Elephant Rumblings: Blackburn Not Progressing As Quickly As Hoped, Buchter Turns It On As Season Begins

A’s Coverage:

• Game #6: Hamels & Co. Stifle A’s Offense, Rangers Win 4-1...
• Lee: Blackburn not progressing as quickly as hoped...
• Volain: A’s new scouting coordinator forging her own path with Oakland...
• Slusser: New A’s reliever Ryan Buchter turns it on when season starts...
• NESN: Athletics Take Bizarre Shot At Patriots In Tweet About Red Sox Series...

MLB News:

• ESPN: In filing, Jose Fernandez lawyer alleges evidence altered, ignored...
• Anderson: Matt Harvey spins five shutout innings in season debut, but don’t get excited just yet...
• Roscher: Kevin Kiermaier doesn’t go through with bizarre Vaseline-coating scheme...
• CBS: Scott Boras, Trevor Rosenthal want to make sure you know that Rosenthal is NOT signing with the Marlins...

Baseball Interest Stories:

• Sullivan: The ground ball rate is still falling, fly ball rate still increasing...
• Baseball Prospectus’ Panic Index is currently pretty bearish on the A’s, Giants...
• Cut4: Watch Rhys Hoskins compete as himself in a home run derby on MLB The Show 18...

Today in Baseball History:

• 1911 - Automobile maker Hugh Chalmers introduces the concept of a Most Valuable Player in major league baseball. Chalmers announces that he will award a new car to the player in each league who is selected MVP by a vote of baseball writers.
• 2017 - OF Stephen Piscotty has a painful run around the bases in the 5th inning of the Cardinals’ game against the Cubs. First, he reaches base when plunked of the left elbow by Jake Arrieta, then gets hit on the other elbow by C Willson Contreras when he advances to second on a wild pitch. He comes in to score when the Cubs misplay a ground ball near first base, but in the process is whacked in the head by 2B Javier Baez’s throw home and has to leave the game with a possible concussion. His is the only run in a 2 - 1 loss by the Cards.

Best of Twitter:

• Glad we were able to witness it...

• Caught the ball, kept the phone...

• It’s almost unthinkable that a team, in the relatively recent past, started 0-21...