Elephant Rumblings: End of Billy Beane era coming?

Frederic_Henry is out sick today, but here are some late-morning links for you in the meantime.

A’s Coverage:

• Slusser: Could changing times lead to end of Billy Beane era?
• Gallegos: How Franklin Barreto is looking to capitalize on opportunity
• Athletics Farm: Scouting director Eric Kubota on A’s top draft picks
• Lockard (paywall): National scouts weigh in on A’s draft class
• Nico: It might be time for some minor league movement
• AZL A’s 2018 roster: Rookie League begins! Featuring Jefferies, Campos, and some 2018 draftees

MLB News:

• Brisbee: Juan Soto is an amazing baseball anomaly
• FanGraphs: Mariners bullpen staying good
• FanGraphs: Shohei Ohtani and the implications
• Sullivan: 10 surprising hitters (good and bad)
• Sullivan: Lorenzo Cain is still getting better

Baseball Interest Stories:

• Bryce Harper shaved!
• Brisbee: Ozzie Albies is fun, plus players falling and/or throwing up
• Sporcle quiz: Can you guess the foreign-born hit leaders?
• FanGraphs: The importance of Pride Month in MLB

Today in Baseball History:

(Credit to NationalPastime.com)

• 1846 — The very first organized baseball game is played between Alexander Cartwright’s New York Knickerbockers and the New York Nine. The contest is proclaimed to be the very first ever game played in public using Cartwright’s rules. (Our thanks to Alexander Joy Cartwright IV for sharing this historic fact.)
• 1942 — For the first and only time in a career that spans 1,787 contests, Joe DiMaggio strikes out three times in a game. Indians’ hurler Mel Harder does the deed in the Tribe’s 5-4 victory over the Yankees at Cleveland Stadium.
• 1994 — Wally Kaname Yonamine, three-time batting champ and former Central League MVP, becomes the first American to be inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame as a player. The Hawaiian native, who also played in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers, was the first American to join a team in Japan after World War II.
• 1999 — Ted ‘Double Duty’ Radcliffe becomes the oldest player to ever appear in a professional baseball game. At the of age 96 in a Northern League game, the former Negro League takes the mound for the Schaumburg Flyers and throws one pitch to Fargo-Moorhead DH Matt Faulken, before leaving the game to a standing ovation at Alexian Field.

Best of Twitter:

• Welcome to the booth, Jeff!

• My eyelids are jammed.

• It’s not the minor league movement Nico asked for, but it’s a step in the right direction!

• Matt Joyce on a rehab assignment

• Have a drink on me!