Elephant Rumblings: Cotton To Undergo MRI, Lucroy Has 500,000 Reasons To Hope For Trade

A’s Coverage:

• A’s starter Jharel Cotton sent to Bay Area for shoulder MRI...
• Jonathan Lucroy has 500,000 reasons to hope the A’s trade him in 2018...
• Lucroy seeks to put ‘aberration’ in past...
• How Jonathan Lucroy plans to help A’s young pitchers...
• Raiders punter Marquette King took some hacks while wearing his football helmet...

MLB News:

• Arizona pitcher Taijuan Walker serves up free, homemade tacos out of food truck...
• David Wright shut down from baseball activity for 8 weeks...
• Jake Arrieta inked a heartfelt letter to the city of Chicago after signing with the Phillies...

Baseball Interest Stories:

• How Tax Reform Impacts Baseball...
• Miller: Which team would be MLB’s best if every player were in his prime?
• How one Red Sox pitcher decided to show his support for Craig Kimbrel’s infant daughter...

Today in Baseball History:

• 1960 - The Chicago White Sox unveil an important uniform innovation. The Sox’s road uniforms feature players’ names on the backs of the jerseys, marking the first time that players’ names will appear on major league uniforms. The innovation will make it easier for fans watching games on television to identify the players on the field. The idea is yet another creation of colorful White Sox owner and innovator Bill Veeck.
• 2001 - At spring training, St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Rick Ankiel makes his first appearance since the 2000 playoffs in which he lost his control throwing seven wild pitches in three postseason appearances. Ankiel throws 22 strikes out of 29 pitches over two innings of shutout ball in his surprise start against the Mets, but his control problems will reappear within a short while.

Best of Twitter:

• For those in Arizona on Saturday...

• Another Lucroy/Kotsay connection...

• A Dull update...