Elephant Rumblings: A’s closer Liam Hendriks unlikely to pitch for Australia in Olympics

A’s Coverage:

• Dinjaski: Aussie MLB All-Star Liam Hendriks answers Tokyo Olympics question...
• Byrne: Offseason Outlook - Oakland Athletics...
• Lockard: After a strong Arizona Fall League performance, Daniel Gossett is ready to battle for a spot on the A’s 2020 staff... ($$$)
• Mayo: These 20 prospects broke out in the Fall League...

MLB News:

• Morosi: Will Dodgers pursue Francisco Lindor? Sources say yes...
• ESPN: Pirates continue shake-up, fire GM Neal Huntington...
• Passan: Japanese slugger Yoshitomo Tsutsugo to be posted in November...
• Cassavell: Jayce Tingler announced as new Padres manager...
• Hoch: Yankees dismiss pitching coach Larry Rothschild...

Baseball Interest Stories:

• Rosenthal: After another brilliant game, Gerrit Cole has made the case to be the highest-paid pitcher in history... ($$$)
• Stark: Astros one win away from something special... ($$$)
• Clemens: When Should Teams Press the Advantage?
• Baumann: How Max Scherzer’s Injury Affects the Rest of the World Series...
• Bitzer: Ranking each farm system by trade value...

Today in Baseball History:

• 1931 — Lefty Grove, winner of 31 games for the Philadelphia Athletics, is named American League MVP. Grove led the league in strikeouts for the seventh straight season and topped all pitchers in winning percentage, ERA and complete games.
• 2002 — Bringing the total to seven this month, three new managers are named, including Ned Yost (Milwaukee), Ken Macha (Oakland) and Eric Wedge (Cleveland). Being younger than two of his players (Ellis Burks and Omar Vizquel), Wedge, at the age of 34, becomes the youngest non-playing manager in major league history.

Best of Twitter:

• What’s your take?

• I approve of this change...

• Two of the A’s most important leaders celebrated birthdays yesterday...