him in the head and the A’s fell to the Mets 7-5.
• Franklin Barreto and Chad Pinder homered last night for the Sounds. Check out Melissa Lockard’s full minor-league recap.
• Max Schrock still holds this season’s lead in Fangraph’s Fringe Five prospect rankings. While these prospects generally exist under the radar, it’s not a complete throw-away list - for instance in 2015, names like Jharrel Cotton, Willson Contrares, and Austin Barnes appeared in the Fringe Five’s top 10.
• The D’Backs went back-to-back-to-back last night against Max Scherzer.
• Sam Miller wrote a fascinating piece for ESPN exploring how every inning in extra innings is completely different.

Best of Twitter:

• Ryon Healy thinks he’ll be good to play today after yesterday’s scare...

• Yoenis Cespesdes told the Chronicle that he wants to finish his career in Oakland...

• The Cardinals had a very interesting day yesterday, swapping once (maybe still?) heralded prospects with the Mariners and calling up one of the most exciting young catchers in the game. You rightly hear a lot about Francisco Meija, but no one talks enough about Carson Kelly.