Elephant Rumblings: Notes on Zito and Punto and the decline of African-American baseball players

Prospect Watch:

• Chris Carter homers again, but the A’s minor league show was stolen by Jorge Mateo and his two triples...
• Previewing Oakland’s September call-ups...
• An overview of the A’s prospects playing in the Arizona Fall League...
• Arizona Fall League roster highlights from across baseball...

ICYMI:

• A’s burned by long ball, lose 8-2...
• After uncertainty, Bruce Maxwell feeling at home in Oakland...
• Barry Zito ‘more in love’ with music career than he ever was with baseball...
• Giancarlo hit his 51st and Ben Lindbergh writes that he has single-handedly hit the Fish into playoff contention...
• The Royals were a mere three innings away from the all-time scoreless streak record...
• Why are some new statistics embraced by fans but not others?
• A mystery team has emerged as a Justin Verlander trade possibility...
• FiveThirtyEight writes how the Dodgers are exploiting the ten day disabled list...
• The Twins basically told Byron Buxton to sink or swim. He swam...
• J.A. Adande traces the decline of African-American baseball players to the diminished importance of the steal...
• Is the American League Wild Card race appalling or beautiful?

Today in Baseball History:

• 1918 - The New York Giants beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 1-0. More remarkably, the game was played in 57 minutes.
• 1987 - Kirby Puckett goes 6-6, tying the MLB record for hits in a nine inning game. This comes on the heels of a 4-5 performance, which also tied him for the most hits over a two day period.

Best of Twitter:

• The salad days may soon be ending...

• No fracture, but still no timetable...

• I’ve seen more Nick Punto references this week...

• And finally, the Astros lost 12-2 to the Rangers in St. Pete. This is a mind-boggling statistic...